The Everyday Gourmet: Baking Pastries and Desserts Lesson 1: Handle with Care - Basic Doughs Many people are interested in learning how to bake, but they’re intimidated because they think baking is too complicated or scientific. In these lessons, we’ll learn that there is science behind baking, but once you understand this science—what happens when you over-aerate a custard or what chemical reaction takes place when baking soda is mixed with cocoa powder—you’ll get much better results. These lessons include techniques, ingredient lists, and instructions for making a variety of desserts, dessert toppings, and quick breads, as well as tips for figuring out what may have gone right or wrong with your finished products. This first lesson begins with an overview of basic doughs for cookies and pound cake.

The sweet corn we know today evolved from a wild grass known as teosinte, a long stalk with a few grains at the end. The indigenous people of Central America crossbred the corn to give us the cobs that we know today, with row upon row of sweet kernels all packaged in a husk. Corn is a great success story. It has traveled around the globe, and it is estimated that a quarter of the calories humankind consumes can be traced back to corn, in such foods as corn sweeteners, corn flour, polenta, grits, and cornstarch.