Home baking is rubbish

[AmperoBlue]

Full of the joys of spring I decided on a whim to make Belgian Buns for the kids to eat at half term.
I have had to buy ; strong flour, yeast, sultanas, icing sugar and lemon curd. From the pound shop mostly but that’s still a fiver.

Then I used from my supplies of caster sugar, milk and egg. So they’ll need replacing now.
I have literally spent all day waiting for dough to rise (twice),kneading for 10 minutes, cooking time, cooling time and then icing.

And they are shit. Dry, not sweet enough, not enough lemon curd or fruit in them.I could have picked up a packet of 2 for £1.20.
Now I have 12 lumps of slightly sweet bread in icing to (throw out) do something with.

I love home baking but that does sound like a bit of a disaster 😬 maybe it was a bit ambitious. Some things are really worth making at home and some things are better just bought!

I like baking and am good at it - I would still buy belgian buns lol

Agreed, results variable, messy, expensive and adds chub

Yes, it’s probably me. Glad it’s not just me.

I’m a good savoury cook. This was supposed to be the easiest bun recipe ever...just cross.

Probably because we don’t have a warm house and I’ve normally got cold hands ( in denial).

There are just some things that you have to concede you can't do.

My sister used to make the most amazing bread when she was a teenager. She used to bake every weekend and it was just gorgeous.

I used to bake a lot when my children were at home and I was pretty good at it, but no matter how many times I tried I couldn't make bread. It never tasted right and the texture was wrong.

A couple of years ago I thought I'd have another try. Nope, still bloody awful.

I fear I have to accept that the bread gene had just bypassed me.

Perhaps baking with yeast is not one of your talents OP, I'm sure you have others though.

I love baking but it only works out cost effective if you make in bulk and bake 3 or 4 different items. Flour and sugar isn’t that expensive but things like dried fruit and butter are. I don’t bother with bread, go for cakes, much easier.

Maybe you just can’t bake!

For a decent baker, what you buy in shops doesn’t even come close to the taste of home made. Yes sometimes it costs more but if your a good baker it is so worth it

Make something easier, fairycakes with chocolate chips in them, cookies, banana bread, scones (plain or cheese)

Make bread and butter pudding with your buns, add chocolate chips in & plenty of cream

YANBU. Shops sell cakes. Same as knitting, buying a jumper way easier and cheaper.

I tried brioche once. I had pain in my arms for two days from all the kneading and the dc took a bite and politely asked for some “real brioche please”

I also attempted croissants from scratch once. They were absolutely heavenly but I could never face doing all that ever again.

These days I stick to simple quick recipes: soda bread, scones, crumble, sponge, cookies, apple tart, brownies, bread pudding.

If you’ve got cold hands you can probably make great pastry. Sounds like yeast cookery is not your thing. Don’t give up, everyone has something they are good at and something not so good. (I’ve been baking for years but I can’t make nice scones) Try making brownies or lemon curd cupcakes or a traybake.

If you’re a bit of a novice baker start out with easier recipes that don’t involve yeast and proving. I’ve been baking for years, but some of my best bakes are still things like banana bread/cake knocked up from leftover bananas and what’s in the cupboard. Try experimenting a bit with simple recipes for a while. Savoury cooking and baking are very different x

Baking is not that easy, it needs practice just like anything else.

I've never made, nor eaten, Belgian Buns in my life, and I'm hopeless at bread so don't bake my own.
I never buy cakes though. Make your own using simple recipes. They're tastier and you know what's in them.

Lemon drizzle is one of the easiest and a family favourite with the pie family.

Cookies, brownies, blondies, fudgies...all dead easy, no special ingredients and cheap, plus always popular with kids! I have a coffeeshop and sell loads of the above, and after practice can turn out loads of batches in just a couple of hours, less than an hour including cooking for 1 batch

Haha, just like modern life OP.

I do this with lasagne, fannying about with more and more decadent ingredients like truffle oil and n'duja until it would've been cheaper to buy them from Cook. I enjoy the process though and make a day of it with wine, dancing and music.

I love baking but would be baking for one most of the time. I've just bought a secondhand bread maker and am trying it out now. I can, and do, make bread which is okay, but I don't make it enough to have learned how to be consistent. Belgian buns are always a bit disappointing I think and enriched dough always takes longer to make. Chelsea buns or American style cinnamon buns are nicer imo.

Lovemusic33 yes your right of course. I forgot butter on my list of ingredients.
Probably cost £7 for my dry buns. Even if I’d cooked them properly it doesn’t make sense financially really.
Back to the boring biscuits that I normally do.

Flapjacks are a good thing to make, oats are cheap and most supermarkets do their own brand golden syrup, only expensive ingredient being the butter but you can make quite a few flapjacks with one block of butter. They also freeze really well too and you can add alsorts to them.

I’m not a baker either OP. I stick to moist fruit/almond based cakes which are hard to mess up, or shortbread type biscuits. TBH it’s more about baking as an activity the kids enjoy rather than the end result. Also if you make them with the DC, you can use that as an excuse if the results aren’t great

Also Nigellas brownies are great, the recipe makes loads and they freeze

Another vote for lemon drizzle, really easy and cheap to make.

I think you’ve chosen one of the trickiest things to bake (sweet yeasted doughs are hard) and the least likely to yield results that are substantially better than shop bought.

Even a decidedly average homemade cake is usually much nicer than what you can buy in the shop. A simple all in one recipe is hard to ruin.

Gah, wrote a huge post then went to recipe and the posts gone!

Basically, if you don't usually bake don't start with a dough recipe.

This is a really good, reliable recipe which you can chop and change. For eg, my yd can't eat chocolate so instead I put flaked almonds and some dried mixed fruit, with a few tsps of cinnamon. Oh, and orange extract instead of vanilla. Delish!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/12246/chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies

YANBU. Shops sell cakes. Same as knitting, buying a jumper way easier and cheaper

But with cake, almost none of those sold in shops are edible. Factory cake isn't a patch on that made at home.

Different people are good at different things. Just because you're a good cook it doesn't mean that you can bake or even that a good baker can do everything. Just look at the GBBO.

My grandma was a lousy cook but amazing baker; Mum was a good cook and pretty good Baker. I'm slightly better at cakes than Mum but far worse at scones and pancakes, and I've never dabbled in yeast.

Try working your way up to Belgian buns! 😀