One of my favorite occasional hobbies is baking. I can't do it too often because, well, I'm not overly fond of eating my creations and you can only give away so much before people start to avoid looking you in the eye. Not that I'm not good, but people watch their weight and all that. So, I use most holidays as an excuse to take over the kitchen for a day or two and bake cookies and treats until I run out of room on the counters, in the fridge and in the dining room. I enjoy the planning, the baking, figuring out a cute and seasonal way to present it, and the (sometimes excessive) thanks I get when I hand out cute little bags or plates of my goodies.
I've been baking cookies since I was five; making chocolate chip cookies with mom was a staple of my childhood, and as I got older, the cookies got more complicated. By the end of elementary school, I was baking on my own, but usually only one or two types in a go. My first year in Hawaii, I decided that, poor student that I was, I was just going to make cookies for people, since I knew I could do that. After a whole day spent making 6 or 7 types of cookies, I found that I had I enjoyed the whole process so much that I kept doing it. Again and again. Any excuse to give out cookies will do now; a few weeks ago, with Easter fast approaching, I took over the kitchen for a day and made a mountain of frosted sugar cookies, some of the always-requested Russian Tea Cakes, and some chocolate chip cookies with seasonal-colored chips.
About a year ago, I decided to try and expand my baking abilities, so I decided to stop using the boxed mixes, started making cakes from scratch. My first one was okay, my second pretty good and by the time I got to making a rum cake for my middle brother's birthday, I could make a damn good cake and frosting to match (decorating is still only okay, though). And that was several cakes ago. Then came bread.For Easter, I decided to try making some hot cross buns, so I went on allrecipies, found the simplest recipe without a breadmaker and they were a roaring success, so today, I attempted my holy grail of breads: my grandmother's homemade rolls.
Despite my disinterest in my own cookies, I do have a rather excessive sweet tooth which I only manage to keep under control by keeping small chocolates in my room at all times. The instant I start to want something sweet, I pop a chocolate in my mouth and am able to withstand greater temptations. But growing up, when I had a choice between a roll hot from the oven, and whatever treat was my favorite, I ALWAYS went with my grandma's bread. So today, I dug out the recipe I had written down years ago, along with every variation we had for it and I tried to make it.The house had that wonderful baking-bread smell and when they were pulled out of the oven, they were a beautiful shade of brown. I immediately pulled one out of the cupcake pan and brought it outside to show and share with my dad. One bit in, and I knew I hadn't succeeded. The color and texture were okay, but the flavor was a little off. I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure it out, and my best guess is that I should have used more whole wheat and white wheat flour. Something about Hawaii's climate makes it necessary to be generous when adding flour and baking soda and I think I may have been a bit too generous with the regular flour and threw off the balance between that and the wheat flours. So in a few weeks, when I try again, I need to remember to add some more of the other types of flour, too. And I need to make sure I lather on the butter when eating these rolls.
