Baking Blind

Happy Thursday, and welcome to our blog. S. J. Wells here with you today. A couple of weeks ago, Anita led the discussion on flipping foods. Today, I’m going to talk about baking. Yep, you heard that right’ people who are blind and visually impaired can and do bake. Bread, cakes, cookies and whatever else we can come up with. Come along with me, and let’s see what’s cooking in the oven today. :)

In high school I took home economics. My teacher taught me to boil macaroni, mix up a meatloaf, oven fry chicken, how to put on a pot of beef stew and how to mix up a pan of cornbread. But, my favorite was learning how to bake and ice a cake. My first one was orange flavored with orange flavored icing. Just a simple box of cake mix and a few ingredients later, I was dusted with powdered sugar, yet ready to take my creation to a local Bible study I was part of. My second cake was white with white icing, and I baked it as part of my final test in that class.

In 2003 I became friends with a woman who made homemade bread. She offered a class on it at our church, and I went to it. She let me feel her dough at each stage, and at the end, we got to eat our creations. Excited to try this new skill, I cleared off my kitchen table one summer day, put my toddler in a walker and began pouring out ingredients. Warm water, dry yeast, sugar and salt. I stirred then measured in the flour. I plunged my clean hands into this mess and started to knead. A few minutes of hard work went by, and I thought I had made a big mistake. Yet, I was already a mess, the toddler was joyfully emptying my towel drawer, so I either had to keep going or give up and quit. I kept going, and several minutes later that mess came together into a stretchy, silky-smooth lump. I placed it in an oiled bowl, oiled the top, covered it and set it aside to rise. An hour later, I punched it down, separated it into 3 loaves and placed it on a baking sheet. I preheated my oven to 350, spritzed my loaves with water and put them in the oven. Seriously, about 20 some minutes later, I pulled out brown loaves of bread that were almost perfect. So thankful I didn’t give up.

Fast forward several years to 2011. My grandmother passed away that February, and finding it helped if I was busy, I determined to learn to bake cookies. I had a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old and a husband who loves chocolate, so I had plenty of taste testers. I copied down a few simple recipes and went to work. I also began setting aside box cake mixes and trying from scratch. To my surprise, some people even began paying me for cookies.

Now, it’s 2017, and I find myself wondering what types of advice would I give to a person who is blind who wants to venture into baking. At the moment, I’m contemplating baking a batch of cookies to take to my in-law’s this weekend. My first approach, just as it would be if I could see is to find a recipe, preferably something we all like. Several of my recipes are saved on my Mac book’s hard drive, but if I want something new, I search the internet. When the recipe I want is sitting before me, I read over it to see if I have all the ingredients. Next, I get out what I will need and follow the directions on that recipe. A few minutes later, I’ll have dessert. But, what if it isn’t that simple?

Here are some tips

Cookies

1. Keep your hands clean and use them more than spoons for mixing, especially when the batter or dough is too stiff to stir.
2. When using a hand mixer, keep fingers out of the bowl and trust your sense of hearing. Also, think of how the mixer feels in your hand. You can tell after much practice  if your batter is mixed well, depending on how the beaters sound and how the mixer feels.
3. Sometimes, it is best to crack eggs into a separate bowl before adding to your batter. This way you can check to make sure egg shells do not get into your cookie dough. I have also cracked them into a glass and used a fork to beat them. A glass or cup has taller sides, and it is less likely for your eggs to splash out as you beat them.
4. Keep track where your plugged in mixer is at all times. Unplug it from the outlet and put the beaters in the sink as soon as you are finished with it.
5. Keep a sink of soapy, hot water so  you can wash as you go.
6. You can either use a measuring spoon or your hands to place cookies on the cookie sheets. A spoon helps you learn what size you need, but when I use my hands to roll them into balls, they turn out prettier. If you roll them with your hands, press your fingers down onto them very lightly after you place them on the pan so they don’t roll off.
7. Always use oven mitts, and bake a test cookie before placing an entire pan of cookies into the oven. Recipes are general, and you might have a different oven than the recipe maker. Different altitudes have an effect on bake times and temperatures, too, so test one cookie before proceeding with the entire batch. Also, if your baking time is different then the recipe, be sure and write it down, so you will know next time.

Bread

1. If you don’t have a talking food thermometer, test the temperature of your water with your fingers. If it feels too hot to touch, then it will kill your yeast. Yeast is a living organism, and extreme heat as well as extreme cold can kill it. Also, keep yeast out of your deep freezer and your mouth. When your water feels like warm bath water, go for it.
2. Add your yeast to the water and tilt your bowl slightly to swirl the water. Your nose will tell you if your yeast is coming to life. If you are using quick yeast, you can skip this step. That quick stuff is mighty quick. LOL
3. Follow your recipe, here, too. I mix flour in a cup at a time. Usually, when my spoon has difficulty stirring, I lay it aside and plunge my clean hands in there. I do a lot of mixing by hand way before it ever makes it to a floured board for kneading.
4. Spread a little flour on your board, place your lump of dough on to it, and get your hands in there. Push down, spread out, gather together, turn it over, press down and… Keep on working. It will start coming together, if you have followed the directions. Sometimes, you will need to add a little more flour if it is too wet or a little more water if it is too dry. You will know by the way it feels, what it needs. Too wet, it will stick to you and the board. Too dry, it will come apart. Keep working until sweat gathers on your brow and you think you can’t do it anymore. LOL
5. When it holds together and feels silky-smooth, you’re probably ready to put it in the oiled bowl to let rise. After rising, follow your directions. Make sure your oven is preheated, use oven mitts and bake it. Done bread will have that hollow sound when tapped, that you have always heard about.

A note on measuring spoons and measuring cups. I use normal ones bought at Walmart. I keep them together on the little ring, and that way I know which one is which. However, you can buy ones marked in braille from www.blindmicemart.com. Anita has a set of these, and I like them. I've just never had the money to buy them.

I could talk about a lot more than bread and cookies, but these are the basics. Whether you use a prepared mix or start from scratch, take your time, trust your nose and your sense of touch and your sense of taste. If it doesn’t work out the first, second, third or fourth time, keep trying. If you don’t know whether you can trust yourself or not, keep working, write down what you experience and learn from it. The key to baking and everything else in life is don’t give up.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s talk on baking. Questions? Drop us a comment below. We would love to hear from you. Also, we’re on Facebook, so come on over to facebook.com/adkinsandwells/ and like our page for updates and encouragement.

Blessings.