Higher quality ingredients for baking - do you notice?

[MeMarmiteYouJam]

I recently made a special dessert for my partner's birthday. It was the first time I tried it and so did a few practice runs (fiddly recipe).

For the final result I used higher quality ingredients - organic, free range eggs, bourbon vanilla extract, etc. But I didn't notice the difference in taste compared to my (successful) practice runs.

Do you notice the difference when you use higher quality ingredients in baking?

During the first lockdown when flour supplies were dodgy, I ended up buying 'Superfine sponge flour' for DS1s birthday cake. I was sceptical but the sponge was fantastic.

@FurryGiraffe

During the first lockdown when flour supplies were dodgy, I ended up buying 'Superfine sponge flour' for DS1s birthday cake. I was sceptical but the sponge was fantastic.

The protein content of sponge flour is different so it definitely makes a better cake. It's used a lot for dairy free baking for an extra lift.

All very interesting! I might be convinced I'm wrong.

No, but sieving flour is worth it

@BarbaraofSeville

There's so many other factors (skill of baker, oven) that you'd have to do a blind side by side comparison to get a definite answer, but for cakes, pies, biscuits, puddings etc, I'd say most people won't notice any difference, and be perfectly happy with the cheaper ingredients.

I always use butter, free range eggs and dark chocolate, but it all comes from Aldi or Lidl, including the 30 pence dark chocolate, and it's all really nice.

I once did rocky road for work with these sorts of ingredients and it went down really well, including a comment about how good the chocolate was, from a colleague who is very 'Waitrose and Farmers market', even though it was the 30 p from Aldi type.

yy agree re Aldi 30p chocolate. It actually has higher cocoa solids than the Morrisons equivalent (or maybe it's Sainsburys?) anyway it's a good buy.

I can definitely tell if I've used cheap quality vanilla extract. I struggled to find any vanilla extract in any of the supermarkets during the 1st lockdown so bought some from the pound shop. I could definitely tell, it wasn't a nice taste.

@Pimmsypimms

I can definitely tell if I've used cheap quality vanilla extract. I struggled to find any vanilla extract in any of the supermarkets during the 1st lockdown so bought some from the pound shop. I could definitely tell, it wasn't a nice taste.

Yy. If only the good stuff wasn't so expensive!!

I got given some McDougall’s sponge flour ( I normally use Aldi) and I couldn’t see any positive difference at all. Eggs make a difference though.

I notice cheap chocolate and margarine.

Butter is so much better.

DH made a curry with Aldi chick peas the other day: truly horrible, tasteless with a vague disinfectant flavour.

Chef here

So long as you sieve the flour to get some air into it then I just say use what you like really.

My revered brownies use cheap Sainsbury's basics chocolate and ordinary plain flour and people rave about them. Maybe it's all the butter...

@sheworkshardforthemoney

Chef for a living

Butter not margarine
Any dark chocolate NOT milk chocolate

Fresh free range eggs
Real vanilla pods

NEVER use liquid dyes

That's all I can think of right now 😊

I disagree about butter vs margarine for baking. I have done a few blind tastings on various people with plain fairy cakes, and the margarine ones won every time. We all found the fairy cakes made with butter browned a little more and were slightly more greasy (but delicious anyway)

I agree about milk chocolate, which has no place in baking IMO
I always use free range eggs
I use vanilla paste, which is more readily available where I live
Gel food colourings all the way

It depends. I notice high quality butter in anything that requires you cream up the butter. I notice cheap vanilla extract vs good quality vanilla paste or actual pods.

Depending on the recipe you might notice how fresh the eggs are - but this is true for all cooking, not just baking.

I notice high quality cocoa powder and icing sugar, but not in the end product - I notice it whilst I'm actually baking because they don't clump as much and are generally easier to work through a seive/sifter.

Depends a lot on the recipe. Any ingredient that's the star of the show flavour-wise is worth getting good quality for. Honey is the one I seem to always end up spending exorbitant amounts on, and finding that it does make a massive difference (obviously not if the recipe only requires a small amount). Fruit as well, especially if used fresh, though quality and price aren't correlated there.

Fresh eggs are definitely important I'd say. I buy free range for ethical reasons but it's the freshness that'll make a difference, not organic/free range necessarily.

With things like chocolate and flour - better quality will probably make for a better outcome but it's not always worth it. You could spend twice as much on fancy chocolate, say, but while it might make the cake a little nicer it won't make it twice as nice. So I just use Bourneville and it's fine.

Agree - I notice the difference in butter and vanilla. Never notice any difference between super expensive organic flour and Tesco own brand. Eggs I've never really noticed a difference but I always use free range anyway. Chocolate yes - but any half decent chocolate with a good percentage of cocoa solids is fine - doesn't need to be an expensive one.

I think it's different with main meals - higher quality cuts of meat, for instance, is far more noticeable than more expensive flour in a cake.

I'll remember the Aldi chocolate tip, though!

Any ingredient that's the star of the show flavour-wise is worth getting good quality for

I agree. while I might use a tub of Stork for sponge cakes - so shoot me , I wouldn't dream of using anything other than butter for shortbread.

I notice the difference with butter. If I use Stork v if I use Lurpak (or Danpak).
Even for other people, the reviews are better.

@Ginfordinner

Any ingredient that's the star of the show flavour-wise is worth getting good quality for

I agree. while I might use a tub of Stork for sponge cakes - so shoot me , I wouldn't dream of using anything other than butter for shortbread.

Yes, even after admitting to not really caring much about ingredients, I couldn't cope with margarine-based shortbread!

Definitely butter in place of margarine, but they are two different things so not quite the same issue. I just will not touch marge 🤢

Eggs and butter are the two things I notice a difference with.

Butter especially in biscuits or cookies as I find baking spreads make them too wet and lose their shape.