Don’t forget your shovel.

Back in August a friend of mine who is new to Canada and to Euro-North American cooking told me she was learning a lot from a food blog called “Food Wishes” and then sent me the link to the yummy white gazpacho she’d made for me. And while I haven’t made that soup, I have to admit I’ve become quite interested in Chef John’s videos esp. when he makes something vegetarian (which is not that often, because if one reads his blog intro he is critical of vegetarianism but in fact he makes plenty of soups, salads, and baked goods which are vegetarian and sometimes even Vegan).

But of greatest interest to me in his videos on baking is that he’s the only other person I know who does it old fashioned way by hand. Dry in one bowl, wet in the other, add and mix. More or less. I had been taught this by my Mum when I was really young before she got a Cuisinart and when I found myself living overseas with few modern fangled things, I went back to the baking by hand method.

so, spatulas… Chef John uses Spatulas to mix his doughs together and at first I was fascinated. How is that possible? Does it work for us amateurs, too? I mean, I only use a spatula for scraping down the sides of bowls, jars, and measuring cups! hmmmmm…. He makes it look so easy and efficient.

So yesterday I was making gingerbread snowmen and decided to get out a spatula instead of a wooden spoon and try the mixing the Chef John way. And guess what?! It worked awesomely! When I mixed the butter/sugar with the dry as in the recipe using a spatula, I got that fine breadcrumb look you’re supposed to get from rubbing butter into flour. Wow! And then when I added the rest of the wet, the dough came together really easily! Thx. Chef John for teaching me the spatula technique just by watching your videos! (but then I learned to cook mostly from watching my mother do it for years, so no big surprise).

Here is Chef John’s video for Gingerbread Whoopie Pies so you can see the spatula technique I am talking about: