Baking...im the worst! Help!

[PurpleThistles84]

I’m a stay at home mum and we finally got a new cooker which should be great for baking, so I threw myself into whipping up a batch of cheese scones...which came out flat. Followed the recipe but I did have to substitute baking powder for bicarbonate. Clearly I got measurements wrong!

My granny was a wonderful baker and I have so many fond memories of her millionaire shortbread, rock buns, tablet and so forth. I’d love to bake for my kids but honestly this is not the first time I’ve had baking disasters!

Could I have some baking tips please and I’d really appreciate any easy baking recipes that your kids like that I could try!

Did you over-work the scone dough? If you stop mixing when the dough has just come together that should help. Don't give up; I bet your granny had her fair share of disasters when she started baking.

Most probably! It was going fine until I began to add the milk and instead of a firm dough it was sticky, so I added a bit more flour and worked the dough more. And here I thought scones would be easy!

Millionaire's shortbread is dead easy try this recipe. I've only tried scones once and they were a flop weirdly, i bake a lot as well so don't take it personally. Start with fail safe recipes and work your way up!

Scones need the lightest of touch and the least amount of handling.

You have to use exact amounts and measurements in baking it’s far less intuitive than cooking I think.

Mary Berry I think is the best for baking and she makes it really easy.
Jamie Oliver recipes for baking never really work for me. Nigella too, all a bit slow dash and maybe for the more experienced baker.

Don't give up - scones are tricky! It could have been overworking or the substitution, or both.

Second the suggestion of Mary Berry baking recipes - or Delia. But for scones, Mary Berry's recipe is good.

PS I hope you renamed them savoury biscuits and ate them anyway

Find one of Mary Berry’s old books at the library, She is good at explaining why you need to do something.... follow baking recipes TO THE EXACT LETTER whilst you are learning. Scones are hard. Maybe basic biscuits first. Good luck. We all have to start somewhere.

Baking powder is a mixture of bicarb of soda and tartar acid so if you added exact amount requested it still wasn’t probably enough to rise your bake.

Find a simple recipe and make sure you have all ingredients before you start baking.

Scones are tricky as somebody said, what about starting with some cake? Something simple that doesn’t require multiple ingredients and complicated instructions?

Check out BBC Food, good website and good recipes there, a bit less flashy than BBC Good Food.

Good luck 🙂

Cooking is an art, baking a science. You need to follow the recipe absolutely with baking or accept that it's an experiment and it may fail. Some great products can come out of experimenting but equally, as you found with your scones, experimenting can lead to a not quite as desired outcome. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Ooh @FrenchBoule but the comments on the BBC good food website are really useful - you only get star ratings on BBC food, I need to know if a cake takes 50% longer to cook than listed!

@UniversalTruth I agree with you re the comments however just like with any other reviews it’s up to personal taste.
I’m a devil for tweaking the recipes, some of my food delights are legendary,some of them are not so fondly remembered by my friends and family 😂

Only this week I was talking to my friend about GF website and we both have the same problem, it’s painfully slow.

As for the cake: poke it with a skewer when time’s up, if not ready give another 5 minutes and repeat 😉

I agree, baking is a science. As a beginner it's best to stick 100% to the recipe and make sure you have the correct ingredients.

Baking is definitely one of those things where accurate measurements are crucial and a knowledge of the science behind what is going On will lead to a great leap up in your skills and allow you to go off piste when you have more confidence.

I have tried a variety of recipes and the one which consistently work are Mary Berry, Stella Parks (Brave Tart on the Serious Eats website) and Nigella. Watching videos are helpful because they allow you to visualise what each stage should look like and Joy of Baking has some good ones, as does Brave Tart on Serious Eats.

I'm a pretty decent baker but I find scones and muffins quite difficult!

I use the Hummingbird Bakery book quite a lot (the first one) and also find Nigellas recipes generally turn out well (her lemon polenta cake is amaxing) The BBC good food website is also a good place to look and you can see what other people thought of the recipes.

Scones reward lazy bakers. Less is more with scones.

Follow the recipe quantities exactly. Rub the butter into the flour by hand OR blitz it in a food processor.

Once you add the milk handle it as little as humanly possible. I stir the milk in with a butter knife to avoid the urge to beat it well (like I might with a wooden spoon)

The dough will be pretty sticky and lumpy; that’s good.

Tip it onto a well floured surface and pat it lightly into an even thickness. Do not use a rolling pin. There’s no need.

Dip your cutter into flour then cut out your dough. Shimmy it, don’t twist (twisting pinches the top and bottom together and impedes the rise.)

A quick swipe of egg wash on the top, 12 minutes in a very hot oven, perfect scones every time.

(I used to teach a beginners baking class)

@WhatWouldJKRDo that’s very good info you presented here 🙂

I remember making scones the first time,it was really emphasized how little the dough should be mixed.

I’m quite experienced in baking but thought at the time “it’s not going to work”

I was wrong.
It did work, scones got 1st at local food show (and I made them first time). I’m not boasting here but sometimes it’s difficult to switch the mindset when the recipe tells you to do exactly opposite to what you are used to - all ingredients incorporated very well.

Thanks, @FrenchBoule
It was one of my favourite lessons, scones, because it’s so easy and once you know those tips you always make wonderful scones. My students were always so pleased with themselves after that class. It was lovely to see them gain confidence so quickly.

Which way round was the baking powder/bicarbonate switch? Did the recipe ask for baking powder or bicarbonate?

Look at kids baking recipes online & start with something easy.

YouTube recipes before you try them too.

I can bake anything, except scones!

I would start very simply with maybe shortbread.
You can't really go wrong with that and I think once you've made something and it came out well and tasted good it boosts your confidence and you can try things that are a bit trickier.
Don't give up, it will be worth all the niceness of freshly baked treats.

Also remember we’ve all fucked something up in the kitchen. Dh says my foods either lovely or in the bin quality with no in between.

Any recipe in the be-ro book works for me. Scones are difficult, it's taken me years and a hands on lesson from a baker to master them.