Friday, April 25, 2008

Easter in pictures: back to basics




















Easter back home was : lazy mornings, rainy/humid afternoons and evening sunsets. Even though I was technically supposed to be studying for the finals - being back home, in my own kitchen and the tiny patch of grass we call our garden, made me feel like baking all over again.

First start- the chocolate macarons. Although it didn't turn out successful (in every sense of the word), the hours spend sifting crushed almond powder and the tedious process of repeated, patience-inducing processes was sadistically satisfying. Like my 'Cheesecake workout', this was every bit as good for toning my oversized arms. :) So, with that sitting on my countertop, an experiment gone so wrong, I decided that it was time to go back to basics. Not the basic macaron that I tried and succeeded the first time round, but back to the very basics- the foundation of my entire baking life- the butter cookie.

Flipping my small collection of cookbooks to compare proportions and finding something that didn't contain too much sugar, I decided on Dorie Greenspan's 'Punitions'. Im not sure if I got the spelling right, but apparently, little kids in the olden days of Paris were punished with these cookies. I really don't know how that works- if I were to get a cookie for every wrong I ever did- I would probably be the happiest kid in the world!

But that aside, butter cookies were the order of the day. With my sister's friends coming by after school, I figured that these delectable bite size delights were probably the easiest thing to whip up.

Iced cold Lavender tea, butter cookies on our little patch of grass, what more could I ask for?

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