Recipes that don't work. So frustrating!

[losenotloose]

Does this happen to other people? I've followed two recipes recently which have both been disappointing. One was Paul Hollywood's carrot and almond cheesecake (not keen on the texture and fairly bland) and Delia Smith's chocolate mascarpone cheesecake (not as bad as the first one but the description promised a lot. Needed more sugar imo).

So, tell me this happens to you and I'm not just a rubbish cook!

So the recipes do work, they just aren't to your taste?

I would think with the Delia recipe that maybe you needed to incorporate the sugar more evenly?

I gave up on Delia a long time ago as I could never get her recipes to work. Also Anjun Anand's recipes were disastrous.

The best I've found are Mary Berry, Nigella Lawson and the Hello Fresh recipe book called Recipes that Work. Have never gone wrong with any of these.

I made a slow cooker pulled pork from BBC Good Food last week....it had too much liquid so was kind of boiled instead of pulled, tasted ok but kind of grey looking

I'm not sure they'd be to anyone's taste!

The Delia recipe only had 40g of sugar in the whole cheesecake, which included dark chocolate. I thought as I was making it it didn't seem enough.

I've failed with Anjum Anand as well!

I've never had a Delia fail on me

There's one Nigella recipe I have (can't remember the book off the top of my head), which if you follow it to the letter you end up with a delicious beef stew and a little pile of chopped onions on the side!

IHave I suppose it's not a failure but not as sweet as I would expect, and I sometimes find things too sweet.

Thistledew

My breadmaker consistently makes the most awful bread regardless of which recipe I use or how much I tweak it. I could have built a house with the bricks it has produced. Am sure it didn't do this before but stopped using it for a while and now it is awful.

There is a recipe online, may have been one of those on the side of the MN page, for banana breakfast drop scone type things, it didn't work, and neither does the poached egg in a cup, unless you want a snotty, lukewarm egg.

One was Paul Hollywood's carrot and almond cheesecake (not keen on the texture and fairly bland)

With all due respect, I cannot, in a million years, imagine looking at a recipe for carrot and almond cheesecake and thinking it would be anything BUT bland and lacking in texture.

What on earth inspired you to make it?

I don't know, Yemen! It sounded interesting...

Jamie's don't work for me. Ever.

I trust Nigella, Lisa Faulkner and the Hairy Bikers!

I have never had a Delia recipe fail in twenty five years, but yes, sometimes the end result isn't to my taste. That's not a recipe fail though, some people prefer sweeter /spicier/blander /whatever tastes.

Sabrina Ghayour is brilliant. Her recipes always work.

Not surprised the Paul Hollywood, but VERY surprised by the Delia fail.

Did it say to use dark chocolate, meaning the bourneville type, and you used something like 85% cocoa dark chocolate? The former being very sweet already.

I've had an anjum anand failure, followed it to the letter and if was watery and flavourless, had the same with a delia casserole, no flavour and watery.
On the other hand I've had zero failures with jamie oliver, nigella and ainsley Harriot.

I'm not a massively enthusiastic cook but I can follow a recipe and I find it really annoying when the recipes obviously haven't been tested properly.

This is a good thread is love more recommendations for recipe books that work.

You are not a rubbish cook, losenotloose, but Delia specialises in reassuring "how to boil an egg and don't worry if this looks rubbish at this stage because it's meant to" recipes designed to work the chemistry and bring out the same result every time. When trying any new Delia recipe, I always follow it to the letter the first time and then adjust for individual taste and preference thereafter. It sounds like that is what you did with the cheesecake and that's why you got a better, more palatable result the second time.

Mary Berry's recipes are also good standard failsafe recipes but she recognises that everyone has preferences so she puts a little "hints and tips" section below the main recipe (along the lines of "add chopped nuts or leave out the sultanas and used chopped-up apricots instead if you wish").

It called for 75% cocoa chocolate and I used 70% as that's what I had, should be sweeter! Anyway, I've just tried another piece and it's not a failure, but a bit bland. I find Delia blows her own trumpet (this is the ultimate such and such) and the results are often very average.

I just hate going to the trouble, spending money on ingredients, looking forward to it and being let down.

I always follow the recipe to the letter the first time. Then tweak or adapt it, if it seems to need it, when I cook it again.

I think it was the Hairy Bikers who said 'you don't get a duff Delia' - which was true until the key lime pie recipe..

That Delia recipe sounds up my street, as a diabetic I have given up sugar as much as I can and now most things are too sweet for me. Last week I had some roast chicken crisps and they tasted too sweet for me. Unlike a PP Jamie's recipes always work for me, I hate following recipes to the letter because I can usually adapt them to the family needs and tastes. I have been cooking for around 50 years so that may also be part of the reason.

Every 'one-pot' tray recipe ever. Always says '20 mins'. Always takes 45 mins, unless you like raw butternut squash or slightly see-through chicken.

I have never seen a risotto recipe which worked with the amount of stock suggested by the recipe. I always have to add loads more.

Mary Berry is extremely reliable. It really seems like she has actually made these recipes herself dozens of times, rather than just come up with them very quickly to fill her latest book

Occasionally there are misprints, I tried a Nigella flapjack recipe and endued up with a slightly sticky crumbly mess, recipe only had 75g of syrup, sometime latter I looked at the website, found the corrections and it should have been 175 g , if it hasn't worked might be worth checking for any corrections. Usually I can rely 100% on Nigella.