Dublin Cookery School

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

COOKIE and PASTRY FAILS - not safe for human consumption.

It has indeed been a pleasure to share my food fails of the last year with you all. Although this particular tale begins with a food fail, it thankfully ends in a food win, with a little help from my friends. Well, with the help of The Dublin Cookery School, that is.

Before Christmas, I attempted to make some cookies, as a little treat for friends and c0-workers. Alas, as you can see from the above photo, this was not to be. It was on the presentation of this squalid tray of molten cookie mixture that Niall had the perfect idea for a Christmas present – a one day Baking Course at The Dublin Cookery School with Lynda Booth. Thanks to The Daily Spud for the recommendation!

Off I trotted last Saturday, filled with the trepidation that anyone who’s ever failed at baking knows all too well. There was no need to fear. My baking demons were to be well and truly conquered.

Now. This could turn out to be much like a trip to the hairdressers. You know the way you can never get your hair to bounce like it did as you left the salon? Perhaps my cakes won’t have quite the same bounce when I attempt to make them without the watchful eye of Lynda and her two helpers.

Throughout the course of the day, myself and the 25 or so other baking students worked through a series of recipes, some of which we ate at Little Break, some of which we munched at lunch, and the rest we got to take home and stuff our faces in private. Oh, yeahhhh.

The whole process worked with Lynda making everything before we did in her presentation kitchen, giving us tips and answering our baking fear-related questions. Then we were led with our recipe booklet in hand to work in pairs in the beautiful naturally lit hands-on kitchen space, where Lynda’s assistants had already weighed out all of the ingredients, for us to just put together. Wish I had someone to do that for me every day, let me tell you. They baby-sat our baking goods while they cooked, making sure that they all turned out perfectly, with not a Bake Fail in sight.

Here are a few pics of what we made throughout the day. I would thoroughly recommend a course at The Dublin Cookery School, for yourself or as a present for the foodie in your life. A fantastic way to spend a day, and it has left me with a quiet confidence that, one day soon, I will bake. Oh yes, I will bake!

We started off with Brown Bread, which we sat down to eat with delicious jam for our Elevenses.

I moved on to the pastry dough for our Crab & Gruyere Tart, which we had for lunch, with a glass of lovely white wine. Meanwhile, my partner Denis moved on to the Almond Macaroon Cake.