I found myself with a free day recently where I had nothing planned and very few routine household chores I had to do, so I thought, let’s bake something just for the fun of it. I fished around for ideas, but in the end, went back to my “baking bucket list” – the list of recipes I want to master someday – for inspiration. And right at the top of that was a pastry I’ve been coveting and avoiding in equal measure: kouign-amann.

I don’t know why I had (have?) a mental block on laminated doughs. Something in the back of my head says “oh, no, those are too difficult, and definitely too fiddly,” and yet every time I attempt one, in the end, I’m surprised at how enjoyable, straightforward, and simple the process was. This was no different. I found myself procrastinating at each refrigerate/roll/fold cycle, even though the recipe I followed was nothing but easy to follow and the dough rolled beautifully.

Brains are funny things.

As always with laminated doughs (and especially for me, with my talent for productive procrastination,) the recipe took far longer than it should have, but I can’t argue with these results, and I will definitely be making kouign-amann again.

For the past five years at least, we had been without our central air conditioning. I know that central air isn’t standard in many places around the world, but here in Pennsylvania, our summers are hot (and getting hotter) and humid (and only getting more humid,) so central air really is a requirement. Ours died a handful of years ago, though, and since then, we had been making do with portable air conditioners in essential rooms with the rest of the house remaining unlivable in about half the year. That “rest of the house” included the kitchen; as a result, I have avoided cooking and baking in all but the coldest seasons and weather.

This year – this March – we finally had the ability to replace our central air conditioning unit. Finally, after years, inside our house is all a consistent, (reasonably) cool, dehumidified temperature. I keep forgetting I can bake in summer now, though.

Today, I remembered. Usually, on Sundays, I make bread, but this past week, I had already made some; and when I looked this morning, it hadn’t even been cut yet. So I was left with a day with nothing I needed to bake.

Enter King Arthur Baking’s sourdough pretzels. This has long been my favorite soft pretzel recipe, and it’s also a great way to use sourdough starter discard when I feed my starter (which I do every Sunday to maintain it.)

So now I have pretzels AND air conditioning. Life truly is good.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Robert Herrick, 1591-1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

While I disagree that virgins have anything they need to rush into (nobody’s prime is based on their appearance or their sexual value, and it’s not as if sex is the pinnacle of human experience,) I do feel like the overall feeling of the poem is relevant right now. One thing that quarantine has driven home to me in a way that I didn’t expect is my experience of the changing of the seasons. Being limited to my home and its surroundings, I’ve paid attention to how subtly the outdoors changes day by day more than I ever have before.