Atlas Primred
September 19, 2014 11:26 PM
Baking Club! by Atlas Primred
It was that time of year again when the leaves changed color and a chilly breeze filled the air- at least that’s how fall was in Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, Sonora felt warm most of the time; Atlas supposed living in a desert would do that. As it was got further into the year, Atlas found that he missed the feeling of autumn, and wondered if some of the other students in the Baking Club did as well. As a result, the past few recipes all contained some element of fall, be it in color or in taste. He arrived early as usual to the Potions room to prep the ingredients for that day. If he calculated it right, each person would need about 1 cup of puréed oven roasted pumpkin. He usually used a can of pumpkin purée at home for simplicity, but with all the pumpkins growing in the Sonora garden he just couldn’t resist the idea of fresh pumpkin filling. Although the point of the Baking Club is to learn how to bake, due to time constraints he wanted to make the purée beforehand.Although he loved to bake at home, the thirteen year old never thought about joining a club, let alone becoming the host. He had signed up to be the host on a whim, never expecting he would actually get the position. As Atlas placed the other ingredients on the front table, he thought back to his first meeting as host. He felt so embarrassed and awkward while demonstrating at the front of the room, and hoped he would get more comfortable as time went on. Even though the first meeting and the few that followed went well, he felt quite incompetent as a host compared to Waverly. Atlas thought that she was a wonderful, welcoming hostess and wondered just how sorry he looked by comparison. Although his baking skills were pretty good, he wondered if he could ever really fill the shoes she had left.
As he finished writing the recipe on the board, the members began to file into the room. He stood at the front of the classroom, his hands fidgeting a little nervously as he pushed some of his auburn hair away from his face. Atlas thought he would be used to it after a few meetings, but based on the feeling in his gut this was going to be a weekly thing. It wasn’t like a sport where you could just ignore the spectators; when you taught people you have to pay attention to them as well, in case any questions arose.
“Hi everyone,” he said as loud and as friendly as he could once everyone was seated. “Good to see you all, and welcome to anyone joining us for the first time. So continuing with our fall theme we are going to be making Pumpkin Pasties. It’s a pretty simple recipe,” he said gesturing to the board behind him. “I took the liberty of prepping the pumpkin purée and the pie crust. The pie crust is the same recipe we used for the apple pie last week, and as for the purée…” he said, wondering if he should have just made the meeting longer to show how it was done, “If you want to learn how to make it I can show you after the main meeting is over.” Although personally Atlas wasn’t sure if anyone would want to learn how to make the pumpkin mush, he decided to offer just in case.
“So… on to the recipe,” he said feeling relieved he could get on to the fun part, now that the formalities were over.
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“And now that they are brushed with the yolk, and sprinkled with sugar, you just pop them into the oven for about 25 minutes,” he said as he set the timer. “You’ll want them to be golden brown in the end, so depending on the oven they may need to be in there longer,” he said turning to the rest of the group with a little smile. “So that’s about it. Everything you need as usual is by the front,” he said as he moved out of the way towards the beverage table. “You can call me over if you need any help,” he added, attempting to sound as friendly and cheery as Waverly.
OOC: Feel free to tag Atlas if you need any help. The recipe can be found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-pasties-41846
Subthreads: Practice makes pastry (tag Atlas) by Ji-Eun Park with Atlas Primred
Mmmm, pumpkin. by Lionel Layne
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Atlas Primred
Baking Club!
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Ji-Eun Park
September 24, 2014 8:04 AM
Practice makes pastry (tag Atlas) by Ji-Eun Park
Ji-Eun was very glad that the baking club was still going in spite of Waverly leaving. She felt bad that she hadn't volunteered to be host. She was sure her mother would have something to say about a younger student running a club that she could have volunteered to lead, and how that sort of thing would look when it came to selecting prefects and so on, but she really wasn't confident or knowledgeable enough to be in charge. All of her baking knowledge came from what Waverly had taught them, and she doubted everyone wanted to repeat those recipes ad infinitum, with slightly less helpful direction.Atlas seemed to know enough to run the club though he often seemed nervous when standing up in front of them. Ji-Eun tried to give him lots of encouraging smiles and positive feedback during the meetings as she wanted him to feel good about running the club.
