Baking Epiphanies

They say we’re in the middle of a recession. I say it’s a good time to splurge.

What’s that, you say? That makes no sense?

Well, hear me out. Sometimes, when we’re feeling the pinch of an economic crisis, we start living our lives in limitation. We’re clipping the coupons and saving the pennies, putting back the filet mignon and grabbing the can of beans. But start living in too much limitation, and that becomes your reality.

So I think it’s a good idea to give your little life project a jolt now and then. Yes, we need to hold on to some of our dwindling cash right now. But wouldn’t it be a bold, audacious, daring little adventure in the midst of all this limitation-doom-is-upon-us thinking that is swirling through the ethers, to splurge a little? To look limitation in the eye and say, no way dude, not today. This is my life and as long as there are options, I will take my chances.

So I splurged a little even though perhaps maybe I couldn’t really afford to. I took my first pastry class at ICE. And let me say, it was one of the best experiences of my life. Whatever doubts I may have had as to the wisdom of spending a couple hundred dollars on a baking class right now, the experience paid for itself a thousand times over.

In my pastry class, over the course of three days, we tackled three different doughs – pate sucree (sweet pastry dough), pate brisee (flaky pastry dough) and pate a choux (that stuff you make eclairs with). It was quite a sensation to be around unlimited quantities of butter and chocolate, to work with high quality stovetops and ovens and of course the beloved Kitchenaid standmixers which I still do not own. And to be around a group of people as excited about flour and butter as myself.

We made Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts, Banana Walnut Tarts, 2 types of Apple Pie as well as Tarte Tatin, Blueberry Pie, Frangipane Fruit Tarts, Pastry Cream with various flavors, Coconut Custard Pie, Lemon Cheese Tarts, Eclairs, Cream Puffs and Paris Brest. I also learned how to really get flaky pastry dough to be flaky (repeat the mantra: DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH). And I can actually make those cute mini-tarts at home now – they are so much easier to make than I thought. It was totally glorious.

So I say, go ahead, splurge a little. Give your system a jolt and follow your heart. Because as they say, you can’t put a price on happiness. And happiness is energy that permeates your life, and the lives of others. There are more things that make the world go round than how much cash is in the bank. It’s true.