Home Econmics - Year 4, week 2: Baking Goods.

Dear Diary,

Well, today my wish was granted! We learned how to bake today- we could choose from 3 recipes: apple pie, lasagna, and cookies. Naturally, I went for the cookies- after all, they are so gooey and chewy and chocolatey. I know a couple of baking recipes honestly more like one but whatever, and I think it was a cinnamon roll recipe yes i set off the fire alarm then and after I tested that recipe, I have avoided baking ever since. Perhaps I'll learn how to bake properly now. But after that one time of baking, I really liked how methodical everything was- the processes all had a reason why we had to do somethings. For example, if you overmix your cookies, you get... cake cookies. Which, in my opinion, isn't yummy. I like chewy cookies better.

 

So in the beginning (wow, so ominous, I know. You'll see why in a second), we had to pair up to bake. Just hearing this idea already sounded chaotic. Of course, I naturally had to choose Arabella as my partner. She helped me in flying class, when we had to make our own wings. She's... matured a lot, since then, even though its only been a year. She doesn't ask as many questions now thank god which is really helpful, but at least she still asks questions when she needs help. 

 

I thought that choosing the cookies would make my life easier. It didn't.

 

First, we got out all the ingredients, so that we wouldn't run around like mad people when we needed them. Honestly, getting those ingredients was tiring. Arabella decided to drop an egg (on accident, of course) on the floor, so I had to help clean up instead of grabbing the chocolate chunks and stealing some to eat. After that incident, we finally got all of our ingredients: granulated sugar (1/2 cup), brown sugar (3/4 cup), salt (1 teaspoon, although they could have used me because I was quite salty after that accident), butter (melted, 1/2 cup), the new egg, vanilla extract (1 teaspoon), all-purpose flour (1 1/4 cups), baking soda (1/2 teaspoon), and the chocolate (4 oz, I wish it was more). I chose dark chocolate because I like it better, and it's not too sweet. Thank god white chocolate wasn't an option- I absolutely despise white chocolate. It's so fake like some people. 
 

So after we got the ingredients, we had to whisk together the sugar, salt, and butter. I used a regular whisk, and not one of those electric ones that go vrrr vrrr and basically take no effort to use. I actually wanted to work for my cookies, so I just... whisked it, I guess? I don't know how to completely describe it, but I mixed it together. You get the vague idea. And to be honest, I didn't use an electric one because, knowing myself, I would probably send everything flying. 

 

After I got the sugar, salt, and butter into a pasty texture, Arabella handed me the egg (which was cracked), and the vanilla extract. There was... a small shred of eggshell in the egg, so I had to fish it out. With a spoon. Yes, that sounds pretty easy, but it really isn't. ANYWAYS, Arabella sifted in the flour and baking soda, then I kind of... incorporated it in? I think the right word was fold; I don't completely remember. Then we added the chocolate chips- my favorite part because I ate maybe 10% of the bag. 

 

Sitting there, letting the dough rest, was complete agony. I just wanted my cookies, but no, we had to wait. During that time, I ate the rest of the chocolate chip bag talked with Arabella a bit about classes. At the same time, the 30 minutes felt fast... but yet slow at the same time. I don't really know how to describe it- I just know it felt that way. But during the last 15 minutes of waiting, Arabella preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, while I pulled out a pan for us to put the cookies on. 

 

This recipe was supposed to make 12 cookies... for some reason, we ended it with maybe 13, so we had to split that last little ball of dough between the 12 cookies. I really wanted to eat it... but Arabella started yelling about how eating raw eggs wasn't good and how we could make edible cookie dough eventually, if I really wanted to eat cookie dough. By that time, the oven dinged and we put the cookies in. We set the timer for 14 minutes, so that they wouldn't be undercooked or overcooked, but still be chewy. 

 

We had to wait a couple of minutes for the cookies to cool so they would still be chewy and not... I don't want to say soggy, but kinda soggy I guess? At this rate, I don't even know how to describe things. Next thing you know, I won't even know how to describe "cookies". 

 

Sadly, we had to clean up after ourselves. I don't wanna hear it. "Lila, shouldn't you be responsible" no. I don't want to hear it. Cleaning up isn't fun, and will never be. I'm not 5 years old; I don't sing the clean-up song 24/7 even when I'm not cleaning up. There's so many other good songs- Like, I don't know, Don't Stop Believin'? First song that came to the top of my head, don't judge. I have lousy music taste, deal with it. Cleaning up was ok, we amazingly didn't break anything. Surprise, right?

 

Arabella and I left 10 cookies left for Preceptor Marvelles- I at least wanted one cookie to try. Hopefully it was good enough. I mean, we didn't burn anything, so that's a good thing. Didn't set off the fire alarm, yay! I wouldn't say my baking skills are better than Preceptor Marvelles- probably about the same. If I wasn't paying attention, I probably would have set something on fire. By accident, of course.
 

Anyways, time to go steal back my cookies. Ta ta!

With love,
- Lila Everfall.