# Do you develop your own recipes?



## htc (Dec 14, 2004)

Hi,  How many of you develop your own recipes?  (both baking and cooking) I find that for cooking, it's much easier to make something creative and brand new, but with baking, I've never been able to develop any recipes from "scratch".  The best I can come up with is taking a recipe I like and tweaking it to add a personal touch.

Would love to learn the ratios for making my own recipes (i.e. quick breads, cookies, scones--basically anything that doesn't require yeast to rise, too lazy to wait).  Flour to b.powder to b.soda ratios. Anyone have any tips?

Thx!


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## mudbug (Dec 14, 2004)

htc, baking is always called more of science than "plain" ole cooking.  Measurements and weights of ingredients are much more important in baking than in other forms of cookery, so it's rather difficult to improvise if you want your cake to form a beautiful crumb or the bread to not be a brick.  

If you don't bake much, take a recipe you like and try playing around with the "additives", such as fruit, nuts, flavors, glazes, etc.  You'll find out what worked and what didn't.  Kind of fun, actually.  Thsi works especially well with quick breads.

If the results suck, you've learned what NOT to do again.  Flour, baking soda, sugar, etc. are cheap, so you haven't wasted much and have gained wisdom.


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## htc (Dec 15, 2004)

baking  really is a science! I am going to try my hand at developing my own "recipe". I will let you all know how it goes!


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## cats (Dec 15, 2004)

I often come up with new meal ideas, and my husband is great for trying new things. Baking wise, I also stick to the recipe and tweek it a bit at times. For example, today I was making cookies that called for them to be rolled in confectioner's sugar prior to baking. That was fine, but I decided on subsequent batches to roll them in either finely ground walnuts, almonds, or macadamia (sic) nuts. I moistened the rolled cookie ball of each one with some whipped up plain egg white to make the nuts stick. As I moved along with my adventure, I decided to add in some green and red Christmas sugar with the various nuts. I ended up with quite a variety of the same basic cookie, but different tastes. They look great and the ones with the nuts are better than the confectioner sugar coating, per my husband's expert opinion, and mine as well. I really don't understand the science of baking, like the need for baking soda vs. baking powder or sometimes both, etc. Safer for me to stay with the cookbooks.  Happy Holidays to everyone!


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## luvs (Dec 15, 2004)

for baking, i use recipes, which i hate using, so i hardly bake.
for regular foods, recipes are out. i invent on my own.


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## htc (Dec 15, 2004)

Cats, sounds like your cookies turned out wonderful! So creative! I am slowly trying, but am not very creative...I'm trying though!


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## Haggis (Dec 16, 2004)

I'm not sure if what I do would be called creating recipes, most of the time it is taking a recipe and adapting it to different ingredients, or getting the basic ideas for a recipe then just adding however and whatever much you want (the best way to approach stews I think).

Although there have been a couple of original inventions, mostly when it comes to absolutely nothing in the cupboard and you have to get creative to eat properly. As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention.

Personally I think you have to be cooking and trying new ingredients by themselves or in pre-set recipes for a while before you can suddenly go "you know what would be great with ingredient X? ingredient Y!!!" and off you go. Well, that was how it was for me anyhow.


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## choclatechef (Dec 16, 2004)

I have both tweaked old recipes to make them my own, and created some of my own original recipes.  

Both are fun to do.


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## chez suz (Dec 16, 2004)

I love creating my own stews and braises.  Dry rubs are never the same twice!
But when it comes to baking...I have never created my own recipe, however I do make changes and additions....to suit my own taste.


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## DampCharcoal (Dec 16, 2004)

I enjoy tweaking recipes too! I've also come up with different thing completely by accident. For example, my cousin told me that soaking ribs in orange juice and pineapple juice for 24 hours would make them "slide off the bone." Didn't work out that way but the meat tasted amazingly like Teriyaki Pork!  :?


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## lotsarecipes (Dec 18, 2004)

*Inventing new recipes*

I love collecting cookbooks but rarely follow a recipe when it comes to meals, as well. I'm not much of a baker but recently received my mom's homemade baking cookbook...she has many recipes that have ingredients and no instructions, so I find them hard to follow.

