Mousse Anyone?

Left -Toll House Cookie Bars

Right - Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Baking is my zen time.  Call me crazy, but when I have a really bad day, week etc....I bake.  Now my baking style has kind of morphed over the last year because of the gluten free thing, but I still love it.  I typically will play with a gluten free recipe for something I'm craving and then bake something for B (and anyone else he'll share with!)

Most people these days don't care to bake and think it takes too much effort.  When you can buy ready made dough or frozen treats, why go through the effort of measuring, sifting, and mixing?  I get that.  But when I see how excited people can be over a simple Snickerdoodle or a Chocolate Chip Cookie, it seems silly to not go through a little more effort.

When I was in culinary school, I will cop to the fact that I coasted through my 'regular' classes, just to learn more about baking.  There were only a few baking 'types' in my class, so when we got to our baking & pastry class, everyone else was in hell.  It was so much fun making things like pain au chocolate and mousse until it came out my ears.

During my preparation time for my final semester 'exam' I think I made at least 100 batches of mousse, (thanks Margaret!) trying to perfect my recipe.  I don't think I've made mousse in 15 years - and I KNOW I haven't made pain au chocolate since 1996!  Sometimes you can just kill a recipe I guess.

I love to play with small desserts - the kind with immediate gratification potential - like cookies, brownies or muffins.  With a cake, you have to pray it's cooked correctly, ice it and then cut it.  Too much stress there.  It's much easier to make a cupcake or a cookie and know whether or not it's turned out - plus they bake much faster and give you a quick fix when you need it.

Oddly enough, I've never craved sweets (under normal non-hormonal circumstances that is).  I'm a salt craver and would prefer a slice of cheese and some pretzels over a cookie.  However, now that I can't eat wheat I, of course, crave sweets.  How ironic - and typical for me!   So now, I'm on a mission to create gluten free baked goods that don't make the consumer feel like they're eating gluten free!

Bryan is a trooper and is more than happy to be my 'sampler' - of course the Bubbies like to do that too!

 

So for now, until I figure out the secret to gluten free baking, I'll keep my day job and bake at night and on weekends.  In the meantime, keep your eye on Facebook.  You never know when I'm going to post that I baked something and there might be a delivery over the fence for you!