by Rachel Stewart, C’16
I’ve always loved baking. Probably because, come holiday season, my mother turns into an obsessive cookie-making machine. Every year our house fills up with dozens of cookies (lemon ricotta being my favorite, apricot rugelach my least), and, as an only child, I grew up helping my mom measure, mix, and drop cookies from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve.
It’s much more difficult to find the same homemade goodness at college. Oreos from FroGro satisfy some late night cravings, and the occasional pastry from Metro or a donut from Federal Donuts is great, but none of these purchased goods have the same soul-satisfying deliciousness that I feel when I bite into a homemade chocolate chunk cookie.
During my freshman year I suffered from a serious lack of deliciousness in my life. I subsisted on a diet largely of toast with peanut butter and cereal. But now, I’m lucky enough to have a kitchen in Harnwell, and a group of friends who love to bake (and eat, of course). Lately, we’ve been spending these wintry days holed up with flour and butter, improvising when we need to and substituting expensive ingredients for ones we have lying around the apartment (who has $8 for a small tub of mascarpone cheese?) My favorite creation so far: a chocolate marshmallow peanut butter banana Biscoff pizza, inspired by Max Brenner’s chocolate pizza (but way tastier, in my opinion).
Look back for more baking adventures this semester!
Frankly Penn 