What's your next challenge going to be?
I love to bake and my current challenge is bread. I made no-knead bread the other day. It did not come out as expected and was kind of bland (thanks a lot, Mark Bittman). BUT - everyone liked it warm with butter on it so I can't say it was a complete flop. I think I'm going to try Bon Appetit's latest recipe for it and go get some rye flour on my lunch break today.
apricot / 443 posts
Have you tried Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day?
It comes out really well and the blog has tons of tips. That recipe alone made me gain like 10lbs because I always had freshly baked bread at home! 
I still use their brioche recipe to make cinnamon rolls and cinnamon bread. Ugh it's too good.
My current challenge is an excellent chiffon cake. There is this particular cake in Hawaii called a Paradise Cake that's three layers of chiffon cake with a whipped cream frosting and I just cannot for the life of me make a great chiffon. I've made plenty of decent chiffons that taste great, but they don't have that beautiful perfect softness. I figure I must be over whipping or under whipping the egg whites or something.
I'm thinking that maybe next time I should try to hand whip the whites and maybe that will make a difference? I also wonder if maybe I need to add some syrup or other moisture while I assemble it. I tend to assemble cakes the day of and I wonder if I should assemble and let the cake absorb some whipped cream frosting for a day or so.
pear / 1852 posts
I love to bake, but don't really have time with the bus commute and marking my students work on the weekends.
I made time for Christmas cookies over a month ago....
honeydew / 7622 posts
I loved to bake then we found out M is gluten intolerant several years ago. GF baking is a challenge.
Mmmmm cast iron chocolate chip cookie wedges sprinkled with salt. I miss those.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@tofuwad: hand-whipping egg whites? I applaud you if you try that! My arm would fall off. Haha. I'll have to try that bread recipe you recommend! I have a lot of trouble with frostings. I think a lot of the trouble comes from humidity. Getting egg whites whipped just right requires very low humidity, so maybe that's part of the problem?
blogger / honeydew / 7081 posts
I love baking! Currently I'm trying to adapt my favourite recipes to be dairy free because the baby is allergic (so no dairy for me!), but the thing I want to tackle next is macarons. They're pretty and yummy and they'd be fun!
pomegranate / 3127 posts
Love it! I haven't made my own dough since I had kids, but thankfully there's good ready made dough in stores here, and I just have to take care of the filling.
apricot / 443 posts
@mediagirl: Humidity may be part of the problem! I live in northern California so humidity usually isn't a problem, but it was raining when I made the cake. I'll have to try again sometime when it's dry.
persimmon / 1458 posts
I do but haven't done as much in the past few years due to being busy with the kiddos.
@youboots: that sounds amazing. Can you share the recipe?
pomelo / 5220 posts
I love baking but I am super busy so I haven't been doing anything too challenging. The occasional brownies or cookies from scratch. My next baking challenge is croissants or homemade bagels. yum!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@Mrs. Oatmeal: macarons are fun to make! I love seeing the little "bubbles" on the cookies appear after cooking. 
cantaloupe / 6885 posts
Yes I love to bake! I read Allrecipes magazine yesterday and it inspired me to try baking donuts. They sound difficult but look so delicious
blogger / pear / 1509 posts
@mediagirl: I make bread often and I've tried Mark Bittman's recipes a few times and have never been impressed. My favorite is the old fashioned Tassajara Bread Book for many recipes.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Love to! Just wished I had more time to bake. We made ciabatta rolls two weekends ago and they were pretty freaking amazing.
Might tackle cinnamon rolls this weekend!
But, really, I want to improve my cup/cake decorating skillz.
honeydew / 7622 posts
@Canoli: I added the salt, because I love sweet & salty.
http://www.marthastewart.com/1034356/skillet-chocolate-chip-cookie
honeydew / 7488 posts
I love to bake treats, like cookies and cakes. My next project is how to re-create the Papa John's "brookie"
cantaloupe / 6751 posts
I love to bake! I received a kitchen aid mixer a couple years ago for Christmas and it's been the best / worst thing to happen to our waistlines 
@mediagirl: do you have a good, relatively simple bread recipe to share? Im good with cookies and cakes but bread is a totally new thing to me.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@pinkcupcake: I'll let you know. I'm trying artisan bread right now. I will have to look to see if I have a regular bread recipe (like sandwich bread)
clementine / 928 posts
Love to bake! DH is a teacher and I've been sending baked goodies to work with him since he started teaching last year
So of course I'm making pink and blue cupcakes to send with him to work tomorrow so he can announce our pregnancy! They would expect nothing less
grapefruit / 4085 posts
Next thing I want to try is Ina Garten's Irish soda bread - it looks so good and looked easy to make!
GOLD / papaya / 10166 posts
I love to bake. I may not be very good at it, but it always calmed me down. .... that was *before* kids. It stresses me out to bake with my girls around now LOL
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@T-Mom: oh I love the brookie! It's actually pretty easy to make!
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@BabyBoecksMom: ha! I hear that. So many messes. I end up doing a lot of baking during naptime or after bedtime, if I have the energy.
honeydew / 7488 posts
@mediagirl: tell me how to do it! Not sure if I just bake cookie and brownie at same time, do they cook at same rate?
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@T-Mom: I think this was the first recipe I ever tried: http://pinchofyum.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-brownies
They bake together!
honeydew / 7488 posts
@mediagirl: Thanks, I'll have to give it a try! I want to make it look like a pizza just like Papa John's does. Drool.
pomegranate / 3863 posts
I love to bake! But I don't care for the effect it has on my hips
pineapple / 12234 posts
I loooove baking! I saw a red wine chocolate cake on Tasty last night and I've been thinking about it since, haha.
pear / 1657 posts
I love baking, obviously. One of my best baking buddies and I are doing to do choux pastry to make eclairs at our next get together. I also made a honey oatmeal bread recently and it turned out really well, so I am excited to try again. The last thing I made were chocolate chip cookies from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home cookbook and they were AHmazing.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@CakeLady: would love the honey oatmeal bread recipe!
coconut / 8079 posts
Love to bake! I'm planning to make a piñata cake for LO's birthday and fill it with mini m&ms (his favorite!).
pear / 1657 posts
@regberadaisy: it is from the cookbook Bake! By Nick Malgieri and it is actually a really badly written and confusing recipe. I had to add a lot of extra flour and knead it more than the recipe said to. But the bread was delicious so not sure whether I'd recommend the recipe or not.
kiwi / 735 posts
No, but I love to eat baked goods and sometimes I just have to make things myself
apricot / 373 posts
Love baking! especially when it's cold and rainy out. I'm not very good at it though, I tend to burn things.
nectarine / 2085 posts
Forget Bittman. I know he means well, and I like his recent turn towards more veggie-centric fare, but he turns out a lot of duds.
If you want excellent bread, get a copy of Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish.
nectarine / 2461 posts
love it--my satisfaction is in exhaustively trying variations and finding my perfect recipe for things. the best birthday cake on earth, the best peanut butter cookie, brownie, etc. it's like America's Best Recipe, but personal
@mediagirl: I am really not impressed with Mark Bitman recipes! maybe just too basic?
cantaloupe / 6610 posts
I like baking bc my oldest DD loves to make cupcakes and cookies. I don' t do anything from scratch, so I don't know if that counts, we we bake them together and then I put icing on them, and each time she eats one, she decorates them. We have about a million different colors and types of sprinkles:)
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