A Baking Frenzy

I blame it on The Great British Baking Show. It's your fault, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

You may know that I tend to become...uh-hem...obsessed about certain things. 

What am I obsessed with now? Baking.

I don't watch tv. I stopped watching tv casually in 2003. It's the best thing I ever did. It frees up huge amounts of time that I can spend doing things I love, like reading and writing and drawing. And, now, baking.

Instead of randomly turning on the set and flipping through channels, I periodically ask for suggestions for good tv, set the DVR, and watch a sample show. 

One of those suggestions was The Great British Baking Show. I watched one show and fell in love. I've watched all of Season 1 (American, as shown on our PBS), and I've just started Season 2. 

I've borrowed one of Mary Berry's cookbooks from the library and I've bought Paul Hollywood's book and a book from the show to keep.

And I'm baking. And baking. And baking.

Here's some of what I've been baking lately.

We have picked up thousands of pecans this year, so I just had to try the Maximum Pecan Pie I read about in the Houston Chronicle just before Thanksgiving. Even the crust has pecans in it.

I also made a Tart Lemon Pie from the New York Times at Thanksgiving. The crust came out a little wonky; I couldn't find any beans to allow me to successfully blind bake the crust. I won't do that again. In any case, it tasted better than it looked.

I used Mary Berry's Quick Puff Pastry dough to make up some savory pastries with ham (leftover from Thanksgiving) and cheese fillings, post-Thanksgiving.

Today I whipped up some tiny quiches and small empanadas for my niece's baby shower. I've made quiches and empanadas since I was a young married person. It's so tricky for me to work with these buttery doughs in our Texas heat.

 

I've always been obsessed with biscuits and rolls and bread. My mom made amazing dinner rolls and my Grandma Ashley made fabulous biscuits. I loved this recipe for flaky biscuits that I discovered at the beginning of this year. And I will always be indebted to Emma Cazabonne of Words and Peace, who I met in person at BookExpo in Chicago, for the bread recipe she gave me.

Are you a baker? 

What kinds of baking do you like best?

What are baking cookbooks you like?

For more wordless photos, go to Wordless Wednesday.

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