07/01/2023
10 REASONS WHY YOUR RECIPES ARE FAILING
NO SUGARCOAT FRIDAY
Someone sent this to my inbox:
âNasasayang ingredients ko sa ibang recipes na binibigay ng ibang chef. Kahit anong sunod ko sa recipe, ginawa ko naman lahat pero palpak parin. Hindi lahat ng chef nagsasabi ng totoo.â (Iâm wasting too many ingredients trying out recipes given by some chefs. No matter what I do, they always fail even if I followed the recipe exactly. Not all chefs are truthful.)
Honest answer: No one's lying to you. Itâs probably your fault, not the recipe or the one who wrote it.
I know that sounds harsh but itâs true. Most chefs publishing their recipes online have tested and tried them before posting them. You canât possibly know if a recipe works without trying it yourself. Iâm not sure if someone does that, but that is highly unlikely because no chef worth their salt will put their name on a recipe that doesnât work. Itâs easier to point fingers at someone else than ourselves most of the time. This is typical Filipino mindset, real talk. Many people find it hard to be self-accountable. I'm guilty of it sometimes but I try to check myself when it happens. When someone asks me why their recipes donât turn out good, my initial response is âTell me exactly what you did.â Why do I say itâs most likely the fault of the one following the recipe? A few possible factors:
1. Youâre probably not measuring accurately.
No matter how much I train my assistants to measure, there are times Iâve caught them inaccurately measuring ingredients and thought they could get away with it. I know exactly how 1tsp of salt looks like or 2c of flour, they canât lie to me. But this is a common mistake people do. Just because the recipe says 1tsp, it doesnât mean a little less than a tsp wonât make and significant difference. If the recipe says 250g of sugar, donât use cups to measure it. Baking is a science, accuracy is a must.
2. Youâre using different brands of ingredients.
I use the same brands for my recipes every single time and very rarely substitute, except for butter, milk and sugar. Also, youâre probably substituting ingredients too. Margarine is not butter. APF is not cake flour. Heavy cream is not the same as non-dairy whipped topping. Donât substitute and think it will turn out exactly the same as how the chef intended it. I learned my lesson the hard way when I baked my red velvet cake recipe in the US. It tasted and looked completely different than the one I have been making for years here in the Philippines. How? Different brand of cocoa powder and red food color.
3. Ingredients not in the correct temperature.
Yes, this matters.
4. You read the recipe wrong or barely read it.
I know this very well. Before I start my classes, I tell my students to read and study the recipes well. Iâve been teaching cooking and baking for 15 years and have caught many students doing this. They come to me asking why they failed, I know exactly what questions to ask to find out why and catch their mistake. They didnât really follow the recipe. 1c chopped walnuts is NOT the same as 1c walnuts, chopped. If the recipe says to stir constantly and you didnât stir enough, thatâs going to have an effect on your end product. If you stirred instead of fold, your cake will not turn out exactly the same. Procedures are written in order and must be followed in the right order. Thereâs a reason recipes are written the way they are, in the order theyâre in and with the terms used in them. Donât skip any steps.
5. Youâre undermixing or overmixing.
If the chef who made the recipe used a stand mixer, the mixing time and speed will be different if youâre using a hand mixer. Undermixing can make your cakes collapse or sink in the middle. Overmixing develops gluten in cakes and cookies and leads to undesirable results. An overmixed pie dough will cause it to shrink and toughen.
6. Youâre using the wrong pans.
Different sized pans and different colors affect baked products differently, if you donât make the necessary adjustments. I use thick, aluminum pans for my cakes. Sometimes, I use stainless steel ring molds. If someone bakes my recipe using a dark-colored non-stick pan without making adjustments to baking time and temp, the cake will burn. With bigger pans, the baking powder and baking time need to be adjusted.
7. Your oven is not calibrated, youâre baking in the wrong rack, your oven is smaller and hotter, or youâre not using an oven thermometer.
Never trust the temperature thatâs indicated in your oven, unless itâs one that costs millions of pesos and very accurate. Ovens on the lower end are never accurate! Invest in an oven thermometer. Know the hot spots in your oven. Know when to use the fan. Test which racks bake the best for each type of baked good. You should know your oven like the back of your hand. Iâm always scared of baking in an oven thatâs not mine because Iâm not familiar with it and need to test it before I can bake with it.
8. Youâre impatient and kept opening the oven door during baking.
Please stop. Only open the oven door after the first half of baking time, 20-25mins for cakes. Some recipes youâre not supposed to open the oven at all.
9. Baking times and temperatures are NOT to be followed exactly as said in the recipe.
As I have mentioned above, time and temp can be impacted by many factors. Size of pans, type of recipe, desired outcome (the same cookie recipe can yield both chewy and crispy cookies just by changing the temp and time).
10. Baking different items at the same time or baking too many items at once.
If youâre baking cookies or pies, donât bake them at the same time as your cakes. I bake my pies and cookies using two different temps. Perhaps, youâre trying to fit as many cake pans as possible to save time. Cake pans must be spaced 2â apart. Crowding your oven adds more moisture to the environment and blocks heat flow, so your baked products will not turn out the same way as they would on their own.
Now you know why Iâm focusing on teaching you about learning the basic techniques in baking, rather than just recipes, because I donât want you to depend on recipes and feel lost when things donât go well. I like to take my time explaining the science and the whys in my videos because itâs IMPORTANT to learn them. I can easily make 1min sped-up TikTok recipe videos, but are you really going to learn anything valuable from them other than the recipe and ingredients? If you know the techniques, you can easily solve any baking problem and make adjustments to the recipe. Itâs unfair to say that chefs are lying with their recipes just because yours didnât turn out the same as in the photo. Before putting the blame on the recipe, retrace the steps you took and figure out where you went wrong. I fail many times, but I also know the baking process and science so I can easily troubleshoot any recipe to my liking.
Four steps to accountability:
See it - Acknowledge the problem
Own it - Take responsibility for it
Solve it - Determine what you can do
Do it- Take action
Your no-nonsense queen,
~ J
