Youssef El Khoury

How It All Started

I’m creating this blog to first, remind future me of why I chose to spend so much time and effort developing this hobby, and second, to document and track my progress as well as any notes and tips that I experience throughout this journey. So whenever you forget why you started baking, and why you chose it as your hobby, please read this post.

Badde yek tetzakkar ma3e lamma kent tou3a l soboh 3a settak l 3omra 75 sene, we3e 3al 5 wej l daw la te3joun w tekhbouz 2atyab mna2ish bayd b2awarma, kechk, zaatar. Aw lamma ykoun sarla yawmen bt na22ich maamoul w kaak, w 2adde enta bt koun mcha7ri2 yokhlas l syem la tekeloun 3al 3id. Aw kamen ri7it l ale li btekhnou2 bl bayt 3al ghtas lamma tkoun 3am te2le maakron w ouwaymet.

Hawde kelloun mch 3am zakrak fiyoun la 7assisak bl zanb, bass badde yek tetzakkar adde kenit tonbosit lamma kenit tes2alna w tontour n2ella eza taybin, w adde kenit ton2ohir lamma ma yotla3o 3a zaw2a ma3 2enno henne bi kouno bi jannino bass chakel l knefe ma 3ajaba aw l kaaket 2a2sa chway mn l 3ede. W zyede 3an hek, adde kenit t7eb t2ella khalline se3dik aw 3almine ma3ik.

Fa 3raf 2enno l hadaf l assese men kl hal machrou3 houwwe enno tcherik l 3elam l bte3nilak bl chi li 3am ta3emlo law kif ma toli3, metel ma settak be2yit kl 7ayeta techteghil bl roghom mn kel machekela l so7iyye 3a charet enno kenit techteghil la tobsotna: That’s the whole point.

The Structure

Now that I’ve went through the motivation for writing this blog, I want to try developing a template that I’ll try to follow in all upcomming posts.

Why Do I Need A Template?

I’ve discussed above how helping out my teta was the reason I started baking in the first place. But what I failed to mention was how frustrating it is to try and learn recipes and proper techniques from someone who has spent her entire life baking by feel and not by exact measurements. So phrases like chwayit mele7, sir zid may chway chway la tsir l 3ajine mni7a, and heh ttalla3 hek bt 2arris l 3ajine were a couple of many expressions that made no sense to me at the beginning.

Although I’ve realized that baking by feel is a skill one must learn and develop, as the amazing feeling of getting a good bake without using a scale or any specific measurements makes you feel like you actually understand the properties of the dough and the baking process on an internal level. But this technique has the downside of not being able to easily experiment with variations on recipes, since you won’t be able to accurately compare recipe modifications and understand the reason for the change in the final product.

This is why I’m creating a system that will easily allow me to compare recipes and different types of baked goods. To note that, this template will surely evolve and get optimized as necessary over time.

Template

Since one of the main purposes of this blog is to keep track of recipes, each post will include a table containing all the optimal specifications of a given recipe for quick access. Also, as I experiment with new tweeks on a given recipe, a column will be added to the table with the modification to that recipe.

The table will include the below basic properties, as well as any other miscellaneous notes:

• Ingredient measurements by weight and volume, although weight measurements are preferred (explanation comming soon), both metrics will be listed
• Hydration rate of the dough (explanation comming soon)
• Flour type distrbution, if multiple types of flour are used
• Oven baking specifications, including: temperature, steam, baking time, etc.

For instance, this would be an example of a table for a recipe where I experimented with two different hydration levels:

Following the above mentioned table, the post will proceed by listing a high level breakdown of the recipe, formated as a gantt chart, showing the typical progression of the recipe progression. This chart would look something like this:

And finally, the post will include any notes that I have on each experiment and on the recipe in general.