Musings on cooking

[jethrien]

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.

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I think your original point was lost on a lot of people, am I'm not entirely sure why. It's a simple concept of time-intensiveness.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought. But apparently I didn't express it very clearly.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't believe this topic generated so much response. (So I'll add to it.) I got the drift of what you meant immediately, having the rare insight born of spending more hours with you than anyone on earth (so far). (This is trumped, however, by the Amazing Psychic Link.)

But I think for ridiculous ease of preparation with deceptive impressiveness ratio, I'd do my chocolate mousse recipe or the one-bowl brownie recipe I found on the box of the unsweetened chocolate squares. Both are available upon request.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ooh, chocolate mousse...