I’ve been losing it with covid. I’ve stopped cooking, cleaning, caring about anything. I just eat Del Taco everyday. Well, recently, I randomly started watching The Great British Baking Show for background noise, and I got kind of hooked. One of the big issues I’ve been having lately is that I’ll get super baked and want dessert, and I’ll go to the store and there is nothing there that looks good, frozen or bakery dept. It’s all just vile stuff. Watching that show… those are the desserts I want. My weed craving is making me want those things, and I can’t have them :-/ Also, I thought it’d be nice to start making an effort in life and get back in the kitchen.
SO, just like with weed–if you want the good stuff, you have to grow it. Well, I think the same is true with baking. I’ve decided to leverage my more obsessive predilections. I ordered bundt pans, rounds, squares, springform pans, trays, loaf pans, racks, mixer etc. I also got 100 pounds of different flours. I got all the American Culinary Institute textbooks, too, and all the professional baking references I could find. I want to see how crazy I can get with this.
Are there are any bakers here? It’d seem to me, with edibles being as popular as they are, there’d be quite a few bakers in the greater cannabis community. I’d love to see and swap pictures and recipes. I’d also love to get pointers and maybe make a place where people can get baking help. Maybe for edibles, too. I don’t follow the other food threads because I’m a pretty strict vegetarian and the sight of meat is a bit off-putting. I thought it’d be nice to have a dedicated thread to baking.
edit: The itinerary so far is 7Up Bundt cake tomorrow, then Caribbean Rum cake after to fully get a feel for the bundt pan. After that, I’ll be moving to a more ambitious multi-tiered Red Velvet. Then, I am going to try a Chocolate Lava in a springform pan. Then I’m kinda wide open.
@Eudaemon the man of 1000 hobbies. I would definitely recommend making some pretzel bread. Big loaves of the stuff. I used to get it all the time as a kid, asking them to cut it into slices. It’s been about 20 years since i’ve had the real deal. All of these pretzel buns and pretzel shaped ball-park style can’t compete with the actually thing. I found a recipe but it’s too much trouble for me to make it. they also had the best cupcakes but i guess plenty of bakeries can do cupcakes right. 2 words, pretzel. bread.
I just find one thing and obsess about it. One of the last times I got into a baking kick it was when I learned how great brown butter is. Made alot of stuff just to see how it could change the flavor.
Other one was pecan pie. I can make it from scratch without the recipe. Kept tweaking it untill I made my vision of a perfect pie.
Poke cake was another big one.
I did edibles just to see the bounds. Then I realized I didnt like it because id rather just enjoy the sweet/dessert item.
Love cooking too. Just challenging myself to make simple tasty things. Couldnt make hamburger helper to save my life, but I think thats jist because most recipes are a guideline to me. To be made to my own taste.
You found my weakness! There are very, very few things in life as good as well made Pretzel bread. I’ve had it a few times in random pockets around the country and then in Germany when I’m there. But, it’s very hard to find it, and you’re right, the buns and mass produced things aren’t nearly as good, not even in the same league. It’s funny, but the grocery store I go to has pretzel buns and they are the only buns I buy for veggie burgers, and they taste like dogshit pretzel buns, but even dogshit pretzel buns are better than the alternative.
I looked at recipes and that’s not bad at all. I wonder what I’d cook to go with them, or maybe just make a dipping sauce and eat them alone.
yeah, i can’t even settle for the bad ones, i think i prefer to go without. you could always make some homemade jam or something to go on the bread if your options are limited (another hobby for you, lol), also,butter. i prefer cheap country crock margarine but whatever works for you.
I actually prefer to do the same thing. I honestly want to focus on cakes and tortes only, but I am actually obsessed with the idea of competitive baking lol. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I want to be on that show or some competitive baking show. I wish I could control these goals and interests. They just hit me. I just knew at one point in one of the episodes, “here we go again, another special interest…” At least I do like eating really good bread, even if it isn’t at the top of my interests.
I absolutely love the way you think and operate. That’s the methodology of success: attention to detail and unending refinement coupled with drive. That is literally the distillation of success, imho. I would kill to taste that pie.
That’s a new one to me. Is it weird I haven’t heard of that? Is that a regular/common cake? Looks like a really cool concept. Saving that one.
Exactly! There is no way to make an edible not taste like shit, imho. Why waste time and energy making it take longer to consume? Tinctures and capsules are literally the only thing that makes sense.
From one ‘autist’ to the next, what is your framework and methodology for understanding baking and cooking? Is it an acid/base focused approach or fat/acid or gluten/water/fat or something else (I made all those up as examples). I still don’t understand the relationship between fat and acid and gluten and acid or fat. It’s weird. There has to be some relational understanding. Like with photography, I have the aperture/iso/shutter speed triangle. That is the framework with which exposure works. There has to be a similar thing with baking. Everything is a system.
