Bake 2020 - Goals

I just can't stop baking!  Probably instead of monthly sharing, I will just document as I feel like it.  I've got a lot of skills I'm working on this year.

2020 Baking Goals

1. More yeast bread and rolls.   
2. Work on those piping skills.
3. Practice cake decorating.
4. Try out more pastry and fine baking.
5. Puff pastry and rough puff need to be conquered.
6. Submit my application to be on The Great American Bake Show.  

I started the month with taking a stab at the french cookie/pastry called macarons.  I've tried them once before and it was not nearly as hard as it thought.  This recipe is a bit different than the first.  It's from Georgia's Cakes.  These use the Italian meringue method where you heat the sugar with water to make a syrup.  Then you add that to the egg whites.  Very tasty and fun to challenge myself with a new method.  It's definitely easier to just mix in the sugar.  The buttercream is was a French buttercream.  It uses the egg yolks from the cookie, butter, and granulated sugar.  You make another sugar syrup with the sugar and water then stream it into the egg yolks so it cooks the yolks.  It was really good.  Much less sweet than the standard American buttercream.   They don't look perfect.  I think they were good as far as taste, but I've never had one at a professional bakery.  Only the two I made and the frozen kind you can get at Trader Joe's.  

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I tried a new cake recipe.  Instead of creaming softened butter with sugar this one combined melted butter with the sugar.  It tasted really good, but I found it to be a bit more dense.  Not a bad thing, but I think I prefer the light fluffiness of creaming.

Of course, I used that as a chance to try a new buttercream flavor - salted caramel buttercream from Sally's Baking Addiction.  This recipe is a keeper!  Practiced a few different cake decorating techniques.  Nice working with the open piping tip.  I used a spoon to kind of spiral the sides.  I'll keep practicing the fancy stuff.  It was fun and delicious!

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I've been working on bread this month.  First I made an artisan bread.  

It got a little too brown.  The photo definitely reads darker than it actually was.

Then I made a loaf of traditional white bread.  Yum, yum, yummy!