She was a little disappointed by that week's task, although she was, as always, looking forward to eating the results. It just seemed more assembling than doing any of the hard bits herself. True, the pastry would just be the same as they'd done last time but she was sure she hadn't done that perfectly – it had been one of her first few attempts at making the tricky stuff, so she definitely needed the practice. Still, she took her ingredients with a smile, working carefully to follow the directions and assemble her pasties as neatly as possible. She had tried these for the first time at Sonora and liked the delicate, warm spice.
Whilst she worked, she tried to think of a way to give feedback to Atlas without appearing critical or hurting his self-esteem.
“I'm looking forward to eating these,” she smiled at him after putting her pasties in the oven. “I was wondering whether you had any pastry ingredients spare. I know I might not be able to finish making something with it this time but I know I didn't manage it perfectly when we made the apple pies, so I'd like to practise whilst I wait for my pasties to bake if that's ok.”
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Practice makes pastry (tag Atlas)
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Atlas Primred
September 28, 2014 6:44 AM
I could use a pastry right now. by Atlas Primred
The club members seemed to be getting along okay for the most part, and Atlas decided to use the time to think of what to make for the next meeting. Originally he had wanted to be the host so he could make more 'magical desserts' as his little sister called them. Unfortunately as a third year, he felt he just didn’t have the magical know-how yet. He would have to resort to regular recipes for the time being. Then again, seeing as the club was filled with all different skill-levels he figured it was probably for the best, he wasn’t sure he could instruct how to bake pastries and how to make them magical.Due to his pumpkin pasties finishing early, he was able to munch on a few as he scribbled different ideas for recipes on a piece of parchment. He had just taken a bite out of his tenth pumpkin pastie when Ji-Eun spoke. “I'm looking forward to eating these,” she smiled , as Atlas tried to swallow a rather large bite of pumpkin goodness. Ever since their play at the concert his first year, Atlas held a little soft spot for Ji-Eun. He had hoped to talk to her more in his second year, however due to her moving up to intermediates, Atlas gave up on the idea as he was far too shy to talk to her outside of class or the Baking club. Ji-Eun on the other hand seemed to have no trouble talking to him, as she often gave him good feedback during the meetings, not to mention a few very cute smiles.
“I was wondering whether you had any pastry ingredients spare. I know I might not be able to finish making something with it this time but I know I didn't manage it perfectly when we made the apple pies, so I'd like to practise whilst I wait for my pasties to bake if that's ok,” she asked.
"S-sure. No problem,” he said, his face reddening with every second. He quickly walked over to a nearby cupboard to retrieve the ingredients; feeling even more jumpy than when he was at the front of the classroom. "I'm really glad you like the recipe by the way," he said after a moment. "To tell you the truth, I was a little worried. I sometimes have trouble coming up with ideas for the club. I hope it doesn't show too much." Atlas said with a chuckle, rubbing his hand through his auburn hair as he did when he was nervous. As she replied, he continued to retrieve ingredients from the cupboard.
"Actually Ji-Eun," he said while placing the bag of flour on a nearby table, "is there anything in particular you would like to learn to make? Since you have been in the Baking club longer, I was just curious."
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Atlas Primred
I could use a pastry right now.
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Ji-Eun Park
September 29, 2014 4:02 AM
You seem to already have one by Ji-Eun Park
“Thanks,” she smiled, going a little red herself over the fact that she'd made Atlas go red, which she felt bad about. Perhaps she hadn't phrased her request carefully enough and had made him feel criticised. She'd clearly caused him embarrassment of some kind which she definitely hadn't wished to.“It doesn't show at all,” she said earnestly, when he mentioned sometimes struggling for ideas, “I've been really enjoying the fall theme. I haven't really thought about food like that before. Well, I mean, I suppose there are foods I associate with, or crave at different times of the year but it wouldn't have occurred to me to make it a theme. It's very clever.”
