I am a decent cook.
Not in the traditional sense “follow-the-recipe” cook. Give me a bunch of ingredients and I will whip up something… edible. Well tasting most of the time.
I am not a baker.
So, I decided to bake due to the surplus of time the world as is has provided. And in a typical “Oh, so Oskar” manner I skipped the banana bread and got directly into level 10 of baking; the dreaded and beloved French Macaron.
My first batch was lovely. Beginner’s luck. My sister (the passionate baker) hated me for just doing it and actually ace it the first time around. I substituted almond flour with ground almonds due to a citywide shortage apparently. My luck.
Attempt 2 and 3 went downhill pretty fast. I found almond flour. I hate almond flour. The recipe says use almond flour – the recipe doesn’t work with almond flour. Great.
Now that I have tweaked the recipe and it works, I need to find the right timing to not overbeat the batter. (Oh, so technical terms – Do I qualify as a baker now?)
Attempt number 4 tastes great. Looks like… little nipples. Undermixed batter – who knew? (Still no baker title for now)
I am a decent cook and I happen to use the oven to bake once in a while.