Some Nice Things To Bake

[Jasper]

One tip I want to offer is that for me, there are two approaches to baking:  The precise kind that you see a lot of, and my grandma's kind that I learned.

I bake things.  Haven't broken into bread loaves yet, but pies, pizzas, cakes, and cookies are well within my domain, and I have no recipes or measurements.  The focus in my Way is to pay really close attention to the thing.  I taste my dough constantly, and I can tell by the texture and flavor what it needs.  It also helps to study some of the basic concepts behind which active ingredients perform what task, to know what they taste like, and to know what effect they have on the texture. 

It's a more intimate process than the precision method, but it's also sexier; There is something deeply satisfying about baking by just knowing how the dough should be.

Note:  It also helps to be kind of a madman about food, and spend months at a time focusing on a single kind of baking; I've made many thousands of cookies, and dozens of pizzas, and they're my strongest suits.

Hmmmm, I see. Like everything else it's a matter of practice, right? I think that since cooking is something that I  just naturally do daily, I feel less intimated by it. But with baking, since it's not essential that I produce cakes, cookies, and breads on a daily basis, it's something that I'm going to have to put special effort into.

Try making super small batches of things, every day, for a week.  That gives you a good feel for the proportions and nuances of a recipe.

Read this:

http://www.bakingandbakingscience.com/cookies.htm

Knowing what each ingredient's effect is, and what it tastes like, are powerful advantages.

[Nast]

One tip I want to offer is that for me, there are two approaches to baking:  The precise kind that you see a lot of, and my grandma's kind that I learned.

I bake things.  Haven't broken into bread loaves yet, but pies, pizzas, cakes, and cookies are well within my domain, and I have no recipes or measurements.  The focus in my Way is to pay really close attention to the thing.  I taste my dough constantly, and I can tell by the texture and flavor what it needs.  It also helps to study some of the basic concepts behind which active ingredients perform what task, to know what they taste like, and to know what effect they have on the texture. 

It's a more intimate process than the precision method, but it's also sexier; There is something deeply satisfying about baking by just knowing how the dough should be.

Note:  It also helps to be kind of a madman about food, and spend months at a time focusing on a single kind of baking; I've made many thousands of cookies, and dozens of pizzas, and they're my strongest suits.

Hmmmm, I see. Like everything else it's a matter of practice, right? I think that since cooking is something that I  just naturally do daily, I feel less intimated by it. But with baking, since it's not essential that I produce cakes, cookies, and breads on a daily basis, it's something that I'm going to have to put special effort into.

Try making super small batches of things, every day, for a week.  That gives you a good feel for the proportions and nuances of a recipe.

Read this:

http://www.bakingandbakingscience.com/cookies.htm

Knowing what each ingredient's effect is, and what it tastes like, are powerful advantages.

<3

Oh wow! I've always wanted information like that. Thanks so much!

[Jasper]

I went years without it.  Nobody ever told me I could actually figure shit out.  Hope you have more success actually knowing how it works as you learn.