Heard someone say "baking is just following directions" and nearly lost it

I was at a coffee shop last week and this guy at the next table was telling his friend that baking is easy because you just do what the recipe says. Like, have you ever tried making croissants from scratch? Or had a cake fall apart because your butter was 2 degrees too warm? I wanted to walk over and hand him my latest fail where I used expired baking powder (rookie move, I know) and ended up with flat, sad cookies. I guess the takeaway is that people who don't bake just don't get the nuance. Has anyone else had someone dismiss what you do like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

stellablack12d ago

My last batch of cookies looked less like baked goods and more like a science experiment that went tragically wrong.

harperb4612d ago

Call me crazy but I think people get way too bent out of shape about this. Baking literally is following a recipe most of the time. Yeah, you might mess up a croissant or two but that's just learning the basics. @stellablack probably just used bad butter or something, not a huge deal. Stand back and ask yourself if your cookies falling flat is really that deep.