Baking is science, baking is magic, and baking is spiritual.

Those are completely different things you shout (even if they’re written in a parallel structure!)! Science is based on observation-grounded information, tested, reproduced, and believable enough to be truth! Magic and spirituality aren’t observable or measurable, something for children! You wouldn’t see the esteemed Marie Salomea Skłodowska-Curie sharing a biscuit and cup of tea with people like Penn and Teller would you?!

Well, no…but that doesn’t change the fact that a perfect chocolate chip cookie begins its humble existence as many separate chemical components and ends as a sweet burst of joy in your mouth.

Let’s take a gentle step on our journey by looking at ourselves, humanity.

The majority of humanity has a favorite baked item, preferably a dessert, but we’re not being picky today; humans like food. That’s a good place to start. Humans discovered how to harness fire and coax it to do their bidding. Humans also like food; we use food as a comfort item, to replace words, to replace feelings, to show affection. Baking is perfected for such purposes.

There have been many times that my husband has come home from work to find the music shaking the windows, the cat staring confused from the bookcase, and his wife covered in flour. The excuse is always, I had a feeling, an urge, it came upon me like a wave of serotonin. That little voice said, You know, no one in this family but Grammie likes lemon…a couple ramekins of lemon mousse wouldn’t go amiss at Sunday dinner. Or, you know, so-and-so has been having a bad time lately, why not perk them up with some pumpkin doughnuts or apple fritter bread? He, in all his wisdom and growing sweet-toothed glory, will nod sagely and walk away with a stolen treat in hand.

The face of the recipient of a baked good is a blessing and applause on its own. Remember that feeling in your chest as a child when they brought out your favorite birthday cake? (Did your mom make it? Did the nice ladies at the grocery make it? Did it even matter?) The sparkle in the eye, the curve of a bottom lip, sometimes the grabby hands making an appearance; you know, in that moment, that urge paid off and a negative emotion has been thrown into a box and put away, at least for a little while.

Baking is magic.

Let’s take a more measured step on our journey and talk about the science.

As any good scientist worth their salt knows, you combine things to create new things through reactions. Activated yeast eats sugar, grows, and never stops; introducing air to heavy cream at a rapid clip becomes a delicious topping; egg whites with a pinch of sugar and cream of tartar becomes a marshmallow meringue. These combinations cause a reaction and the end products are written into a lab report (a recipe) so that others can reconstruct the experiment with their own degrees of success. As one does.

Did you know a gas oven is twenty or more degrees cooler than the gauge says it is? Or that a convection oven runs hotter? So what do you do then to make sure your brownies come out baked enough to not give anyone salmonella but not resembling Pompeii? 350 degrees on the gas gauge is probably closer to 325 degrees, so how does that change your timing? A brownie recipe says to bake at 350 for twenty to twenty- five minutes…these brownies were not solid until they had been chilling in the gas oven for forty-five minutes.

Did you know the type of oats you pick up at your designated grocery can determine the chewiness and density of an oatmeal raisin cookie? (Don’t @ me, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies are awesome.) Or that powdered sugar is just white granulated sugar thrown in a spice grinder or food processor? Because what is a food processor other than a centrifuge? If you don’t have enough brown sugar, it can be replaced with
molasses mixed with white. A touch of cloves goes a long way and cinnamon burns. Did you know a shot of vanilla tastes like the dismal bowels of hell compared to how heavenly it smells? Pumpkin, banana, and avocados are vegan-friendly replacements for eggs and oils, while a dash of white vinegar or lemon juice in regular milk gets you buttermilk. Were you aware that duck eggs are richer in taste and color than chicken
eggs? I wasn’t, until introduced to fresh from the coop eggs by a friend at the farmer’s market; we learned together that you can use less duck eggs in a recipe with that added richness.

A secondary experiment: there is nothing wrong with a premade box mix for efficiency, ease, and taste, but if you want to be fancy or impress someone: replace the oil with melted butter, add an extra egg, and a dash of vanilla (any cake), almond (vanilla cake), or coffee (chocolate cake).

These are the scientific process questions we learned in school: what happens if…why did X happen…can we replicate without…can we get the same results if we replace…? Recipes are steps to produce something, a lab experiment manual is steps to produce something.

Baking is edible chemistry.

How do we combine the humanity and the science?

Some medieval recipes use prayers as measurements or heating instructions. How far you get into an “Our Father” determines the temperature of your heating element; you mix certain concoctions in time to a “Hail Mary” or however many recitations it takes.

Take, eat, baking is spiritual. Every culture has something: communion wafers, matzo, injera, your basic apple pie.

When you bake, you are transformed. It doesn’t matter who, what, or if your god-figure is, there is a transformation. The heat of the oven opens your pores and your mind, the crumble of butter into flour calms the nerves, the berry stains on your lips soften the unkind words; it’s an experience. It is a ten minute break in a hectic life where no one but the butter needs you, just the whir of the mixer as you add peace, love, and hope along with those eggs and a pinch of salt.

I had a discussion with a colleague about this; he asked me with a brownie in hand, “What is it about baking you enjoy?”

I said, “The peace it brings my soul. Something could be horribly wrong (the butter was too hot, now the eggs are scrambled, and that’s bad for the pie = my students were jerks, now our plan for the week is screwed up, and that’s bad for my mental health), but I can wipe the counter clean and begin again.” Of course my husband will tell you I’ll rant, rave, and curse at something, BUT, I can still start again.

That’s a big point in spirituality, in religion, you can start again. Baking allows you to work through things, to start over, to celebrate imperfections, and move forward. Tell me, in all honesty, you’ve never had a world-stopping-see-the-light moment when tasting a really brilliant dessert.

Baking awakens the spirit.

Marie Salomea Skłodowska-Curie may never see eye-to-eye with Penn and Teller, but cake can be made in a beaker, carbon dioxide causes pockets in bread in which we can pack butter, a dozen can be doubled or tripled to feed the masses, and that first bite makes you smile.

Go forth, and bon appetit!

Courtney Pattillo, Houston, TX