Yield

I have been on a baking binge recently, it started with an obsession about red velvet cupcakes, went onto fruit cobblers, and now, madeleines. Hmm. Yum.

My mother is not a baker, in fact, she despises recipes. "Just add something to it" is her motto. My childhood was full of very stiff 'pancakes', or pizzas with cabbage and pork stirfry on top of tomato sauce and cheese. A good and disciplined mother she has always been, a gourmet chef is not my mother. However, I have always found baking to be quite interesting. How does baking soda make things puff up? And what exactly is the difference between baking powder and baking soda? As a high schooler, I often made various goodies for the concession stands as a thespian, and man, those things must have been DISGUSTING. I have to confess, I did all kinds of no-nos, like I froze butter, and then melted it in the microwave and added that to the sugar as the starting point of making chocolate chip cookies...

These days, I try to follow my America's Test Kitchen recipes as if they are organic chemistry lab assignments: my calculation of the yield at the end better come out to 99%. My gear for this has also gotten much more precise: when the recipe says an 8 inch diameter cake pan, it really means an 8 inch diameter cake pan. I am also much more paranoid about over activating the gluten (the horror!) and over creaming the sugar and butter (gasp!)

Does it make sense to do all that though? With two little kids underfoot, I imagine my time can be better spent elsewhere, I can make a list, and you will get tired of reading that list. However, I find it so incredibly soothing to MAKE something, and within a measurable amount of time, voila, we can eat it. With these kids, I do something with them, and I have no idea what the yield will be, and absolutely no idea if I will be alive to see the yield at all!

Meanwhile, Hubby got me exactly what I wanted for Valentine's Day: two madeleine pans. Dude, these things are expensive. Does it make sense, aside from the time, to invest money in this? How many madeleins will I be making to just break even? With tax- which by the way, will be going up to 9.50% in my county by April- my two pans came out to about $34. You can buy 26 Donsuemor (the brand carried in most coffee shops) madeleines for $15. I suppose after 3 batches (each batch will make 24), I will start to reap the rewards. Or maybe I should go into the business of selling madeleines. Yes, mine are THAT good. (Although, I did forget to mix in the butter in my last batch, and man, it was just saw dust.)


Or maybe I should sell cupcakes. Most cupcake places sell one cupcake for $3.50. For a recipe of red velvet cupcakes, I can make 24 cupcakes. The cost of the materials probably come out to about $15, the most expensive items being the cream cheese and the red food coloring. (I need to find a place to buy red food coloring in bulk- any ideas?) It is just outrageous that my batch of red velvet cupcakes can be worth almost $90. I know, I know, those people have to pay rent, buy health insurance, save money for a rainy day, and all that, I understand why they have to charge what they have to charge, I just can't bring myself to do this regularly. And believe me, red velvet cupcakes need to be consumed regularly. (Besides, when I make it, I always make extra frosting, and then I save it for breakfast. The kids will eat strawberry cream cheese, "Do you want the special PINK cream cheese?" And I get the "boring, white cream cheese.") I realize that I have talked about my disdain for dairy products, but cream cheese frosting is really a confection, not a dairy product.

Actually, when I was a resident, I had made all the staff some cookies, and I was told that I should make gift baskets of baked goods for money. I should. Just as soon as I raise these kids, finish the career that I am in so much debt for, and I can go make some baked goods for money.