What have you tried making yourself when the store bought would've been just as good if not better?

[buddhasbelly]

For me baking. Every time I think "oh yes I shall make a beautiful lemon drizzle cake, some ginger snaps" I remember all the 'incidents' .

The incidents of burned cake on top that's not set in the middle; the £ in ingredients, the time spent. And then go and buy something ready made.

Buying the butter alone for any baking makes me think christ this isnt some great money saving hack.

Yes I know it's supposed to taste better homemade. I know a lot of folk find baking a great hobby/stress relief. For me it just works out an expensive, time consuming thing.

What other things have you made yourself where you've realised you'd have been better off just getting it from the shops?

(I know my baking could rectified by going on some cookery course or other... I'm beyond help, I've made my peace with it).

@DragonOverTheMoon crumpets was my first thought! I’ve never tried to make them but saw them on GBBO once and it looked like so much faff and like they wouldn’t be as good as a pack you can buy for less than £1

You’re welcome @buddhasbelly and I hope my instructions did not come across as too basic. Oh and eggs and butter are currently a bit cheaper - get the butter in the foil packet.

Houmous
Pastry (other than shortcrust which I can do a passable version of)
Family think icing from a tub is far far superior to my homemade buttercream
Shortbread - attempted at least a dozen times and never any good

I can bake most cakes/biccies but am terrible at decoration.

"Even the most amateurish cake baking tastes better than just about anything you can buy in a supermarket."

That is just SO wrong.
The only good reason for cooking at home rather than buying for me would be avoiding artificial ingredients that may not be good for you. Most things taste better made professionally than by a shit home cook.

Iced buns. Mix, knead, prove, knead, shape, prove, bake... Result looked like a 3 year old had made them with play dough and the ones you get for 99p for 6 in budgens are delicious.

I can manage most things mentioned cookery wise, buy can't for the life of me see the point in homemade pasta...definitely my biggest culinary disappointment.

Homemade naan bread is a million times better than shop bought, although I haven't quite got it to takeaway level yet.

Sourdough...absolutely cannot be arsed when I can buy it ready made or a packet mix!

For those struggling with hummus...you need to either skin the chickpeas first or simmer for 20 minutes with a tsp baking powder to soften the skins, then cool before blending to get it really smooth.

Oh, pasta - DH is a bit of a food nut and wanted to try making his own - what a faff.
Clafoutis - we have a pizza oven, the whole family clubbed together to buy one for DH a couple of Christmases ago. It gets used at least once a week, and I've costed our pizzas between 85p and £1.25, depending on toppings. Dough made in bulk and stashed in thin discs in freezer - defrost in minutes.

I love hm pizza - no horrible doughy edges and as much or little cheese as you want - I often find pizza shops put too much cheese on, which makes the pizza incredibly greasy.

Crafts. Why buy it ready made when I can spend £60+ on the supplies and then get overwhelmed and make it terribly?

Definitely hash browns. Spent ages grating potato, drying potato, mixing all the ingredients... took about an hour all in and only tasted okay! Will ALWAYS stick to shop bought now.

Oh yes and to echo PP - houmous. Felt like it was so expensive buying all the ingredients and blending it up for it to only taste slightly better than a 65p tub from Lidl.

@MrsPear

Right homemade lemon drizzle easy - you need scales, oven, loaf tin, grater, wooden spoon and a bowl. Put oven on 180 or 160 if your oven is quick - put shelf in middle. Rub spread all over a loaf tin 2lb size. Put bowl on scales press zero then put in 250g soft not fridge hard butter (1.50), press zero then 250g caster sugar (75p - you will have half left), then press zero add 250g self raising flour (60p and you will have loads left). Take off scale break in four eggs (1.50 2 left) and grate in zest of 3 lemons (80p). Now mix together no lumps. Put in oven 40 minutes. I personally press gently and it should spring back if cooked or stick in a metal kebab stick in middle and it comes out clean. For drizzle bit take the lemons you grated zest off, roll on work top a couple of times, cut in half and squeeze out juice and mix in 100g icing sugar (£1 loads left). While cake is still warm pour over top. Keep cake in tin and eat over the week or cut in half - freeze half and eat half.

