Peanut Brittle Biscuits and the 7 Stages of Bake-Dysphoria

We're all guilty of doing it. Scrolling through blogs and wondering why your day-to-day life does not match the meticulously selected view of some bloggers' snazzy lives. Now, with the advent of Pinterest, you don't even need to READ anything; it's all just photoshop-fresh in front of you.

Like here:

 

Karen Carrasco on DailyCupofYoga

these pop up as well, reminding me of my questionable organisational skills (read: none):

 

Someone's flaunting it! From Design Your Revolution

and of course, this:

Lorraine Elliott's Macaron Ice-Cream sandwiches on Not Quite Nigella.

Damn it, internet. You make comparisons so easy. Hnnng.

Seeing things on my screen and then, in my case, on my plate usually triggers what I'd like to call the Seven Stages of Internet Imagery Dysphoria (Baking Edition!)

 

It's kinda a 'thing'. It lurks within average bakers. Hey, that's me!

1. Shock and Denial
"It's not even real. They've painted the shiney light reflections on it. Definitely."




2. Delusions of Grandeur
You buy the magazine, bookmark the page. High hopes in tow. "Pamela Clark did it. *dreams* *hopes* I. AM. THOR CAPABLE!"




3. Impatience
"SO. HUNGRY." Here, you start to wish you had just bloody bought a cake, instead of buying a recipe for a cake. This is especially so for recipes with PICTURES!




4.More Grandeur
Refer to 2. High hopes in tow, indeed.




5. Anger and Bargaining (When you can't quite recreate the Croquembouche like Matt and his cravat)
"*expletives* *angry butter cutting* *dramatic placement of saucepan*" or
"Pleeeeeeease. Will sell kidney for success"




6. Reflection and Loneliness
Will arise when looking at your, um, 'creation' baking. "Probably should've added that bi-card, hey?"

  


7. The Upward Turn; the Acceptance
"At least it tastes delicious!" Admit it, anything with THAT much sugar and butter cannot taste unpleasant. Eat it all. You can do it, Brucey.





Alternatively, your product does justice to the recipe. Disregard the steps above and replace with one-step: Happiness and Devouring the Entire Thing. ;)




Comparisons are a dangerous play-thing. If your baking is questionable, at least you're not this girl...

Have you experienced a similar delusion process?

I've been through the process before. Matter-of-fact, I did it this week when I made Peanut Brittle Biscuits ... three times.

First attempt: Overly cautious with the peanut toffee. I let the sugar-water boil until it turned to a not-even-golden hue. I just didn't want burnt toffee. It didn't affect the taste, but meant my biscuits weren't flecked with gold.

See? Flecked with white sugar clumps instead.

Still rolled well though. These are Joel's hands, by the way.

Second attempt: PERFECT toffee! I used crushed peanuts because they're cheaper, and it eliminates the need to crush them in a food processor yourself!

Ran out of bi-carb soda though. I metaphorically threw my hands in the air and said 'stuff it'. Turns out you can't just 'stuff it' to a leavening agent like bi-carb. Your biscuits will be sticky when dough, and rocks when cooked. Sigh.

Couldn't quite get it to spread evenly though! It set too fast. Any ideas?

Stay gold, pony boy.

DON'T OMIT YOUR BI CARB! It attaches itself to the air pockets created through sifting, whipping and folding. In the oven, the leavener allows these air pockets to rise and create a softer product. So, don't omit it. Rocks ain't fun, ya know!

Third attempt: Gone within a day. Praise me. ;)

So, as you can tell, I went through the stages this week. BUT because I am bored, have too much time, hungry, overly critical perservered, it all turned out in the end.

Tell me, do you have perfectionist tendencies too?

Until next week,
Grace