So I've done a lot of cooking through my adult life because it's fun, saves money, and is a great skill to hone. But I've always been a little nervous about baking because people say that it's "so scientific" and you have to get everything "just right." Baked basic cookies/brownies years ago with a friend.I just made a dozen coconut chocolate chip cookies while:- Subbing the recommended baking soda for baking powder (the recipe had brown sugar so there's enough acid in there)- Eyeballed everything- Added more chocolate chips/coconut than called for- Beat the wet ingredients longer than I should have- Baked them for ~10 min longer than recommended because I made them pretty bigAnd they came out fine. Not perfect, I can't taste the brown/granulated sugar as much as I wanted to, but they're pretty tasty. I wouldn't have been mad if I paid money for these.Is there something I'm missing here? People always make it sound like it's going to be trash if you change one little thing. Am I a tastelet who has no flavor pallete to tell me if they're bad? (Which I know is likely)Pic related but not mine
>>22163047Baking is the domain of the Stolen Homemaker Valor Baby Boomer— it's only autistic chasing the dragon of tuning texture (mostly). If you observe the basic ingredient requirements, it'll be fine. But if improvising, keep track of what and how you did it in case you stumble on something great.
>>22163047It's a bit more scientific than regular cooking I guess. Chemical reactions, hydration percentages, etc.I baked things and most of it turned out okay but I had better and more consistent results once I got a scale. That made it easier to adjust or create recipes too. If you start baking a lot like this you'll probably screw something up at least once and then understand why people say it's more scientific than cooking.
>>22163047cookies are easy m8 there are things that are a nightmare to bake
>>22163047>SoSo what?
>>22163111Mostly just fussy autistic pastries.Everything else can be done intuitively or with imperial.
>>22163047Only when you get autistic about texture and mouth feel.
>>22163136>Mostly just fussy autistic pastries.try folding puff pastry on a humid summer
>>22163111Eldritch hors d’oeuvres?
>>22163261i had to assemble a multi layer cake were the filling started splitting so i had to stop whisking leaving it too thin and then the fucking layer on top slip away in the fridge good thing i had just cleaned itit was a honey cake and i got attacked by bees because they were attracted to the smell of honey burning in the stove, about 6 bees got into my kitchen, i fear the bee
>>22163272>it was a honey cake and i got attacked by beeskek
>>22163047Welcome to the club. The way I look at it is: the fudge factor is a little smaller than regular cooking, but there's still some fudge factor. I've also never understood why some people act like you have to measure to the mg and only bake certain items in a pentagram under a full moon, but whatever. Enjoy your cookies.
cooking you can modify it along the way. you can taste it and adjust ingredients, evaporate off more water, remove heat, change pots, etc.baking, you just send it and it works or it doesn't. if a cake is halfway through baking and it's not rising enough, there's nothing you can do about that.
>>22163047People are lyingYou can get very autistic about it, and the science behind baking is genuinly fascinating, but you'll do just fine without it. Just make stuff you like the way you like it
>>22163047I mean, cooking is scientific too. It's a little more lenient, but understanding the science will make you a better cook. And honestly, baking isn't as strict as it's made out to be. There are definitely some processes that require specific technique, especially if you want consistency across batches, but there's a lot more room to improvise than you expect. Imo, learning to bake will make you a better cook, and vice versa. They're complimentary skills. Paying attention to the science of baking will help you in cooking, and learning to trust your intuition while cooking will help you in baking. Neither is strictly a hard science or an art, they're each a mixture of both, baking just leans a bit more towards the former and cooking towards the latter.
>>22163272just bee yourself
>>22163047I once forgot to add the yeast to the water while making bread, it broke me.
>>22163780Thats just unleavened bread or hardtack.Bake it thin or add fat to make it more palatable.Eat it with soup or stew and its fine.Its nothing that should break you.
>>22163047>so scientificYes>have to get everything just rightNo
>>22163047>people say that it's "so scientific" and you have to get everything "just right."these people were taught in baking school to work in commercial kitchens.their goal is to make the exact same product the exact same way, every day, hundreds of times a dayat that scale they are correct.however, home cooks have been baking by eye and by touch and by smell for thousands of years. if you know roughly what a dough should look and feel like while you're mixing it, you can intuit when it needs a splash more water or a pinch more flour even if you don't know the fluctuations in atmospheric conditions affecting the moisture level of your flour between this time and last time you made the dough.
>>22163047>I managed to not totally fuck up a batch of cookies (still doen't post his own pics)>this MEANS baking isn't sciencevery happy for you anonnow please try your hand at pâte à choux, macarons, challah, angel cake, chocolate lava cake, honeycomb, croissants it SHOULD be easy enough for you, right??