My nemesis is bread - it is just heavy. Plus hummus - I can make it fine but it just doesn’t taste right.

Presumably you need a lemon squeezing device as well or do you just do it with your hands? Would it work in a round tin rather than a loaf tin (i don't bake often enough [ie never] to warrant buying a loaf tin, but I do like lemon drizzle.

My notable and time-consuming failures have been bagels, croissants and sourdough bread.

When I make my own I know what goes in it. No artificial flavourings, no excess salt, no palm oil etc etc.

Hot cross buns. Don't get me wrong, they were immense but they were expensive and took all bloody day to make. M&S do them just as good.

@Hopeful16

Baked beans - trying to impress the inlaws in the early days making a totally homemade Christmas breakfast. They took hours of soaking and baking and just tasted like they'd been taken out of a tin! 🤷🏻‍♀️ Not sure if that's a positive or negative 🤣

Ypuve just reminded me of when I made baked beans in the slow cooker. Took ages expensive ingredients and I was convinced they would be so different to the tinned ones ... they werent apart from being a massive pain to make

Breaded chicken. Life is too short to bread a chicken fillet especially since Iceland do them so well. The only exception is when Chilli Dorito chicken is requested but it's so messy and picking congealed flour out of my nails for hours.

Hot cross buns

Every few years I decide I will spend good friday making delicious home made hot cross buns like in the magazines
They tale forever with all the faffing about so you cant relax or go out all day and last time they were like rock cakes.
I could have gone to m and s and bought some lovely ones on their 2 for £3 deal

Christmas pudding - we did a light version and it was fine but expensive and it's just cheaper and easier to buy - same with christmas ckae.

Christmas log - did one for years kids loved it - Mum did same with us past a certain age though they lose interets and it easier to buy.

Still do a few mincepies - but stopped doing own mincemeat - just do short crust pastry - in fact I tend to buy puff pastry as it's easier.

Hot cross buns and egg custard tarts - slightly nicer home made but to to extent of work cost of ingredients.

Bugers - bean or meat - always better bought as they fall apart- fish cakes similar experience.

I like home made meat balls - kids much preferred shop bought.

I prefered shop bought bakewell tart.

We do occaionally do new things - like pumpion pie and while it's nice don't really bother again. Though the Pope's cheesecake - the american youtuber on Tasting History inrtoduced us to both - is one we'll do as it was great - though we switched to extra double cream for thickness.

I like baking it usually works though we're picky on recipies we'd use - as some sources for reciies IMO are more likely to work.

Home made pizzas are a very different thing - nice but different to shop bought.

Mostly it's not a money saver it's to have more control over ingredients or to do it as an activity with the kids or to smuggle extra veg into meals/packed lunches. As kids get older and have outgrown food reactions - seems less and less worth it.

Battenburg cake.
I once spent hours felt like days making one and the result was an untidier, dryer version of M&S.

Croissants, puff pastry and after the last batch DH is banned from making elderflower cordial. He made enough for about six years, froze it and the DC declared it weird. I think I’ve now binned it all (or rather let it melt in the sink).

Battenburg cake - we did that one as well - colours weren't as great probably down to the food dyes we has and it was slightly dry.

I'm not bad with cakes, my pizzas are pretty good and I'd rate my cookies over any shop or bakery. Croissants, Bagels and macarons, while fun to make just aren't worth the faff. Especially when my favourite bagel recipe takes three days.

A few years ago we had a huge glut of tomatoes. I decided to make ketchup, thinking how lovely and wholesome it would be. It was utterly vile, I'm even more of a Heinz devotee now.

Brioche, complete pain to do and burnt the motor on my food processor

Anything that can be made in a factory is "better" (*) than any version I would try to make. It is really obvious to me that most people want factory-made standard quality & appearance, most of all nothing imperfect or quirky looking/flavour.

(*) I prefer my versions (lasagne, quilts, mince pies, lentil soup, etc). But other people don't like mine. They prefer factory-made.