Sunday 10 November 2013

Baking for Theologians

'Reading Week' has just come to an end.

I've never actually had a reading week before, despite my rep as an eternal student.  To read or not to read?

I read.

Let me adjust your expectations of this blog post.  I'm not going to say anything theologically insightful.  I've had six weeks of theological boot camp, hardcore, abstract, mind-blowing stuff, no easy start building up in baby steps, but full-on Master's level philosophizing.  I'm exhausted!

So I have done what I often do when I need to escape the hamster-wheel of talking and listening, reading and writing.

I baked.

Because in baking, it's one egg or three.  Not three and yet one.

Whether you're an empiricist-fundamentalist or a post-modern relativist, 500g of flour means just that.  Easy.  Go on, contextualize the masculine literalness of number, I dare you.

Mistakes are made in baking, like getting your new Swiss roll tin lined, greased and filled with batter, only to find it doesn't fit in your oven.  Oops.  So you bake it in five minute intervals, open the oven and turn it at a different slant each time.  Worst case scenario - not inadvertent heresy - just a misshapen roulade.  I can live with that.

It's been a productive reading week.  I made spiced pumpkin soup, a lemon tart with a fun blackberry jelly layer on top, and a (misshapen) chocolate and pistachio cream roulade.

Man, it felt good to dissolve that gelatin sheet into the blackberry syrup.  I was following bullet point instructions.  Bliss.

Photographed from this jaunty angle, you'd hardly know it was baked at a 30 degree slant!

Lemon tart with a blackcurrant jam layer


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