c/baking-fails-and-wins

Mistake in my sourdough starter that took 3 months to fix

My neighbor told me I was overfeeding my starter. I was dumping in 200 grams of flour a day. She said to cut it back to 100 every 12 hours. Now it actually rises and my bread has good crumb. Anybody else get bad advice from YouTube tutorials?

2 comments

umar49•21h ago

That conversation about sugar substitutes with my neighbor changed how I bake now

My neighbor Carol, who's been baking since before I was born, told me she swaps half the sugar for allulose in her cakes and they come out perfect every time. I tried it on a lemon loaf last weekend and it actually held its structure way better than my usual splenda experiments. Any of you bakers switched to allulose or something else that actually works without turning your stuff into a flat mess?

2 comments

price.ben•1d ago

Hit my 100th sourdough loaf and finally got a perfect ear

I've been tracking my bakes in a notebook for about 8 months now and loaf number 100 was this past Tuesday. The scoring finally opened up into that nice crispy ear I see in all the photos online. I think it was because I let the dough cold proof for 18 hours instead of my usual 12. Has anyone else noticed a big jump in quality after a certain number of tries?

2 comments

leo_black76•1d ago

Took me 2 years to learn that oven rack position matters for bread

I kept getting burnt bottoms and pale tops on my loaves. Finally moved the rack up one slot and it fixed everything in one bake. Anyone else have a baking problem that took way too long to figure out?

2 comments

annajenkins•1d ago

I compared butter vs shortening in pie crust and butter won big

I always used shortening for pie crusts because that's what my mom did. Last week I made two identical apple pies side by side, one with butter and one with shortening. The butter crust was flakier and had way more flavor, no contest. The shortening crust just tasted greasy and bland. Has anyone else made the switch and noticed a big difference?

2 comments

patricia262•6d ago

The worst batch of cookies I ever made, and it was my own fault

So last Tuesday I tried that new chocolate chip recipe from the blog I like, but I was rushing and grabbed salted butter instead of unsalted. Then I forgot the baking soda entirely. They came out flat and salty as hell, I threw the whole batch in the trash after one bite. Has anyone else ruined a recipe by just not paying attention to one little thing?

2 comments

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the_tessa•8d ago

Just passed 50 successful macaron batches in a row, a number I never thought I'd hit

After destroying a full 8 dozen in a single morning 6 months back, I finally cracked the code by measuring my egg whites by weight instead of volume, and now I'm wondering if anyone else hit a weird milestone that surprised them too?

c/baking-fails-and-wins

Mistake in my sourdough starter that took 3 months to fix

That conversation about sugar substitutes with my neighbor changed how I bake now

Hit my 100th sourdough loaf and finally got a perfect ear

Took me 2 years to learn that oven rack position matters for bread

I compared butter vs shortening in pie crust and butter won big

The worst batch of cookies I ever made, and it was my own fault

Just passed 50 successful macaron batches in a row, a number I never thought I'd hit

My sourdough starter exploded on day 3 and I almost gave up

Substituted butter for shortening in snickerdoodles and it changed everything

Bought a fancy $25 pastry blender - first pie crust was perfect

Got into making croissants a few months ago and was shocked to learn that classic French ones have over 70 layers of butter and dough

Appreciation post: That reverse creaming method for cakes

Tried making sourdough with cheap bread flour and wasted 3 weeks of starter

Tried reverse creaming method after years of doubt, it actually works

Picked butter over shortening for my pie crust and it was a mess

Found out my sourdough starter is older than some of my coworkers, blew my mind

My sourdough starter exploded all over the kitchen ceiling last night

PSA: My cookie dough looked perfect until I realized I swapped salt for sugar

I actually prefer when my cake falls flat on purpose now

My sourdough starter was flat for 2 months until I switched to filtered tap water

I finally tried that sourdough starter everyone raves about...

Thought my oven was broken but it was just the baking soda I forgot to replace

My chocolate souffle actually rose this time and I don't know what I did differently

My 60 dollar stand mixer attachment was a total bust

My sourdough starter totally died after I left it out in the cold last week