Baking Lessons

When my daughter was four, she wanted to be a pastry chef. When she was six, she wanted to be a sushi chef and a pastry chef, and planned to open a restaurant here in Bar Harbor “after college.” I was all for that plan, as sushi and pastry are two of my favorite things ever. “You’ll get a discount, Mommy.” Aww, thanks sweetie.

Well, now she’s thirteen, will probably kill me for posting that, and still loves baking. Now I can make a pretty tasty sushi roll, but bread and pastry are not in my skill set, and this summer I finally found someone who could teach her the interesting things one can do with flour, water, and yeast. My friend Andrea recently moved to the Island from New York City. She writes a tantalizing food blog called From the Bookshelf and gives lessons to people in their homes. Perfect! We rounded up a couple of my daughter’s friends, and the Summer of Baking began.

For their first lesson, they made Apple Cheddar Scones, and Andrea worked with Tabby on her knife skills. There’s a trick to paring apples! After grating the cheese (above) they mixed the batter

formed a round of dough,  sliced it into scones

and slipped them into the oven:

The air slowly filled with the smell of baking cheddar, and by the time the scones came out, everyone in the house was hovering around the kitchen. Yum!

In the lessons that followed they’ve made big chewy soft pretzels

Learning to knead properly.

Brushing the pretzels with egg yolk for a shiny finish.

(Sorry, we ate the pretzels before I could take a photo of the finished ones.)

And they made divinely sticky sticky buns:

There is a right way to knead dough.

And while they were waiting for the dough to rise they sort of tossed off a round of blueberry muffins, because why not?

This week they are mastering pie crust – Monday they made Lemon Meringue (ohmygoditwasgood) and on Friday (which is the last lesson of the summer, sob) they will make quiche. I am soooo looking forward to Friday dinner.

I’ll end with this photo of Andrea, because it is just too frickin’ cute how her t-shirt matches her bowl:

So, Andrea, thanks for making this the most awesome summer for my kid!