This is certainly an excellent undertaking. My granddaughter has been cooking with me since she was 4, and the focus of every full day she and I have together is baking. She has a knack for picking a great recipe from the picture alone: her usual sources are one of the Fine Cooking Cookies compilations, or cruising the KAF site. But the day that sticks most in my mind is the day two years ago that she wanted to try bread. We used the proportions from Ruhlman's book, "Ratio", deciding to use 1000 g of flour then went from there. Basic, yes, but it worked out well. The most interesting moment was when she was weighing out the flour: by coincidence, she managed to get 1001 g into the bowl. That was good enough for me, but not right for her. "No, grampa, you want 1000 g so we have to do it again." I was able to dissuade her from emptying it all, so she scooped out about a cupful, then began re-adding most. Only after about 5 minutes of scoop-out-replace did she get exactly the 1000 g for which she sought. Later, when she presented two loaves to her mother, (both) beaming like Nobel laureates, I overheard her tell her mom, "These would have been too tough but I made sure there wasn't too much flour." This is what makes days like these worth while. What a great story. Baking builds patience, too! Thanks for sharing with us. -Allison

• Reply