Pastries present unique challenges that are entirely absent from bread baking. The temperature control, the cutting and rolling of the dough, and the artist flourishes of frosting or filling, make the process quite dissimilar from producing a baguette. I've had a bit of trouble lately and I am starting to think that I have not been taking the baking process seriously enough. Despite approaching one year of baking (at least one batch a week), I am still very much a novice and I often catch myself failing to plan and execute the finer points of bread and pastry making. For instance, my old yeast and inferior American-style rolling pin produced an under-proofed danish dough that I then failed to roll out to a sufficient thin layer. The shaping went alright, but the oven spring deformed my danishes and the puffy dough was far too bready. Also, when a stuffed dessert expands more than you expect, you lose your filling-to-dough ratio, which is a significant determinant of texture and taste. This is all to say, I need to get serious. I plan on posting more bread and pastry pictures on here as a way to hold myself accountable... to myself.