She began measuring out the ingredients for her pastry as he asked about things she'd particularly like to make.
“I'm not sure...” she mused, as she rubbed the fat into the flour. She was glad she'd remembered to trim her nails before baking club. The first time they'd tried this, she'd freshly manicured them, so they had been pristinely pretty but not short. It had been a thoroughly unpleasant sensation feeling all the butter and flour mix gunking up under her nails. However, without that, it was quite a pleasant, therapeutic sensation.
“Almost everything I've made here has been brand new to me. So, how can I know that I'd like to make something if I don't know yet that it exists?” she explained. “I'll have to keep my eye out during meal times. See if I spot anything that I suspect is baked and delicious,” she promised. She tended to keep to a fairly narrow diet in spite of Sonora's wonderful choices. She preferred to keep to rice and stews, augmenting them heavily with the chilli sauce and kimchi that she carried around in her bag to make them taste like home. The only deviation from this was the occasional weekend pastry for breakfast. “Are croissants hard to make?” he queried, as her mind wandered through the breakfast foods she enjoyed.
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Ji-Eun Park
You seem to already have one
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Lionel Layne
October 03, 2014 12:07 PM
Mmmm, pumpkin. by Lionel Layne
When he had started school, Lionel had gotten advice from most of his relatives. His uncle Geoffrey’s advice had been to learn to cook as soon as possible. ”Never know when it’ll come in useful,” he’d said.Baking Club was not quite a cooking class, but Lionel thought it was as close as he was going to get at school. Bread was, after all, one of the very basics of human existence, followed closely by cake and pie; all three made other foods better, and he’d figure out a little about how said other foods worked making the pie fillings if they ever did pies. He did not know that there would be pie, but it seemed likely enough, sooner or later, and even if there wasn’t, there were sure to be delicious cookies. Not that he couldn’t usually get cookies from the dining hall, but, well, it would be good to be able to make his own. Accomplishments of any kind mattered a lot in his family, though he did think Uncle Geoff would be more supportive of delicious cookies than Granddad, overall. Cooking was apparently one of his uncle’s hobbies, along with hitting Bludgers at his acquaintances on the weekends: a way to wind down from the stress of playing with things which could explode and kill him at any moment all week. Granddad did not cook and occasionally muttered about the fact that Uncle Geoff did, though Lionel wasn’t sure if that was because cooking was supposed to be women’s work or because Granddad thought it was too ordinary.
At the moment, though, Lionel thought nearly anything he did would just be regarded as an accomplishment. Granddad was so pleased with Alicia that he’d expanded his approval to all his other grandchildren. As long as they didn’t stop doing homework or declare themselves content with their place in the world, he didn’t think the rest of them could really annoy Granddad at the moment – not, admittedly, something Isaac had to worry about anyway, but as Lionel lived with him and Grandmother, it was something he considered. At the moment, though, he was free to do pretty much whatever he wanted, and when he’d heard the baking club was starting up again, he had decided on a whim that he wanted to try that. So he had.
He thought, listening to the day’s recipe, that he might stick around to learn how to make pumpkin puree at the end – he thought that could go into a soup, too – but for now, there was going to be pumpkin pie. A little different from the pumpkin rolls, a pumpkin-based bread heavily coated with cream cheese and then rolled up with the cream cheese on the inside, that they had at home, but the spices, the nutmeg and cinnamon and ginger, were about the same, and he doubted there was a rule saying he couldn’t smear cream cheese on it if he wanted to later.
“This time of year always has the best food, doesn’t it?” he said to another student. “Unless Christmas does instead,” he added on second thought. The same spices showed up a lot at Christmas, just a little…sharper, maybe? He thought of fall food as a little mellower than Christmas food, somehow. Apples, in his mind, featured more prominently in the winter celebration than in the fall. There was more fruit in December than in October; October brought to mind root vegetables as well as more muted spices than those which Grandmother and Aunt Emily put out for them in late December and early January every year.
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Lionel Layne
Mmmm, pumpkin.
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