Adventures in Baking

Today was set aside for baking. Tonight is Supper Club (theme: Under the Ground) at S's and I picked a recipe that includes meringue cookies, not something I'm overly familiar with. I went grocery shopping yesterday (having taken a vacation day - use 'em or lose 'em) to run errands and tour the No Coast Craftorama with HappyHermit. I nearly forgot several things on my list, but eventually thought I was all set.

This morning, I started getting things out of the cupboards and pantry. I needed parchment paper. I opened every drawer and cupboard in the kitchen where it might be hiding. I opened scoured the pantry. Nope. No parchment to be found. Off to the nearby fancy grocery store; so much for shoveling before packing foot and tire prints into the snow. As I speed-walked the baking aisle (which is not where parchment paper resides, of course), something caught my eye: Dr. Oetker's Vanilla Sugar packets! Slam, I was back in Vienna, in the dream kitchen. After using up what I brought home as a "souvenir," I keep thinking I really ought to make some of my own (and did, once), but that involves a tiny bit of effort, planning ahead and/or worrying about truly airtight storage. Now, I know where to find it here.

My second adventure today wasn't quite so fun. I decided to deal with limited counter space by pre-measuring everything for the cookies into very little bowls. I was feeling a bit chuffed about using 'mis en place' techniques. I discovered, however, that when I set everything out, I don't read the recipe as carefully as I go. So, I forgot the granulated sugar that needed to go into the egg whites before the cocoa/powdered sugar. I thought things were not fluffing up enough, glanced at the counter, saw the little bowl of granulated sugar and wondered when that would go in. Oh, right! In the past. I tried adding it at that point - no good. So, I scraped out the bowl, washed and dried everything and tried again. Much better this time. I hate 'do it twice' baking. That's why I rarely make my own pie crust; I almost always have to toss the first attempt and start over.