Life takes us to mysterious turns and twists. It makes us run into a heterogeneous mixture of souls and a diverse number of situations which all, in return, unleashes a powerful emotional motion inside us. And as physically known, when something is set in motion, it can’t help but create momentum. The flow of this momentum differs from one to another because everyone in this universe is unique in his or her own way. Baking has the same characteristic for the same recipe will never taste the same if it was made by two different people! Life turns some of us from little princess with plastic colorful kitchens to grown-up women with hearts full of secrets and real kitchen equipment.Every one of us has a different reason for perusing their passion, or in our case obsession, in baking. Some of us have a history full of passion and sweet memories with it. Some love the fragrant aroma of freshly baked bread. Some love to know the heritage of a country though it’s museums and restaurants, and if they were to choose between the two they would definitely go for the last one. Others have been through some rough times that brought out the baker in them. They picture measuring ingredients as if it was quantifying their feelings towards someone or something, mixing them to dissolve in each other as if they were making these feeling fade into one another, baking them into a delectable product as if they were taking away the best of this experience, and leaving the bitter part to be washed away! Some are well inspired from the long hours they spend watching famous bakers on food channels, the delicious food made by mothers and grandmothers and even the passion of friends towards this. Some started a self discovery with applying a single recipe and ended up swept of their feet with baking.
If you have noticed, we used the word baking not cooking -- although who knows, our obsession might extend to cooking as well ;). Baking is a special form of cooking. It’s done by exerting the food to dry heat inside the oven. This technique is mainly used for cakes, breads, pies, and other patisseries. What baking does to the ingredients is simple yet sophisticated. It gives it that golden look that results from tanning under the oven’s sun, and keeps what’s within that formed crust moist. Eventually, this moisture evaporates. While we have to cool whatever we baked, we have to cover some things directly after they cool. Leaving things such as cakes uncovered for a long time may cause them to dry, but it’s perfect for others such as cookies.
When we first thought about starting this blog, one of us had the movie “Julie & Julia” recommended to be watched by friends and the other had coincidentally watched it too. We kept chatting on how the movie has added a new motive for starting this blog. Throughout this blog, what you‘ll be reading isn’t just plain ingredients and instructions. Each one has a personal experience to it. We will share with you the funny stories behind applying some, the hassle and struggle to reach a perfect outcome in some, and the secret ingredient of some. Taking about the secret ingredient; the most powerful and the one that should always be used in all recipes is without a doubt: LOVE. For “as within so without”, so does what you feel inside reflect on your food. Even if you’re baking because you feel mad or sad, bake with love. Let the power of love in your baking heal you.
We’ll try to present different types of recipes with different origins and brief you on the history and of some. You will also witness our learning path in traditional Qatari and Arabic sweets as we share with you what we have learned, and what has worked of course. We’ll also tell you where you can find some the strange ingredients and special tools in Doha and perhaps online.
Hope you have a tasty reading here and apply some of the recipes that we share. Don’t ever hesitate in sharing any of your experiences with us or the different ways you have for the same dish. And, though, we’re only armatures that get lucky and bake with tremendous love, please feel free to ask us about anything that you struggle with in our recipes. We’ll try to help you troubleshoot the problem.
Bone Apatite,
The Editors
