Sweet Treats From My Kitchen

I love to cook, but it doesn't mean that I'm as good when it comes to baking or making pastries. Early this year I got the urge and interest to learn and experiment on making pastries. Since I don't have a background on baking, I relied so much on online recipes for my first trial until I was able to concoct my own. I must admit, it's pretty expensive because I spend on ingredients with the risk that I might not be able to get the finished product right. But if one will study the procedures well and research for suppliers, I think everything will turn out fine. Based on my experience, once I've set the basics aside, with a little adjustments, excluding and adding ingredients, I can say I'm getting there...

One of the sweet treats I love is Chocolate Crinkles. I want my crinkles to be soft, moist and chewy. I'm happy to share that I was able to meet my criteria, but the shape of the cookies were uneven because I had to give the kids the fun part of placing each chocolate ball on the baking sheet.

My second project was Chocolate Chip Cookies. In a much older post, I shared my love for the cookies made by one of our friends. They used to give us a box full for Christmas. But I can't wait a year just to have a cookie right? So I decided to make my own. Again, like my Chocolate Crinkles, I want my cookies to soft and chewy. The recipe I used was for giant cookies. Again and again, the size of the finished product was uneven. This time, I disregarded the size of the cookie sheet. It wasn't big enough for my giant cookies.

Before proceeding, let me share a short story about my mom and her love for baking. When I was a kid and we were still living at my grandmother's house in Manila, my mom would often bake cakes for occasions like birthday parties. And not just one but she can go for 3 or 5 different cakes. Later on, my dad and my mom was able to put up a bakery store. Every bread was made from scratch and with my mom's hard work. The bakery business was doing great for some time, until my mom had to give it up because she got pregnant with our youngest and my dad got a job offer. Her recipes are still with her, I even offered to continue the business...

The next pastry are cupcakes. No, it's not the ready-to-bake mixture. Everything was made from scratch. Thank God my mom has a background on baking. She shared with me her recipe, same with the frosting.

So far, among the pastries, the cupcakes turned out well on the first try. It's moist both inside and out.

For months now, I have been preparing these pastries. It will take a lot of practice in order to nail the right texture, size, shape, flavor and consistency. Do I plan to have this as a business? Well, to be honest, as of the moment, I am just enjoying baking and sharing it with my whole family. 

source

Next on my list: 

Cream Puffs

Chocolate Eclairs

Making my own fudge cake for my son and dad's birthday.