Yesterday was a friend’s birthday, which, in my book, is just a good excuse to bake. I used to hate baking (well, that’s not true–I liked it, I just wasn’t very good at it). Where cooking moves organically and free flowing: you can add a smattering of this, a dash of that, balance X flavor with Y all during the process. Not so much with baking. In baking, ingredients must be precisely measured, the correct temperature, and mixed in just the right way. There is little room for error. Not to mention, when you first start replacing eggs with other ingredients, it can take some time to wrap your head around what works best for what, or even learning to combine different substitutes to end up with the best end product you can. But the PPK can help you with those building blocks.
It wasn’t until I moved in with my friend Dee, who is a great vegan baker, that I began to reign myself in and get down with the chemistry of baking. Now I treat it as some sort of science experiment, which makes the precise nature of baking enjoyable. So, it was my friend's birthday, and I attempted to procure 35 helium balloons “like a big bunch- the kind a little kid would have at a park in France!” at the bequest of her partner who is out of the country (this did not work out as planned, only 22 would fit in the car and one popped on the way home. but 21 is still a big bunch of balloons). In order to complete this Parisian themed birthday evening, I decided to attempt to make a torte, and although it looked a little homely, it was fucking delicious. We shared a few pieces over a bottle of pinot noir (red wine + chocolate = perfect equation) and I probably would have sat there and stuffed the remaining half of the torte in my face and ended up looking like a chocolate driven zombie had my wife not gracefully prodded me out the door back to our apartment.
It wasn’t until I moved in with my friend Dee, who is a great vegan baker, that I began to reign myself in and get down with the chemistry of baking. Now I treat it as some sort of science experiment, which makes the precise nature of baking enjoyable. So, it was my friend's birthday, and I attempted to procure 35 helium balloons “like a big bunch- the kind a little kid would have at a park in France!” at the bequest of her partner who is out of the country (this did not work out as planned, only 22 would fit in the car and one popped on the way home. but 21 is still a big bunch of balloons). In order to complete this Parisian themed birthday evening, I decided to attempt to make a torte, and although it looked a little homely, it was fucking delicious. We shared a few pieces over a bottle of pinot noir (red wine + chocolate = perfect equation) and I probably would have sat there and stuffed the remaining half of the torte in my face and ended up looking like a chocolate driven zombie had my wife not gracefully prodded me out the door back to our apartment.
Chocolate Ginger Pear Torte