Week 4

In this final week, one of my main projects that I focused on was my fortune cookies. I was watching an episode of The Great British Baking Show, when this cookie came up as one of the technical challenges. I wondered if I could do it myself, and I figured it was a great idea for the last week. After watching the contestants on the show struggle, I wasn't exactly surprised by how hard it was, but it definitely wasn't easier than I thought it'd be. The difficulty came not in making the dough itself, but in the thickness of the dough when I put it on the pan, and the shaping of the cookie right when it came out of the oven. I had to put the dough in a thin circle (i would to about one or two at a time), bake it in the oven for about 7 minutes and 15 seconds, and then take it out and immediately shape it using my hands and a glass. I'd say about half of them didn't work out, but overall, I seemed to get the hang of it towards the end. However, I don't think I'll do this recipe again considering how stress inducing and time consuming it was. Some other things I baked this week were biscotti (which also proved to be complicated), and brownies.

I think I made a lot of progress in this past month. I was honestly shocked by how much I was able to improve my baking, and by the recipes that I was able to complete successfully. I'd say that the goals I most accomplished was my second goal, which was to work up to more complicated recipes. Biscotti, french macarons, and fortune cookies are all recipes I would haven't attempted if I weren't doing this project, and I appreciate that. I think that the goal I least accomplished was my last one which was to complete recipes I'd never heard of before. Unfortunately, I knew about all the desserts I baked before I baked them, but I think I came close to meeting this goal when I tried baking the lemon bars, a treat I had never tried before. Finally, my first goal, which was to learn about the ways different ingredients affected the outcome of a baked good, was pretty much met. I learned how almond flour provides structure, just under-whipping egg whites also gives structure to a batter but not too much, vanilla has more flavor than almond extract, etc...

I would definitely recommend this project to someone who enjoys baking. Because the senior projects take up a lot of time, and baking can be very long and tedious work, I think that someone should only take this on if they thoroughly enjoy it. I already enjoyed baking and I can say that I liked this project quite a bit.