Cookbook Review: Baking At Home With the Culinary Institute of America

I’ve toyed with the idea of going to culinary school for several years now. I’m a total nerd with a love for all things learning (I’d be a professional student if they would pay me to go, and not the other way around), so what better to learn than how to make my favorite tasty treats! Unfortunately, the finances at the present moment allow for little more than a roof over my head, so the thought of culinary school is on the back burner. (Haha! Get it? Back burner! Kitchen humor about culinary school! I’m so funny.) But I won’t let that deter me from learning! No way. I’m taking matters into my own hands. I’m firing up the oven, donning my pretty pink chef’s coat, and homeschooling myself! And I think I may have found the perfect textbook—Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Who better to learn from than the masters themselves? If I can’t go to culinary school, I’ll bring culinary school to me!

Cream Puffs

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated. Sorry! I have absolutely no internet at my house now. None at all. And no money to bring it back at the moment. So I’m forced to borrow from wherever I can. Boyfriend. Work. The library. Unfortunately, I’m too lazy most days to get in the car and drive to these places for my internet fix. So, until I get the internet situation figured out, there might be a slight delay in posting. Sincere apologies to my adoring fans! All 2 of you out there.

Without my internet to post things, I haven’t even been baking that much! But I finally got my act together the other day. I was invited to a going away party for a coworker, Chloe, who is moving to Germany for six months. (Jealous! Totally and completely jealous!) It was a bonfire gathering at another coworker’s house, complete with a German theme—brats and beer! I decided to bring dessert, but what would be German enough? The first thing I thought of was German Chocolate Cake, but another baking coworker was already making one to bring to work on Chloe’s last day. Boyfriend, being the muse that he is, suggested Cream Puffs. Perfect! I absolutely LOVE the cream puffs from Schmidt’s, a local German restaurant, and I’ve always wanted to make them!

Busty Baker: In the Wild

I’m not really a one-with-nature type of person. Don’t get me wrong—I like nature. From afar. I’m not all for being up close and personal with it. I’m not big on exercise, I hate swimming, I don’t like getting dirty, I can’t stand being hot, and insects and flying creatures give me the heebie-jeebies. Especially spiders. So when Boyfriend suggested we go camping together, I thought he must be joking. After 3 years, he doesn’t realize that camping and I don’t mix? The last “camping trip” I took was staying with The Girls in a permanently parked RV, complete with electricity, running water, bunkbeds, and a screened in front porch. I haven’t been real camping since I was 8. He was insane for even suggesting it. And I was even more insane for agreeing to go.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

It wasn’t long ago that I had an irrational fear of yeast. Well, okay. Not a fear really. More of a slight hesitation about using it. I just knew I would kill it somehow, and then my baking project would be sunk. But using yeast for the first time in my cinnamon rolls was much easier than I thought it would be. Maybe there was hope! I’ve always wanted to make bread, but it just seemed like too much work, and too risky. More yeast, and much more ingredients to possibly ruin. But I was willing to give it a try with my new found yeasty confidence. When Kiesha left for NYC, I inherited her multitude of flours—including 2 really full bags of both bread flour and whole wheat flour. As I found room for them in my pantry, the gears started turning in my head as I made space next my leftover packets of yeast and my half used bottle of honey. I remembered seeing a recipe in Martha for Honey Whole Wheat Bread. Sure enough, there it was. And thanks to Kiesha’s additions, I already had most of the ingredients. The only thing I was missing—wheat germ. But it can’t be that hard to find, right? Well, let me help you out and save you some time if you’ve never looked for wheat germ in your grocery store. It’s probably not with the baking supplies. Try near the oatmeal. It took me a couple weeks of grocery trips to multiple stores to figure that one out. (Yes. I’m just like a man. I never stop and ask for directions. It’ll take me a couple hundred wrong turns and half a day’s worth of lost time, but I’ll figure out where I’m going. On my own.)