Experiments in Baking

I have always loved to bake, even as a child growing up, I baked with my mom. I even took a professional baking course at one of the occupational schools in the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. It was a lot of fun.

So I was thinking last night and I realized...I haven't had bread in about a year. Oh, I've had a low-carb bread from the health food store, which although it tasted fine put me on the toilet (1 g of carb per slice). It's still in the fridge, it should probably go in the bin. I had some bites of toast just to eat the butter off it at Denny's with my "meat lover's omelet." But toast used to be a daily thing for me. In particular, I liked sourdough toast with TJ's low sugar apricot jam.

No more.

But I still love to bake. I skipped my Christmas baking this year so I wouldn't be tempted or triggered (although my Christmas day dash to the local grocery to purchase three kinds of cookies and a fruit cake basically triggered a three-month long carb obsession, uh, yeah). But I miss it. So I've been experimenting with different baking options from low carb / paleo / gluten-free blogs. I made those scones a few weeks ago and they were pretty good. Almond flour is very pricey, however. So far the cheapest place I've found it is Trader Joe's, $5.99 for a pound and they call it 'almond meal.' So I made jam thumbrint cookies last night from All Day Long I Dream of Food. They made 16 large cookies as opposed to the recipe's 12 moderate-sized.

I give them a B-. Good, but not delicious / fabulous. I left the frosting drizzle off because frankly it just looked like a lot of work, but I think they need it. The SF jam is basically tasteless--I got boysenberry.

But...the dough? OMG, the dough is yummy. Nom nom nom. I would totally make this again just to eat the dough. It has one egg yolk in it, but I've been eating raw cookie dough all my life with no problems, but if it worries you, then get either egg substitute or pasteurized eggs (whatever the hell that is). So here's a pic. I just had two with my coffee. Meh.

My husband tried one; he said "meh," too.

I'm thinking the homemade rasperry/chia jam is better tasting as well.

Would I make these again? Yeah. But only to eat the dough. :-) Really good.

But baking again? Yeah...that felt good. Baking healthy? That felt amazing.