Sadly I am a crap baker. Baking is very, very specific and I tend to skitter off course from a recipe like Gordon Ramsey after an especially powerful espresso and cocaine cocktail.
Cass is me.
Spike? It's you. It's really you! My therapist thought I was holding on to false hope, but…I knew you'd come back. You're like…you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog, more beautiful than ever. Oh…he's alive Frodo. He's alive.
Andrew ,'Damage'
Natter 46: The FIGHTIN' 46
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
sj - Sep 05, 2006 2:26:30 am PDT #5981 of 10001
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Theodosia - Sep 05, 2006 2:27:45 am PDT #5982 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
I never try to bake anything more complicated than cupcakes. Sometimes I don't even bother with frosting....
brenda m - Sep 05, 2006 3:04:34 am PDT #5983 of 10001
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
I think I must just have a knack for baking, because I play fast and loose with recipes all the time and it always comes out ok.
Nilly - Sep 05, 2006 3:10:40 am PDT #5984 of 10001
Swouncing
Baking is very, very specific
Yeah, baking is so much different from cooking, it sometimes surprises me that people refer to them as the same thing.
I'm not sure if it's connected or not, but with baking, there's a point where you can't really fix or change what you've done - once the stuff is in the oven and the heat starts to work, there's no way back, you have to live with what comes out. You can determine which temperature and when to turn it off, but that's pretty much it. Cooking is much more flexible, all the way through - adding ingredients, adding more of what's in there in order to make a certain ingredient less dominant, changing textures, ways of preparation, ingredients, temperatures, whatever, all throughout the process.
I like them both, but I'm much more careful to stick to a recipe when I'm baking, and play and goof off and improvize a lot more when I'm cooking.
Hil R. - Sep 05, 2006 3:38:53 am PDT #5985 of 10001
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
I like them both, but I'm much more careful to stick to a recipe when I'm baking, and play and goof off and improvize a lot more when I'm cooking.
Yep, this.
I'm always slightly surprised when I'm reading older books, like Little Women or Anne of Green Gables, and people bake things without really measuring. Like, it's a bunch of flour, a spoonful or so of baking powder, enough eggs to make it a good texture, and so on. The whole "baking must be precise" is so ingrained in me that I really can't imagine trying to bake by feel like that.
Topic!Cindy - Sep 05, 2006 3:47:19 am PDT #5986 of 10001
What is even happening?
I like them both, but I'm much more careful to stick to a recipe when I'm baking, and play and goof off and improvize a lot more when I'm cooking.
Me, too.
I'm always slightly surprised when I'm reading older books, like Little Women or Anne of Green Gables, and people bake things without really measuring. Like, it's a bunch of flour, a spoonful or so of baking powder, enough eggs to make it a good texture, and so on. The whole "baking must be precise" is so ingrained in me that I really can't imagine trying to bake by feel like that.I know this is how my grandmother and great-grandmother baked, and the latter used a stove heated by wood, so it's not like she had a little dial she could set to 350 degrees, or what have you. I think they had better instincts about scale and proportion, "measured" in different ways, and paid more attention to how things looked and felt.
I can do this on the smallest scale. I have a good (not purposefully conscious) idea of how much water my pie crust needs, and it does differ from time to time, so I must use some senses (not purposefully consciously), to adjust for humidity, etc. And when I make banana bread, I never measure the banana pulp, and adjust the baking powder (and sometimes the eggs) if it looks "wrong". It's just that they could do it with everything they baked.
Theodosia - Sep 05, 2006 3:53:04 am PDT #5987 of 10001
'we all walk this earth feeling we are frauds. The trick is to be grateful and hope the caper doesn't end any time soon"
The interpreters at Old Sturbridge Village, who bake in brick fireplace ovens and newfangled tin reflector ovens on the open hearth, estimate oven temp by how long they can hold their exposed hand inside, counting "one potato, two potato" so they get a good approximate idea if it's the right temp yet.
Jars - Sep 05, 2006 3:54:16 am PDT #5988 of 10001
Once I've made a baking recipe a few times I'm far more likely to just do it by eye rather than by measuring. Six eggs instead of five because it's not moist enough, sort of thing. I'd never do that the first time out though. I've had no weighing scales for most of this year, so I've had to do a lot of stuff by eye, not always with the greatest results.
ChiKat - Sep 05, 2006 4:09:47 am PDT #5989 of 10001
That man was going to shank me. Over an omelette. Two eggs and a slice of government cheese. Is that what my life is worth?
Albino twin fingermonkeys born:
Awww...so cute!
I think I must just have a knack for baking, because I play fast and loose with recipes all the time and it always comes out ok.
brenda is me. Which must mean, then, that I am way cool. Rock!
SailAweigh - Sep 05, 2006 4:15:31 am PDT #5990 of 10001
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
I'm not much for sticking to measurements with baking, either. I've been lied to too many times by cookbooks that are supposed to be giving me precise instructions. The number of times I've had to add more flour to pancake recipes and the like are innumerable. I look at the dough and if it looks even close to how I think it should look, I leave it alone. If it doesn't, I start adding either starches or liquids as I think is appropriate. Still, I do start with a recipe, I've never tried baking from total scratch.