Refined Flour Skills

I love to bake. When the summer is at its hottest I start thinking about September and those cool autumn evenings that are perfect for baking.

Baking has always been special for me. My earliest memories include my Sicilian great-grandmother baking bread in the kitchen. She would bake the smoothest, fluffy little buns of sweet tasting white bread for Sunday dinners. I don't have anything material to remember her by. What I do have is the ability to make fresh bread and enjoy the smell of it while it bakes. This reminds me of her. (The other thing that reminds me of her are turtle or frog soap dishes. I don't remember if she actually had one of these. I do know they must have been pretty popular when I was a child. I could have just seen one at another relative's house sometime in the early 1980s and thought it was hers.)

Baking also makes me think of my dad. He shares my love of baking. When I was little he used to make chocolate chip cookies almost every week. I would sneak cookie dough from behind his back whenever I could. For the record, my mom did the same thing! Oh, and so did my sisters.

I got pretty sick off of at teaspoon of cookie dough about ten years ago. I wish I could say that made me stop eating it...

My dad also makes the best ever spread of Christmas cookies. He makes buckeyes, mini-cannolis, and pumpkin rolls. All are great.

I've been trying to develop my own cookie spread. As it is, I've been copying a variety of recipes at Christmas time and other times. I'm starting to think I'd like to learn how to bake well enough to make my own recipes based on ingredients I have on hand. So, with that in mind, I've been looking for a really good learn to bake book. That way I can learn some techniques beyond what I'm using now.

Hopefully, I'll find one before September.