Baking...a science

I was really wishing for a cup of hot tea while we were savouring the freshly baked croissants :P

Before placing it into the oven, a croissant? A crab?...Whatever it is, please do remember to appreciate and savour every bit of a croissant the next time you are eating one coz I must say it's really not easy baking croissants.

Crispy on top and real soft and fluffy beneath...have you ever experienced the excitement of bringing out a tray of freshly baked muffins from the oven? You should :)

Someone's crazy over bananas, hoping that every mouthful of the muffin is filled with pieces of banana :P

Attended a baking class (kinda an informal one I would say) with Mark and Derrick at Sally's place over the weekend. The agenda for that afternoon was banana muffins and croissants. Sally's a real warm, bubbly and friendly housewife. One thing which really amazes me is the fact that she's allergic to dairy products and yet she loves to bake. Yup, I think I can confidently say that it's her passion. I feel that it's not only the knowledge and skills of baking that I have learnt from Sally but also her dispositions and attitude towards her love - baking. Standing at the mixer, putting in one tablespoon of evaporated milk into the mixer at every interval of two minutes and never taking her eyes off the mixer...well, that's very much patience to me. Silly us asked if we could just pour in all the milk at one go into the mixer and she said no firmly, sharing that the shortcut would not give us nice muffins and that every little step counts :P

I remember PY once shared with me that cooking is an art and baking is a science. I think I couldn't agree more. Precision in baking is important but I am not sure if I like the science of it all, it could be somewhat like a form of restriction to me. I think I am someone who doesn't like to follow closely to recipes too. I was also wondering if baking could be an art too, well, maybe to a certain extent. You see, one needs to know the basics of baking and that's science. However, having a good grasp of the knowledge of the basics, the next level would be mastering the art of baking. What do you think?