Cooking Wish List 1.0

I've decided to start a Cooking Wish List. It's a goal-setting exercise of sorts, something to help my brain focus while I teach myself the techniques I frequently admire when eating out. This first list is relatively short and made up of baked goods. Just trying to keep things manageable so that I can actually reach the finish line.

The pastry that finally pushed me to get serious was Tartine's morning bun (pictured above). Believe any hype that you've heard. First off, Tartine's croissants are fantastic. The wizards behind the aprons then take their 100-layer dough and create a hybrid croissant/kouign-amann that is <choir sings> the morning bun. When you eat this golden goodness, your flaky-caramel-dreams are realized. To top things off, my best girl texted me the other day with a picture of a croissant loaf and captioned it, "Make me this!!!"

Yes. I will make all the buttery things.

Bread

I'll give myself a handicap and put homemade sourdough on the list. After reaching #40, I feel that I can bake a solid country loaf. My bread goal at this point will include:

  • New varieties of bread. I've tried olive, whole wheat, and various combinations of home-milled flour. A world of bread awaits.
  • Working with freshly milled flour. Super excited about buying a mill for the house. Bought a KoMo mill and have been making whole wheat loaves, pancakes, and cookies with the home-milled flour...still super excited.

You can find all of my bread notes here, or check out How to Make and Maintain a Sourdough Starter.

Why haven't I written a bread post? Hmm, good question. There's a reason Chad Robertson devoted 36 pages to one recipe and why I've devoted an entire Instagram account just to my bread-making process. There are so many factors to consider and I don't yet feel that I can document things thoroughly enough for a post (more likely several posts). If you want to learn how to make artisanal sourdough, I highly recommend Tartine Bread as a starting place.

Croissants

Based on my reading so far, the key to croissants is not rushing the process. One baker mentioned how croissants aren't nearly as finicky as people think, you just have to be diligent with the steps (specifically the refrigeration). I plan to start with the croissant recipe in Tartine. Success!

Morning Bun

The photo says it all. I plan to work from the morning bun recipe here. I made the morning buns and posted about it here.

Croissant Loaf

My girlfriend wants this so I have accepted the challenge. I like that the loaf seems to be a relatively straightforward build on croissant dough. I've seen some recipes that braid the dough and some that simply cut and layer. More research must be done.

Pie/Galette

I finally got the hang of pie dough last Thanksgiving (working on a post for the recipe recipe can be found here), but I have yet to produce a consistent fruit filling. Since stone fruit is currently in season, I'm going to start testing.

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