Week Two: a learning Moment

This week I was cooking again, and I finished my Michelin star dessert, Pimms jelly with cumber sorbet and macerated strawberries and cucumber. It was an enjoyable experience! It challenged some of my abilities like multitasking, reading directions, and just overall learning. This week I decided that instead of baking something, I wanted to try something new, like working with Jelly. Which I usually don't make (other than jello with Aunty).

I also got to experiment with some new flavors. I tried out a new drink that they used in the dessert, Pimm's, as being underaged I have never heard of it and thought that alcohol tastes disgusting. So, I looked up a new non-alcoholic alternative. It was delicious. I used balsamic vinegar, ginger beer, lemonade, etc. I also had to develop my own non-alcoholic gin recipe, in which I used some of these dried berries, called juniper berries. They taste like pine trees and are used when fermenting gin; I infused them in the water, like a tea.

My goal this week was to finish my Michelin-star dessert, and I finished it! However, I have to do a couple of batches in my donut molds because I only had one pan with six in it. Hence, I had to keep doing it until the jelly Runs Out. So we had a lot, so we were fortunate enough to be able to share our extras with our neighbors.

An obstacle faced this week was trusting the recipe, even though this week I was improvising a lot with my gin and Pimms. However, it said to put a lot of sugar in it and I thought that was a little sketchy.

However, I made it with the appointed sugar, and after I finished the syrup. It was way too sweet, I knew it! However, I got something to do the trick.

We had to make two batches of ice cream anyway so the first one we put lemon juice and zest in it, but it was still a little too sweet for us, so the second batch, I learn from my mistake, and I made the syrup to my liking and put a ton more acid (lemon juice) so that the sweetness would balance out.

This week, since we had to get a new ice cream bowl ( the last one we just found on top of the freezer, it was cracked and the chemicals spilled out) My mom while she was shopping, found this really nice slightly used espresso machine. She's been looking for a while, so we got it, and I got to experiment with that too. I am really excited because, at our church, I volunteer at the cafe, and when I come of age, I could be a barista, so if I get good at it, hopefully,y they will let me pass at (I think it was 16?) fingers crossed.