Versal and the creation
There was no question in my mind that I had to get my butt off the couch and into the kitchen. It was on! I had to replicate these and eat them all!
So from our previous blog titled “Do you feel creative?” you learned a little bit about Sal and well…creativity. I would love to think that I am a creative person as well however, I don’t always make time to express my creativity. BUUUUTTT…I love to EAT! And feed people. So because of this, while Sal was doing a painting or editing photos, guess where I was? In the kitchen? Nope, more like on the couch. Binge watching…Netflix. Oh yes and it was so great, except I swear the couch was getting a dent in it. Anyway I started watching The Great British Baking Show and fell in love instantly. I loved seeing these typical people make amazing desserts and pastries. I started to think to myself humm…..I can do that! Did I do anything? Nope. HA! I did continue watching it though until one day there was this beautiful pastry called Kouign Amman (Queen ah-mon). It is a layered pastry that was apparently super hard and time consuming to make. It’s name comes from the Breton language, the words mean butter cake. I was instantly transported to San Francisco.
San Francisco, if you don’t know, has amazing bakeries and patisseries. While on vacation my amazing cousin was showing us around town. Well ya know what you do on vacation? Thats right, A LOT of eating! Plus we are so good at it, especially the sweets. Anyway we stopped at this bakery that is very well known: b patisserie . Needless to say, my mouth had fallen in love and never wanted to leave SF.
So we stocked up on this delicious treat, but by the end of our vacation, the snacks we had purchased to bring back home were all gone. Somebody had eaten them all. I guess we couldn’t help it. There is a lot of walking to do in SF and there are a lot of trails for hiking. So you know we had to replenish our famished bodies with our delicious treats. Never the less they were all gone, we would need to wait to return to SF for delicious treats years later. I digress, going back to the baking show! As I sat watching these people make Kouign Amman the beloved pastry that we had eaten for days in SF. There was no question in my mind that I had to get my butt off the couch and into the kitchen. It was on! I had to replicate these and eat them all! I made a batch and thought, “Humm not good enough.” Delicious yes, how can you go wrong with so much butter and sugar HA! But I had to try again. Each time that family or friends were going to come over, I hopped in the kitchen and began the 6 hour long process of making this delicious treat. These things were warm and crispy on the outside with tiny pockets of melted sugar and flaky buttery layers.
Kouign Amann
Butter cake
Our family and friends were very happy being taste testers for these. But, as time went on, they started to say, “ You should start selling these.” Maybe those calories began to attack the clothes in their closet. Our journey to sales had begun. A local coffee shop with a super sweet owner asked if she could buy and sell them. This only worked for a few weeks and then poof, that magic slipped through our fingers. We were on a mission to find out how we could sell Sals’ photography and my baking. Long story short we began doing the El Paso Downtown Artist & Farmer’s Market.
We are now inspired to expand the little world of Versal Arts. We love doing the markets and being around the awesome people every weekend. However, with our new baby boy who is now the center of my universe, we are having to take a break from going to the markets. We are now taking orders and I am working on new and fun baking ideas to share with you all. If you have an idea or need something weird to be baked for you, we are here to explore and adventure the universe together. Thank you for visiting Versal Arts!!!
For those that would like to explore the universe with us, join our universe and sign-up for e-mail updates and newsletter. Those signed up are entered in a drawing every month to win an 8x10 print from our gallery. With that being said, we would like to congratulate Liana Diaz for being the February 2019 monthly-drawing winner. Congratulations! That could be your name next month!