Some Nice Things To Bake

[Nast]

I consider myself a mediocre baker, yet have a terrible need to heap baked goods upon friends, strangers, and acquaintances. This sometimes causes me existential angst.

Therefore, I would be more than glad if you could share with me your simple yet tasty cakes, cookies, pies, and pastry recipes. I say simple because while I know how to sift, fold, and whip, I'm not as confident in my baking abilities as cooking. Baking has always struck me as something very precise and scientific, the algebra of the culinary world, and I was never good at math in school anyway.

The most challenging thing for me is getting the correct degree of doneness in my baked goods . You see, my oven is electric, and I faintly recall that electric ovens (maybe it's only the newer models) have mechanisms that self-correct the temperature. But I have noticed that my oven is a finicky finicky creature, and I really ought to check if the temperature is off. Sometimes turn out done in half the time the recipe suggests. Other times it's spot-on. Hm.

So I'd be happy if you'd have any generally handy tips too.

Thanks!

[Luna]

Toothpicks.

Most things you're baking are done when you shove a toothpick in 'em and the toothpick comes out clean.

You can do amazing things with crap out of boxes, if you play with them.  (My brownies, which Richter once informed a roommate were "Brownies of the GODS!" start off life in a box... and I FIX them.)

[Rumckle]

I'm the same as you Nast, shit in a pan or pot is simple, but baking!? that shit is crazy.

Anyway, a recipe my friend does which is nice:

- Get a couple of sheets of filo pastry, lay them on top of each other.
- Cover in in grated apple, cinnamon and brown sugar.
- Roll it up and brush with olive oil.
- Repeat
- Bake for however long you bake the pastry for (it should say on the pack), let them cool for a bit and enjoy.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

Take two of whatever brownie mix you prefer.  Get a bag of the little snicker bites, or you can use any you prefer.  Almond Joy ones are amazing if you like coconut.  If you Use Almond Joy, I use white chocolate chips instead of peanut butter.  A large dark chocolate hersheys and a la ;arge milk chocolate hersheys or dark and milk chocolate chips.  Peanut butter chips.

Make the recipe according to the box.  Mix in hand fulls of snickers (unwrap them first and don't even ask who didn't) peanut butter chips, and both broken up (small pieces) chocolate bars.  Bake according to the directions.

Right when you take them out of the oven you can sprinkle the rest of the peanut butter chips on top and let the brownies sit in the warm oven till they get all gooey.

Warning, serving these warm with ice cream on top and then hot fudge or caramel can result in unintended marriage proposals and waking up with strange bed partners....

Enjoy!!!

[Luna]

Take two of whatever brownie mix you prefer.  Get a bag of the little snicker bites, or you can use any you prefer.  Almond Joy ones are amazing if you like coconut.  If you Use Almond Joy, I use white chocolate chips instead of peanut butter.  A large dark chocolate hersheys and a la ;arge milk chocolate hersheys or dark and milk chocolate chips.  Peanut butter chips.

Make the recipe according to the box.  Mix in hand fulls of snickers (unwrap them first and don't even ask who didn't) peanut butter chips, and both broken up (small pieces) chocolate bars.  Bake according to the directions.

Right when you take them out of the oven you can sprinkle the rest of the peanut butter chips on top and let the brownies sit in the warm oven till they get all gooey.

Warning, serving these warm with ice cream on top and then hot fudge or caramel can result in unintended marriage proposals and waking up with strange bed partners....

Enjoy!!!

This I will try.

[Sepia]

Pick up Keys to good cooking by Harold McGee and be filled with fear no more. I started my life as a pastry chef about eight months ago, armed with half a year of burgerflipping and pizzatossing and the two books of McGee. I got what would be the equivalent of an F in math and science and cake/bread/sweets I find in general easier to do than working protein or garnish.

You can geek yourself up and into madness, merely because sweet is a better vehicle for it but you can also just toss some shit, mix it the right way and you'll end up with something cool. Sugar and chocolate are the two hardest to master to do the right way. What's important in pastries is the technique used to add the ingredients and control of the technique gives control of the final product.

[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.

[Juana]

Toothpick, like Luna said. Also, I find that hand mixing gives cookies and such a better texture than an electric mixer. It's more effort, I suppose, but I mind it less than pulling out the mixer for some reason.

I'd also advise that you get yourself an oven thermometer and let it live on the rack in your oven, on or off. It should help.

[Luna]

I don't even own an electric mixer.

[Juana]

My mother bought it. I only use it for frosting and whipped cream.

[Luna]

My mother bought it. I only use it for frosting and whipped cream.

I'll probably pick one up sooner or later, but I've been here over two months and haven't needed one.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I don't have a mixer.  I have a spoon, a spatula and a fucking whisk.....

No cream stands a chance against the power of my whisking.

[Nast]

I'm the same as you Nast, shit in a pan or pot is simple, but baking!? that shit is crazy.

Anyway, a recipe my friend does which is nice:

- Get a couple of sheets of filo pastry, lay them on top of each other.
- Cover in in grated apple, cinnamon and brown sugar.
- Roll it up and brush with olive oil.
- Repeat
- Bake for however long you bake the pastry for (it should say on the pack), let them cool for a bit and enjoy.

Oh, I love filo dough! Actually, anything flaky is delicious.

I do know how make a decent puff pastry from scratch, so I was thinking of this summer making lots of fruit crostatas and tarts.

[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.

I don't have a mixer.  I have a spoon, a spatula and a fucking whisk.....

No cream stands a chance against the power of my whisking.

You whisk everything by hand?! My God, you must have piston-driven forearms!

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

I don't have a mixer.  I have a spoon, a spatula and a fucking whisk.....

No cream stands a chance against the power of my whisking.

You whisk everything by hand?! My God, you must have piston-driven forearms!

Not really, it's all in the wrist...