How Many Tries Before You Got It Right?

[confettine]

After I asked what could possibly made with failed bread dough -- a speciality of mine -- I got some answers that let me have some hope that, even if I keep failing, I'm not the only one having trouble with it and others did figure it out!

How many tries did it take for you to get your dough right? Was there any "clicking" moment when it just fell into place? Was it some trick you learned and applied?

 

[Trellum]

I had a lot trouble with cookies when I just started, it was a lot trial and error until I figured out substituting some ingredients could yield better results! Like for example using icing sugar for my ''polvoron'' cookies instead of normal sugar. Don't worry, some doughs are harder to get right than others, for some reason never had an issue with pie or pizza dough tho, but cookies and muffins... yup! A lot!

 

[Tina Nord]

I have a hard time making bread and half the time I still do not get it right. It is frustrating especially when you follow the recipe to the letter. I have found that fresh yeast makes a difference. My favorite thing to do is just find recipes I am real good at and stick to them.

 

[Wild Orchid]

From experience, as much as recipes do work; they work around the baking writer's circumstances and experiences. They probably had their favourite yeast that swells pastries more than others, or had an air-sensitive oven, or such. Therefore, I feel every baker has their own 'circumstances', which are not exactly the same as those of the baker/ recipe writer and should therefore use the recipes just as a guide. Once you have learned to tweak each recipe to your advantage and following your intuition, then comes the perfection in your baking.

 

[DancingLady]

I've always used the loose yeists sold for bread machines. I don't knoenif that makes a huge difference but when i baked bread I didn't have much trouble. The thing with kneading is you have to do it until the dough feels alive. That might take longer or shorter times than the book said. Also the total quantity of flour can vary a bit depending on the humidity in your kitchen.