Baking Day(s)

You would think that baking in the 19th century is much harder than in the modern age.  It's actually not that difficult, except for making bread.

Have you ever watched an experienced baker kneading bread?  It looks so easy!  I should know by now that anything that looks easy actually isn’t.  I don’t know if it’s because I have never done it before, or because I am short, but I found kneading little difficult. Also, I had no idea you had to knead dough for so long.  I’m just glad it came out well.  My dad had made bread a couple days before that we had to throw out because it was undercooked and the yeast was still  active.

Besides bread, we have made two pies, cornbread, cookies, a plum tart, butter, and baked beans.  My dad made the pies; one apple pie, and one custard pie.  The custard pie was okay but it had absolutely no flavor!!

We (mainly me brother) have made butter successfully at least three times!  I think Brennan doesn’t want mom and dad to buy butter anymore.  The cream takes awhile to thicken, (we don’t have a churn so we shake cream in a jar) but it tastes good!

After "churning" the butter, you have to wash it.  (As if we're not washing enough around here; we even have to wash the butter!)  This gets rid of all of the buttermilk, which can spoil faster than the solid butter.

Just before we started this project, I learned that chocolate wasn’t a common item in the 19^th century.  Only rich folks had chocolate, and they only made it into hot cocoa. I LOVE chocolate; anything with chocolate in it is my absolute favorite dessert (chocolate cake, pie, ice cream, etc.)

So, a few days ago, my mom let me make chocolate chip cookies.  They were too big, and a little burnt, but delicious.

Thank you for reading our blog!  

Hailey