A Love - Hate Relationship with Baking

How have you guys been coping with social distancing and PSBB in Jakarta so far? Are you guys doing alright? Are you still keeping that sanity level real high? Or, are you in an all time low? I have been staying at home for almost two months now and, I think, I may have reached that point where I passed all that loosing-my-sanity phase that everybody’s probably experiencing. I made peace with the fact that I may have to stay a little bit longer at home now that we haven’t reach the peak of this pandemic here in Jakarta, so, I’m coping with whatever options that I have to not be idle - one of it being baking, and a bit of cooking. 

I had been baking Egg Custard Tart and Quiche at home and sold them to those who are interested in buying. I opened a pre-order on my Instagram account one day and I was surprised when I got numerous DMs from my followers, saying that they wanted to have a taste of my pies. It lit my heart with joy! Being the responsible amateur baker that I am, I complied with all of their orders and baked the sweet and savory munchies for one whole week. 

It was exhausting and fun at the same time. The longer I spend my time in the kitchen kneading dough and making custard, the more I develop this love - hate relationship with baking. I’m not trying to be cocky by saying that not a single pie that I made have failed, but all of them were successfully baked and they tasted delicious!

Now, you may, or may not, be wondering why I bake these pies. To tell the truth, I think it’s the only thing that I can bake, so far, without failing. I tried baking brownies and Angel Food Cake once, and they both failed miserably - the brownies, although thoroughly baked and had a very beautiful cracked surface, was too sweet, while the Angel Food Cake was as hard as a brick because I messed up one of the cooking method. But, when it comes to pie, it has been a smooth ride baking it since day one. 

Angel Food Cake? More like Brick Cake

The overly sweet Brownie that I made

The pie crust was scrumptious, as it had this buttery short-bread like texture that I love and, apparently, everybody in the house loves as well. One of my method in making the pie crust is to add a dash of salt in the dough, so that it would bring out the flavor of the sugar and the butter. I used to question this method because I thought that anything that has salt in it would tasted salty. Turns out, it didn’t taste the slightest bit salty, yet it had this very enjoyable savoriness that I’m fond of. 

Look at this beauty!

Mini Pies that I made with some leftover ingredients

The custard, on the one hand, was amazingly delicious! I used a lot of egg yolks in the process of making the custard concoction and it baffled me when the eggs didn’t overpower the whole flavor wheel. The custard tasted sweet and delicious, and the fact that it had this silky smooth and custardy texture blows my mind. The texture, if I may say, had this impression as if it was the love child of PUYO pudding and Panna Cotta - silky smooth, yet quite sturdy. 

I bake mostly at midnights, when everybody’s asleep and I have the kitchen all to myself. One night, I used this dashing apron that my best friend got me as a birthday present, put on some dandy ‘50s bops, and whisked my custard to the rhythm of the music. True, I was lacking a lot of sleep during this week of baking, but the joy that I got when people said that my baked goods were delicious instantly shoved away all those exhaustions. 

Leftover pie dough calls for Butter Biscuits

Other than the Egg Custard Tart, I also made a few batches of Quiche. I was overwhelmed at the time I tried baking my first Quiche as I succeed with flying colors. Although it may look a bit pale (I didn’t want to burn the crust, so I took it out from the oven earlier), but it had this kick of savory and salty flavors that was just wonderful. I used some cocktail sausages and Mozzarella cheese mixed with some milk and eggs to make the filling concoction, pour it into the savory pie crust that I blind-bake beforehand, and voila! I baked myself a serving of Sausage and Mozzarella Quiche! Again, I surprised myself. 

Chicken and Mushroom Quiche

I was doing very good in baking for money, yet the ingredients are getting more difficult to obtain as the suppliers are not getting their imported goods because of this pandemic. I don’t want to settle for some low-grade ingredients that I can get for a cheaper price, as it will ruin the entire flavor and texture quality that I set for my pies. So, I had to temporarily discontinue selling my baked goods. I still haven’t bake anything until now and I’m not planning to until I get the right ingredients. 

I sold this combo of sweet and savory pies for 50K

I guess I have to spend my time with DOTA once again..