Musings on cooking

Last night, I made apple dumplings for the first time.

I'm not totally thrilled how they came out - the crust was too...pie-crusty. Mostly because I used slightly modified pie crust. I'm not sure what's supposed to be different, but these didn't seem right.

Anyway, though, they were an astounding amount of work.

Which got me to thinking about the formality of desserts and the corresponding effort.

My mother's apple cake, for example, is relatively straightforward. If you choose a cake that doesn't require peeling and slicing fruit, it's even easier.

And yet a cake seems so much more formal and elaborate than the humble cookie...which actually take as much or more effort to produce. My pumpkin cookies, for example, take far more time to make than an unfrosted cake. Or even a frosted one. Each cookie has to be spooned out and flattened, and you have to be whipping things in and out of the oven instead of just sticking something in and leaving it. And then each cookie needs to be frosted.

Or apple dumplings, which seem so quaint and simple. And are a royal pain in the ass to make.