Last Christmas my baking and cooking supplies almost doubled just like a loaf of bread rising in a comfortably warm kitchen. To my already bursting cupboards I added a Kitchen-Aid Mixer, shiny All-Clad measuring spoons and a beautiful scalloped black cake plate amongst other things.
I have always enjoyed cooking and baking. I don't know if I love it, but it is pretty close. But there has always been something magical about confining my self to the kitchen for an afternoon or late evening of baking. I don't know if it is the way my house smells when a loaf of bread is finishing during the last 30 minutes of baking, or the way chocolate melted over a double boiler with some heavy cream is enough to stir my dog's attention on the other side of the house, but baking brings me a peace that I can't find many other places.
Starting with a semi-organized pile of ingredients; eggs, flour, butter, sugar, chocolate, and mixing them together in a particular order then heating them to a precise temperature creates perfect morsels of edible joy.
Being a perfectionist, I typically follow all the rules and keep my toes in line. But when I step into the kitchen to bake...things change. I know that for a lot of recipes measurements must be exact, mixing order followed and heating temperatures exact. But when I become the baker. I am in control. Perfect control. I alone, am creating and making the cookies, cakes and breads what I want them to be. I may follow someone elses guidelines, but I can adapt recipes how I want them.
I adapted the following recipe from my Health magazine. I omitted the wheat flour, and added cranberries and they turned out perfect. They were not overly sweet and with the oatmeal and walnuts they felt hearty, like there was more to them than just sugar. It is almost 11 pm now, and my eyes are droopy (no it is not from a sugar rush), but I feel like I accomplished a huge feat, creating something from only a few ingredients. What better way to end the night than a cup of warm vanilla milk and a couple of cookies?
