Baking is a skill that take years to perfect and strict discipline and patience to master. Unlike conventional cooking and frying the fun - as much as it is the nightmare - comes with the preparation of the batter/ mix that you would eventually place into an oven. Follow the recipe strictly and sometimes you still find that your cake or pastry comes out looking radically different the beautiful ones featured in the recipe you just tried to follow. Why's that?
First of all, the quantity of each ingredient is crucial. This is especially important for the making of a souffle which is a classic example of proportion that goes to the gram. Next there is a difference between the use of hand kneading and machine mixing. Even though using a mixer nowadays is the norm, using hands do have its advantages as the warmth in our hands help to speed up some of the processes in the kneading. Third, be sure to separate your eggs carefully and whisking your whites to perfection. Just a tiny bit of egg yolk and the fats in it will cause the consistency of your cake to go terribly wrong - imagine rock hard cakes instead of nice and airy ones.
Then comes the epic moment of placing it in the oven. Setting the correct temperature settings and then just sitting in front of the oven and watching our favourite 'oven-channel'. The moment of truth: when the timer rings and we open that oven door to see our own creations literally risen from the ashes. But more often than not that is not the case...
A lot of things in life are like baking. It is an art that is so difficult to perfect. Sometimes I try to emulate others but never seem to succeed in what others could. I laughed at myself for my own stupidity. Get impatient sometimes too... Ever opened an oven to see your cake before it is finished? It ruins the cake by the way: The cake will collapse or the sudden influx of cold air will cause your cake to become dense.
Like I said baking is very different from conventional cooking. For conventional cooking, if something goes wrong you can add more salt/water/sugar. But for a cake it is so different. Whatever comes in will come out as it is. You cannot pour water over your completed piece if it is too dry. Neither can you sprinkle sugar over it or cook it longer to make it cooked inside or the outside will just be charred.
What I am trying to say really is... Once you put it in... there really is no turning back. You can try to be like others all your life but then everyone's recipes seem to never work for you... It is so hard to resonate... but so easy to try... But to succeed always becomes second to failure and more failure... I still ask myself why was it that...
There was no sound; no look; no eye; just plain silence even though it was in the middle of a class...
And of course... another matter: How I feel that there is no greater sadness than when the other closes a door behind you when you thought that it will be opened for a longer time... Looks like another night on the streets with no place to go to...
A refugee... always~
No comments:
Post a Comment