Saturday, February 13, 2016

alchemy


Yes, it's 80-something-freakish-degrees here, but I was sent some VD monies for cheesecake and I realized that it's been far too long since I've turned on my oven.  And now that peace has returned with the kitchen plumbing, it seemed a good way to celebrate a working kitchen.  And I still had Christmas chocolate bars in the drawer~what is wrong with that picture?


Baking is, for me, a therapeutic and creative way of dealing with the world and/or the week.  I have such blissful childhood memories of baking with Grandma Dunston, and pulling out some of her utensils and pans reconnects me with that heritage.


This project had an added bonus as we're dealing with the usual backlash of posting a cast list~angry parents and sad parents and passive-aggressive parents~all clearly telling us how we are failures as teachers/artists. So, it seemed a good time to vigorously chop some chocolate and enjoy the scent of it melting.


And while I know that baking can be reduced to basic chemistry, I find the manner in which basic ingredients come together to be magical.


Genuuuwine vanilla from Grenada.


Finished products, cooling and awaiting dollops/dousings of whipped cream.  (I texted some photographic proof to colleagues so that I don't eat them all over the next two days.)


4 comments:

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    1. They are! Although, I won't use an organic raspberry bar for one of the chocolates~lovely flavor, but the seeds are disconcerting to find when you expect creamy smoothness.

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  2. It's so warm that no-bake cookies sound like a plan. A basic recipe boiling a chunk of butter together with chocolate and stirring in peanut butter and rolled oats and spreading them on wax paper makes a nice chewy "brown cookie," too. These look lovely.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, as the a/c kicked on last night at 8:30 (and I have it set at 77), don't think the oven will be turned on for awhile now!

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