King Arthur. But their flours and follow recipes. This isn’t hard. I like their Amish rolls pie crusts pizza and breads.

Don’t complicate staple cookies and brownies. I’ve tried more complicated version where butter is browned, chocolate hand chucked, multiple hour chills, etc. and it is almost never worth the extra time, steps, and effort.

I always go back to the tried and true
-Nestle Toll house chocolate chip cookie recipe
-Quaker oats vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies
- Saco cocoa power fudge brownie recipe (but I prefer to use a Dutch process cocoa powder like Guittard
http://www.sacofoods.com/fudgy-cocoa-brownies/

For loaf breads: King Arthur “back of the bag” oatmeal bread and Julie Child’s white bread

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My favorite snickerdoodle recipe is a winner and easy for beginners: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-thick-snickerdoodles-in-20-minutes/.

The only changes I make to the recipe are substituting 1/3 of the granulated sugar for dark brown sugar in the dough, and rolling the balls of dough in Demerara sugar and cinnamon before baking.

I love snicker doodles, so this is a great suggestion. Why do you make the changes you do?

I prefer the molasses-y taste of a little brown sugar in the dough, but the cookies are also delicious with just the granulated sugar. The demerara sugar adds a crunchy texture to the outside of the cookie, which makes a lovely contrast to the soft interior. It also glistens a bit, which makes the cookies look festive.

Now I’m off to bake another batch!

There is a set of chocolate chip cookie recipes that a person in an uncharitable mood could label “science boys.” I’ve tried them. You can do all that stuff.

I swear Christina Tosi beat them all with this recipe. The milk powder is a little hard to find depending on where you shop, but you can Amazon it and I swear it works better and tastes better than browning the butter or cutting the balls or whatever. The recipe doesn’t call for a mixer but I use one and it’s completely fine, I think they were just trying to prove you don’t need one if you’re willing to work out your arms.

https://www.splendidtable.org/story/2020/04/13/best-ever-chocolate-chip-cookies

Not a good baker at all, but have been happily making this no-knead bread for a few months. Very easy.

Stir together:
3 1/4 c flour
half a packet of active dry yeast (or about a tsp)
2 tsp salt

Add 1 1/2 c of very warm water. Stir in. The dough will be relatively wettish. Cover and let rise overnight, or at least 10 hours.

Take out of bowl and stretch out into a rectangle shape, and the roll up into a sort of log. Put into loaf pan. You can grease it, but I prefer parchment paper. Cover and let rise again for about 45 minutes. Then put into a 450 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Cool in pan for 30 mins, then transfer to wire rack to cool all the way.

I am not a big fan of cooking no-knead bread in dutch ovens, which is how most people do it. I don't like that hard crust, and prefer more of a sandwich loaf. So this is how I do it.

I am not an expert baker, but feel like I can follow a recipe well, and frequently get compliments on my cookies and breads. I typically don’t like fussy recipes.

My favorite recipe website is Sally’s Baking Addiction. I’ve liked almost all the recipes of hers I’ve tried, and she gives lots of helpful notes/tips.

A huge part of successful baking is knowing the terminology (I think about the Schitt’s Creek scene where Moira and David don’t know what “fold” means in a recipe). Other important things— correct measurements and knowing if your oven runs hot. I don’t think a food scale is necessary for occasional baking, but you should know to spoon and level the flour, for instance.

The King Arthur Flour website is also good for recipes, especially breads. And this is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, which also doesn’t require chilling the dough:
https://butternutbakeryblog.com/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Anonymous wrote:My favorite snickerdoodle recipe is a winner and easy for beginners: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-thick-snickerdoodles-in-20-minutes/.

The only changes I make to the recipe are substituting 1/3 of the granulated sugar for dark brown sugar in the dough, and rolling the balls of dough in Demerara sugar and cinnamon before baking.

I love snicker doodles, so this is a great suggestion. Why do you make the changes you do?

My favorite snickerdoodle recipe is a winner and easy for beginners: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-thick-snickerdoodles-in-20-minutes/.

The only changes I make to the recipe are substituting 1/3 of the granulated sugar for dark brown sugar in the dough, and rolling the balls of dough in Demerara sugar and cinnamon before baking.

Buy this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Test-Kitchen-Family-Baking/dp/1933615222

Start with the recipes they highlight as being good for beginners. I recommend the Almost No-Knead Bread, any of their drop cookies (but especially the crispy salted oatmeal, and the spiced molasses cookies), the cheesecake bars, and the pantry chocolate cake. All pretty fool proof and easy.

Read the recipes all the way through and read the tips and explainers, which give you useful info that will help build the basis for your baking knowledge (what a leavener is and how different ones work, why buttermilk does different things to a batter than regular milk, why a dough should be chilled or brought to room temp before baking, how to evaluate doneness of different items so that you can pull them from the oven on time).

And then: just bake. Pick a recipe each week and make something. When you like something, make it more than once. A lot of the recipes have alternative versions -- try them!

Once you've got a good basis with this book, I'd branch out with:

Smitten Kitchen Everyday (cookbook)
Sally's Baking Addiction (website though I think she has cookbooks to)
NYT Cooking

Oh, and I recommend getting the following kitchen tools:

Kitchen scale: absolute essential, measuring dry ingredients by weight is a game changer for baking and a recipe that offers weights is a sign that the recipe writer knows what they are doing

Bench scraper: really helpful for working with dough for a variety of baked goods, I use mine to help prevent doughs from sticking to the counter, to transfer soft cookies so they don't fall apart, and for clean up. I have a metal one and a silicon one.

Parchment paper: you can truly never have enough

This worked perfectly:



Chilling makes a massive difference. I also browned the melted butter for 2x more flavor.

S/O from the “Are most people bad bakers?” thread. These posts are inspiring me to bake something yummy. For those who are good bakers, share your (moderately easy) best recipes for others to try!