That sounds like it would be really fun!! Just learned a torte is a cake or tart. Tarts are alot of fun. I like to make apple tarts. My wife loves when I make apple tarts with fresh apples. I do the exact same thing. I get good and want to compete. I feel like its for perspective. To know how good it actually is.
Every thanksgiving since nailing this down Ive been responsible lol. My wifes parents(grandparents) Will eat a whole pie in 2 days. It makes me feel like I have its my place at her families table. Im going to admit its a store bought crust. Honestly, just keep making it over and over untill its the way you like it.
Once I had a thought after breaking pecans in oatmeal that the way the oils released would make the pie better. Its always fun to think about how new things learned can be applied to old favorite recipes. Maintaining there may always be chance for improvement.
Its just a wierd recipe I stumbled into at a potluck. With the coolwhip on top its amazing for how simple it is. I use strawberry jello but you can even do pudding. Even throw fresh strawberries on top too.
It really depends on how you make your butter/oil, My favorite edible were rice krispy treats. They were beyond easy to make. Activate weed in oven with butter/oil. Pull out of oven pour over rice krispy treat mixture. Then set in pan. Feel like they are actually easier to make as edibles lol.
Still agree that making them is a waste but, I dont eat edibles anymore except every now and then. I made an edible pecan pie for shits and giggles. Next thing I want to make is Majoun.
Baking I only deviate on what gives it taste/flavor. At the base level we understand there is a science that is not to be screwed with. Then, there is what you can mess with. The flavor maybe even type of sugar/sweetener. Like once in a pecan pie I tried half honey half maple syrup instead of just maple syrup. Or using brown sugar instead of white.
Some times if I come up with what I think is one of my own ideas, Ill google it. If it exists, ill look at enough recipes to draw a commonality between them. If you understand what you cant mess with and why, it paints a pic. As an example, I wanted to make baked beans. I liked the recipe but didnt like what they used to give it flavor. I added more stuff. Even to the level of sprinkling brown sugar on top to make it look even better and add savory ingredients.
In typing this, I also realized a simple way to look at it is understanding the scientific reaction and process. Understanding what purpose each ingredient has.
Server is resetting want to save comment. Before I lose track of time. Will give me time to see if I can come up with a better way to articulate the last that makes me.
Eh. Couldnt figure out how to get it articulated. Other people can do better.
@Eudaemon that Del Taco comment had me rolling on my living room floor. I feel the same way, I havnt pounded this much Mickey D’s since high school! :o
Depending how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole with this I could point you towards some great resources.
Some of the books I might suggest to begin to understand the relationships…
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - Samin Nosrat
Ratio - Michael Rhulman
The Elements of Taste - Gray Kunz (out of print, available as ebook)
The Flavor Equation - Nic Sharma (haven’t gotten to this one yet, but I’ve skimmed it and am looking forward to reading)
On Food and Cooking - Harold McGee (if you really want to nerd out, very dense)
Many others I could recommend, but I think those are the most general that address that kind of thinking. All are pretty approachable, on food and cooking is more of a general food science kind of book, more of a reference or something to read piecemeal.
I’m a long time cook(savory&pastry) and love books.
With the springform pan you can also make cheesecakes, no bake and baked. If you have a really sweet tooth, try a chocolate chip pecan pie, https://www.eatingonadime.com/easy-chocolate-pecan-pie-recipe/, it is guaranteed to spike your blood sugar if not put you in a coma
I bake various breads and often give them as gifts. Double banana is a personal favorite, along with raisin and cinnamon swirl, but I’m also a fiend for 3-cheese with Tabasco sauce. Winter is my favorite time to bake too! The various beer breads are a real crowd pleaser, especially the Christmas ale.
I’ve been making edibles recently: peanut butter balls, truffles, various cookie recipes. I’m diabetic so I only partake in small quantities. Most go to my girlfriend and father.
My lady friend sometimes requests baked goods that are not full of THC. That is when I make scones. I’ve been using the Master Scone recipe here with great success. When she’s craving sweet I make cinnamon chip, and for savory she likes ham and cheese.
I get many requests for my carrot cake - sometimes served in muffin form - and I have a flourless chocolate cake recipe that has gotten me laid!
It’s probably a good thing I must moderate my intake, since I love making delicious treats in the kitchen so much.
