ABOUT THE BLOG
Our first challenge is to bake through the entirety of Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel. We will be baking in the same order of the book and posting at least one recipe at the end of each week. This book was chosen as our first challenge because it covers a good variety of technique, difficulty and baked goods.
We will not be posting full recipes from the book.
This blog is to share our experiences about the recipes as well as our journey through the book and through each recipe individually. Ingredients may be mentioned or listed but full recipes will not be posted. Anything straight out of the book will be noted.
We would love to hear from you! Anything from a quick, "hello!" to constructive criticism, we're all ears.
For extra posts or tidbits, please follow our Instagram - @jkbakethrough
WHO ARE J&K?
Jenn
Hello!
I'm Jenn. I'm a full time dork and an amateur baker. I've been baking for as long as I can remember - my mother and both of my grandmothers were home bakers growing up, so I was definitely influenced by these talented women. My first bake was likely either chocolate chip cookies or Rice Krispie squares, both of which are still all time favourites of mine - there's really nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven. Growing up I also had an EZ Bake oven that I put to good use on a regular basis - lots of mini cakes cooked by that 100w incadescent bulb. Unlike Kristen, I have no formal education in culinary arts, just lots and lots of practice, the occasional plenty of failures and every once in a while I have some success!
Learning new things is one of my favourite things ever, and baking provides no end of lessons. Two years ago, I received a book for Christmas that would change my trajectory even more towards baking. Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is a book that re-lit my passion for baking in a whole new way, introducing me to the world of bread. I now bake all kinds of bread on a weekly basis.
I struggle a lot with confidence when trying a new recipe or formula, particularly if it appears to be fiddly or fancy (looking at you, croissants). I've baked a number of different things over the years, but the fancier things I usually prefer to have help or instruction with the first time through.
My goal here is to learn a lot, have fun, and make some delicious food along the way to share!
I'm excited to work with Kristen on this project! She's super passionate and is brilliant with all things food and has a great eye for presentation & detail I look forward to learning from.
Kristen
Hi! My name is Kristen and I'm an amateur baker and full-time food lover. My food journey started in 2014 when for some unknown reason I decided to bake a lemon meringue cake. Whatever I produced was not anything near lemon, meringue or even cake but my monstrosity fuelled this fire I didn't know I had. I dove right in. Almost a year later, I graduated from culinary school with a diploma in Baking and Pastry Arts!
My passions are feeding people and learning new things. Seeing a happy face from someone eating something I created - you know, the specific happy face that people only have when they're eating something delicious, especially the first bite - brings me so much joy. The feeling I get when I learn something new and put it towards creating something delicious just makes me want to keep on learning. This is what keeps the fire burning.
My struggles are my desire for perfectionism and I've been told I'm too hard on myself. I was fortunate enough to go to school to learn from some extremely talented teachers but I do still struggle with self-confidence in the kitchen. Well, self-confidence and not over-baking.
(Thanks, person who shall not be named, for ingraining into my head that anything undercooked, including a cookie, would kill me 🤦♀️ 😂)
My hope for this project is to continue fuelling my passion, expand my palate and knowledge, and push myself out of my comfort zone. It's just an added bonus that I get to do this with Jenn - an incredible human being who I have so much respect for because she is entirely self-taught and humbly bakes circles around me. I'm very lucky to be doing this with her, learn from her and to be able to call her a friend.