Growing up I loved eating sweets like donuts and almost anything that contained chocolate as part of the ingredients. My favorite donut was the powdered kind and I could eat those and be happy, but that is also probably why I was kind of a chubby kid (lol). I am not sure exactly when it happened, but my mother and I began to make homemade donuts. We never made the powdered kind, but we made the cinnamon sugar donut balls and eating them right after was the best! The warm dough and freshly applied cinnamon sugar sprinkled all over them was addicting and that became my favorite kind of sweet to eat. The step was pretty simple and that is probably why I can’t remember every step, but it only took less than thirty minutes to make them and less than a minute to devour them.
Every now and again I think about going back and doing this, but my mind gets distracted on other things and I completely forget until the next time. We also made homemade bread, which taste so different than eating the loafs you purchase from the store; at least in my opinion. We never experienced into making our own chocolates, but the homemade bread and banana pudding were awesome. My mother also used to make her own pies, such as cherry pie, apple pies, cherry apple pie and delicious cakes. When she used to make the pies to sell, everyone would be asking for her cherry and cherry apple pies; and sometimes she would be in the kitchen for hours fulfilling orders. At the same time my mother would be trying fulfill customized orders of people wanting dresses and pants sown for them. As you can see my mother was pretty busy when she was younger and used to own her own business.
I don’t know when we stopped making homemade donuts, but I am thinking of beginning that tradition once again. Although my mother doesn’t bake much anymore, I am happy that my wife does and makes an awesome apple crumb cake. When my wife makes apple crumb cake, she doesn’t use the store bought apples, or for some we call ‘lunch food apples’, but uses the freshly picked ones we get from the orchard. Using the honey crisp apples are the best ones! The sweet honey taste is just the perfect mix with the crumbs and cinnamon sugar ingredients. My mother loves to bake and so does my wife so I went from one woman to another that loves and knows what to do with an oven, and how to make me happy. I love homemade goods and sweets, but I do want to know how to make homemade chocolate and caramel. Food and sweets made from scratch are the best, and when my mother made bread pudding it was heaven. I’m not surprised I was a heavy and solid kid, going into my teens, but I was a happy kid.
How many parents or homes make homemade food and desserts now? With everything premade for you at grocery stores, and not to mention all these horrible flavors we see now, are you really making food from scratch? I understand that some of the premade items are there for those that can’t or don’t have the time to do it, but at least experience the pleasure in creating your own food once. However, with chemicals and preservatives being in everything we eat, going old school and making your own food is probably the best way to go, but of course the cost and time needs to be considered. Just know that homemade bake goods are the best way to go!
Henry Scott
FRANKLIN'S FIREPLACE 