New ILP (Baking)

I’ve decided to start my ILP from scratch and go with something a little less involved with my job. I’ve decided to try baking.  I’ve always had an interest in baking, but haven’t really done anything that doesn’t include the final project coming from a box. One of the main reason I choose this has to do with a past job. I used to work at a place many of you are familiar with called Eileen’s Cookies. I was a “baker” meaning I took the dough the dough maker would make, then I would scoop it into cookie balls, and finally throw it into a oven with a pre set timer. I would like to get away from the actual baking part and try making dough and batter from scratch and experiment with other items

Photo CC by Andrea Goh

that aren’t cookies.

To me cookies are way to easy to make so this week I decided to

 

start with something a little more difficult, or to my surprise much more difficult then I would’ve thought when I started. This week I decided to try and make fudge. For me personally im not very big into sweets, but nothing is better to me than my grandmas home made fudge. Lucky my Grandma lives in Chadron and was very willing to help me with this part of my ILP. We took the recipe off a website called kitchme.com (her usual recipe). Here’s a link if you are interested in making your own at home. (http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/old-fashioned-chocolate-fudge)  The most difficult part of this recipe and baking in general is how exact you measurements and temperatures have to be. The slightest amount of extra ingredients, lack of ingredients, or even a wrong temperature can destroy your recipe and give you a completely different product than you were trying to make.

 

 

 

With this recipe in particular was very difficult for me because of how important it was to make sure you don’t over or under cook the fudge mix. When its the right temperature you have to drop part of your mix into a cold glass of water and its supposed to form a ball. Well the first two times I tried to make it I way over cooked it and the third time I got the ball to form, but when I tasted it it still tasted burnt. So finally on the fourth try and my grandma standing over me breathing down my neck I got the right temperature and got the fudge to set up nicely.

Photo CC by Jamieanne

I learned a lot about baking from this first activity I didn’t know about when I started. Number one is next time I make fudge im going to have a thermometer, because let me tell you, the cold glass of water trick is hard! Number two when you under bake something it still taste good, but if you over bake something that stuff gets nasty! On a more real note though I’ve decided I actually enjoy baking. Its like an art form for food. Deserts in general are very tricky things to make, the slightest mistake can destroy your whole product. The best thing I learned about baking though is its so good to eat things you create yourself. There’s a sense of satisfaction when your eating it. You think to yourself “dang I did goooooood!”