Stupid Baking

[bonny]

It seems to me that only the chosen or people who have sold their souls to the devil can bake well.

I can't make friends with pastries. Although I try to do everything according to the recipe, I take the necessary ingredients, follow all the requirements. As for the dough, I'm a complete loser.

You may think that I don't know much about cooking, but that's not true. I make delicious pasta, salads, meat, seafood.

So I understood the fact that I will not be a famous baker, and now I buy all the pastries in the store

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by bonny

I can't make friends with pastries.

Sounds like pastries' loss to me.

[Oxymaroon]

Originally Posted by bonny

I can't make friends with pastries. Although I try to do everything according to the recipe, I take the necessary ingredients, follow all the requirements. As for the dough, I'm a complete loser.

There are no complete losers! Pastry may be a write-off, but you can bake something - you just haven't discovered what it is yet. Crackers? muffins? cheesecake? a gingerbread village? Something.
There was a time I was terrific at pie. Actually made them commercially, in a small way (farmer's market, 8 or 10 per weekend) Now, if I try one, they're mediocre. But I managed Sardinian flatbread last week on the first try. And this week, I think I'll try pretzels.

[lisarea]

Baking: Truly the worst, stupidest, and most terrible of endeavors.

I've worked on and tweaked and improved my pretzels to the point that I can just be like, "OK. Pretzels!" and they are easy and turn out good.

So tonight, it's getting late, but I like to start them and then freeze them overnight so they keep their shape better, and I've got time to do that before I go to bed.

Boring parts that nobody cares about, but even just so far, they've taken easily three times as long as usual, and I'm still working on fixing them. I should already be in bed.

It took me forever to figure out why, and I'm pretty sure it's that I accidentally used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour like I normally do.

So it's taking me forever, and I'm still not even sure they're going to turn out edible.

Stupid, stupid baking. Stupid, stupid me.

[JoeP]

While I'm not challenging baking being stupid - nor would I dare challenge your claim that you are stupid - I also want to put in a bad word for the stupid name "all-purpose" flour. All purposes, except bread. You should call it "stupid compromise flour". Or as we do, plain flour.

[lisarea]

UPDATE: They turned out pretty good after all. Still, I have to remember next time to use bread flour.

[vremya]

Homemade pretzels are really good.