I love baking (as you’ve likely guessed from the existence of this website). I love it so much that in spite of moving more than 1,500 miles from home into a strange, slightly dingy dorm room, I knew I had to keep baking. To do so, I gathered many kitchen tools. So many it was a bit of a hassle, but I essentially had a fully stocked kitchen, complete with a dutch oven, pot, many cooking utensils, measuring cups and spoons, a plethora of spices, and more. Knowing my proclivity for making edible things, for my birthday my friend got me a cast iron skillet. We had been swooning over the possibilites of a cast iron skillet, so it was the perfect gift! (She also got me heavy duty oven gloves, so I wouldn’t have to keep using my tiny little square of an oven mitt when taking out scalding cast iron items from the oven).
My window of opportunity for making things was opened even further, and I decided to make a dutch baby. We had made them before in Foods class in Junior High School, so I’d thought I could easily do it. I searched for a recipe on the New York Times Cooking app, since I pay a monthly fee for it I always try to find recipes from it to use. I found a recipe for carmel apple dutch baby, and knew that would be perfect. I got some apples from the dining hall (to get the most out of my meal plan of course), went to the local supermarket to get perishable supplies (butter and cream), and began planning. I had to find a time that I did not have too much schoolwork and when my friends could all meet to enjoy my creation, which took a suprisingly long while. But, one night when I didn’t have much schoolwork (or didn’t want to do it), I made the baby.
It is a fairly straightforward recipe, you melt the butter in the skillet while the oven is preheating, then use said melted butter in the recipe. This was a smart tip since you hit two birds with one stone: melting the butter and greasing the pan. Then you pour the batter in, let it bake, and make the carmel apples in another pan on the stove. Once the baby is done baking, you pour the apples over and enjoy. But before we dug in, I thought Wait! We still have leftover heavy cream! So, I decided to quickly whip it up to serve ontop. I watched an episode of Kid’s Baking Championship where the children had to whip cream by hand to serve with their dishes as a challenge. I remember seeing them struggling, helping each other, and persevering, so I was channelling that energy while I whipped the cream. I also remeber a video I watched that showed the most efficient way to whip cream, so I used the best technique. My friends also helped, taking turns flexing our forearm/wrist muscles. We topped up the baby and dug in. YUM, it was so delicious. Soft and fruity from the apples, sweet and nuanced from the carmel, crisp and tender from the dutch baby, and creamy and airy from the whipped cream. We ate it up, then divided the leftover pieces and ate them all up. We were like vultures surrounding the wobbly scratched-up dorm kitchen table, waiting for our turn to get served a slice of baby and eat in on our makeshift plates of pan lids and cutting boards. It was an event, a wonderful tasty experience to remember