It’s fucking terrible. What’s crazy is I’ll eat like 8 tacos (I shit you not) and be absolutely both stuffed and starving at the exact same time. It’s like I just ate Styrofoam or something. My body is protesting the lack of nutrition. I was getting what felt like scurvy, so I had to start taking a vitamins. And they get my order wrong every other visit. And… the worst part is the food isn’t even good… I feel such intense shame and self hatred when I eat it. I shove it down my gullet so quickly.
What have I become? Who am I? Am I even human? What does that even mean?
@anonymous4289 Isn’t that show awesome!? What season did you start with? Pru is hot, in a “she’s 90, but I’d still hit it,” sorta way. Can you imagine? And now more shame…
@JustSumTomatoes What is Tabasco 3 cheese? I am a huge, huge Tabasco fan. Even though I don’t have a lot of baking experience, I have tried baking banana bread. I am not sure what it is, I think I am just tired of banana bread. I think by the time I was, maybe, 21 I had already had an entire lifetimes worth of banana bread. I am not sure how, but I practically feel like I was force fed the stuff growing up. I get as excited about banana bread as I would about a bran muffin. If I am drinking a cup of coffee and starving, sure, but it’s not my first choice anymore.
@BarefootAndBlazed What is your flourless chocolate recipe? I’ve been dying to find a good flourless cake recipe. Most are too shitty to even bother going through the effort of trying to make, from what I’ve tasted of other peoples flourless cakes. But, I’ve had a flourless chocolate before at a restaurant that made me realize what is possible without flour.
Bummer about the diabetes, too! When I was in middle school, there was this bitchy girl that was mean to me. She was hot and smart, so I didn’t know what insults to hurl back at her, so I made fun of her because she was a diabetic and had to go get shots all the time during classes. I could tell it stung when I said them. Then, as an adult–not long ago, my dog got diabetes, and it made me remember that… what a random digression… Anyway, keep focusing on that time in range!
I can’t thank you enough. Those are the exact kinds of references I am looking for. I approach every project and hobby from a systems theory perspective. I say screw the recipes. That seems like the most absurd way on earth to learn to cook. Memorize recipes? To me, that memorization should be the last step of any academic progression, after all the systems are understood.
I’ll start scouring ebay for used copies of those. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a pretty popular one right now. That is the first one I researched and it looks good, but is a tad pricey since there’s it’s so hot at the moment. She also has a show on Netflix with the same name. I hesitate to check it out because I don’t like to see meat (I’m one of those people), but it looks really good. Is the book worth the price of admission for an aspiring baker?
I spent way too much money on baking stuff this month and it ate into my food budget the tiniest bit (I justified it by telling myself that it is food, technically). Any recommendations on a nice savory, vegetarian dinner pastry? Like maybe some sort of Shepherds Pie or something (literally the only dinner pasty coming to mind right now). Basically, I need to put my hundreds of dollars worth of grain products, lipids, and dairies to work for more than just desserts.
I’m actually the most excited about the springform pan, oddly. I am really interested in tortes, but I am also a huge cheesecake fan. Oddly, though, the springform pan I got was square. I got a 9 inch square to focus on tortes. I know some people bake their cakes in springform pans, but it requires the pan be leakproof. I was limited in my options since I wanted square, so I ended up getting an analon. It seemed decent enough, but I don’t think it is leakproof. I’ve never had a square cheesecake before, but I guess we’ll find out how it goes.
That chocolate chip pecan pie looks quite… rich. Even pecan pie alone makes my teeth ache, but I do love it, so a chocolate version sounds amazing. I imagine that’d be quite the hit during the holidays.
I’ve always just imagined a torte as anywhere in the combinational spectrum between a cake and tarte. Just basically, fruit and cake. When you say apple tarte, are you referring to a fresh apple tarte? Your wife might be interested in a classical tarte tatin. This is high up on my must-bake list:
Definitely post your recipe! I’d be very interested in trying that. Pecan pie is one of those things where it can be really out of this world when it’s exceptional.
Ok, now I’m interested in edibles a bit. That looks potentially delicious. Any plans or ideas on when you might be able to try making that?
Yeah, that server reset threw me. It kept my reply half saved instead of posting it. Weird. Ironically, our favorite doctor, @MantisTobogganMD gave me some pretty good references. He also told me I had the AIDs, but only after he dropped a pack of monster condoms for his, “magnum dong.” Unsavory fellow…
I own a restaurant and make a bunch of cheesecakes, breads and such. You don’t need a leakproof springform if you just wrap the pan with some aluminum foil.
The one that I have never been able to pull off, and no one I challanged could do either, was a custard pie with a flaky crust. There was this lady, the mother of a friend, who made these amazing custard pies, and she took the secret to her grave. No one has managed to pull this one off yet.
Always have a mushy soaked crust.
