Is Baking a science or an art?

Most people will tell you that baking is a science mainly because it is driven by proportions, measures, time specifications.

But a few will tell you that it is part-science, part-art. Science when it comes to proportions of ingredients, art when it is about what the ingredients should be ! Science when it comes to following a recipe, art when it comes to creating one from scratch.

There will always be those moments when the artist within you plays a bigger role or the scientist trumps the artist’s thought process. That is what makes baking fun and fulfilling for me. I don’t know which role will be influencing me as I plan a bake !

Also, there is something about working with new and unique ingredients, especially when it comes to baking. You are waiting in anticipation about the way it will affect the bake and this is what I think separates a great baker from a brilliant one – the ability to take a risk and experiment. And while scientists are great folks, it is a spectacular painting that always leaves you speechless 🙂

So I search for new ingredients is endless – and one such new discovery was organic liquid jaggery. A friend and co-baker Anitha shared the one she has as part of her organic products chain – Avadata Organics Bella Liquid Jaggery. And the flavour as well as the product quality is excellent to say the least !

Here’s the recipe I used it in.

Gluten Free Buckwheat Jowar Chocolate Cashew Biscuits – with a surprise ingredient

1 cup buckwheat groats, grind it well.
½ cup jowar
½ cup cane sugar
115 gms unsalted butter
2 tbsp cocoa powder
¼ cup chopped cashew
2 tbsp organic liquid jaggery

Method –

Add the dry ingredients together – the flours and the cane sugar. Rub the butter into it. Add the cocoa powder. The dough will be crumbly. Add chopped cashew. Finally, add the liquid jaggery to bring it together. Mix well and cling wrap it. Keep in the fridge overnight.

Next day preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Grease the baking tray. Make small rounds and place the cookies onto the tray. Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes or until firm along the edges. Cool well and store in air tight container.

Note-

Liquid Jaggery is an intermediate product obtained from concentrating sugarcane juice after clarification for making Jaggery. It is semi-liquid and is also known as sugarcane juice concentrate (Source- Wikipedia)