In
the home kitchen, there are two kinds of food preparations—Cooking and baking.
The mere difference between the two is that for ‘cooking’ recipes are mere
suggestions, in which proportion of ingredients is flexible and intuition
controlled. For example in cooking the proportion of basic flavoring agents
such as salt, pepper, flour, and leavening agents can be alternated as per
needs; however, for ‘baking’ the basic recipe is very much fixed, in which
experimentation with ingredient measurement (such as sugar, yeast, basking
salts etc), cooking time, temperature and techniques is limited. For good
result, the recipe needs to be diligently followed to give good results.
In cooking recipes can be tweaked based on what all is available in the house but the problem is no matter how often things have been prepared before there is no guarantee that good results would be achieved all the time.
On
the other hand, in baking, if you have standardized your recipe once, and
follow it diligently, chances of spoiling are very low :) so I feel it is a life saving technique when
you have to prepare important meal and you cannot take any chances for
disasters!
The
other important factor which really draws me towards baking is its simplicity.
Yes you got me right. It is no rocket science (as most of us feel) rather a
simple method in which basic ingredients, including eggs, flour, sugar, salt
yeast, and butter are added in various permutations and combinations to create
amazing treats as sweet and savory.
Nothing in world can be better than the freshly baked food. From the time I baked my
first bread there has been no looking back. I love to bake for my family, who
has been source of inspiration and support all along….Now there is homemade cake
for every birthday and anniversary, a regular fresh foccacia or garlic bread in
kitchen or a pie to welcome seasonal fruits!!
Well
it’s not easy to be working and following your passion. But I love to bake, for
me it’s a way to unwind myself..It’s my passion. I can be back home at 10:00PM
after a hard day at work and end up in kitchen beating cake dough…never being
tired to doing it J
It’s whimsical to see your little puff pastry
or soufflé rise in the oven or when little ones in family clap to see a gum
paste elephant or a rising chocolate cake!!!
I
understand baking being relatively a new way of preparing food is not easy to
adapt.. Considering, it very difficult to arrange for good baking ingredients and
tools in India, some of us just refrain from doing it! So, I have finally
decided to share what I have learned to help all budding bakers like me!!
As
the age old saying goes—you learn more from sharing!! So I want to keep this
blog as a open forum where I will be sharing my experience and invite all
baking fans to share their experiences, queries, and tips.
Let’s start…….Happy Baking!