I just finished creating a 20 page booklet for my sister for a Christmas present because much of the baking is Christmas cookies. Hopefully she will be able to help me decipher the recipes, so we can carry on the wonderful recipes mom made.


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## Claire (Dec 30, 2004)

I like to pull out 3-6 cookbooks, put them in a stack, read all the recipes for what I want to make, then make up my own.


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## subfuscpersona (Jan 2, 2005)

I am totally flummoxed when I read that baking is a science while other types of cooking are not. What's the real distinction? Weights and measures? Don't think so. I vote for habit and practice. 

If I'm cooking something unfamiliar, I start with a recipe. 

If you routinely cook X type of food or dish you learn the basic routine and can substitute/tweak from there. Habit and practice teach you that and it doesn't matter whether it's a baked good or not. 

I also think our eathing habits have shifted over several generations - breads and savory pastries used to be more a staple of the average person's diet but we've shifted away from that so the average cook now has less experience making them. The "scientists" move into the void.


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## Russell (Jan 2, 2005)

I do sometimes. It's really easy to improvise with sauces/meats/fish.


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## Leaf Storm (Jan 2, 2005)

Yes, inventnon and creation is always a big part of it. It's one of the reasons that I like cooking so much!


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## Michael in FtW (Jan 3, 2005)

I'm a lot like Claire - unless I'm trying to duplicate something specifically from a recipe I know the dish was created from ... I'll look for several variations and mix-n-match to create the flavor I'm looking for.

Poor Sub - I know how you feel. I get bumfuzzeled at people who get flummoxed because they can't accept the fact that cookery is more of an art than a science ... and baking, while there is room for artistic expression, is based on a science of ratios of certain ingredients. No, the more accurate weights and measures do not make it more of a science - it is because it is more of a science that the greater accuracy in measurement is needed.


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## Claire (Feb 2, 2005)

I definitely feel that baking is more of a science than other kinds of cooking.  For example, if you decide to make fried rice, and you don't have eggs, you will still have a great rice dish when you are through.  If you subtract the eggs from a baking recipe, you'll have something inedible.  You can decide when your meat is done to your taste, and pull it out of the oven then.  Try that with a cake.  You really need to have the science of baking down before you can experiment, whereas with other types of cooking, you can simply taste until you like the flavor.  You cannot do that with a bread (gee, halfway along I decide I need more cinnamon in my Greek chili, I add more.  Can't do that with cinnamon bread).  You simply need to know what makes a pastry or bread go up or fall, whereas you can do stove-top-cooking to taste.  Baking is serious science before you can experiment.


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## LadyCook61 (Feb 4, 2008)

Sometimes I do create recipes, with ingredients I have on hand and when hubby tastes it , he asks what is it called? I don't have names for them


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## Ask-A-Butcher (Feb 6, 2008)

I like to think of myself as a decent cook. I tweak recipes all the time and I do develop my own from scratch. But, when it comes to baking, I'm a complete flop! I think baking is more of a science, as certain exact amounts react with other certain amounts and out comes a perfect product. It's hard to cover up a bad piece of baking, but I can 'fix up' a bad cooking recipe most times.


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## Jeff G. (Feb 14, 2008)

create your own... Absolutely!!! thats the fun of cooking.  Actually, I seldom follow a recipe..  Baking I think you need to either really know what you are doing or use a recipe.  For dinner etc.... not so much....


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## Dave Hutchins (Feb 14, 2008)

As a chef I had to come up with different dishes all the time. I might get a idea from some thing I had read but with baking I follow the formula to the T .  Baking professionally involves ratios of water to flour and yeast if you follow my drift and frankly I am not that smart to start playing with ratios, so I stick to whats on the printed page
 I did not fall off the Turnip Truck last night >


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## Maverick2272 (Feb 14, 2008)

Cooking yes I will sometimes play around and come up with something of my own. Baking no... I follow recipes to the T and don't play around with them, I am just not that good at baking to do that.


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## alisontomsmum (Feb 14, 2008)

i also tweek!!

 If i eat something savory i like and dont have the recipy, i qite often make it up myself from knowledge i already have (but only simple stuff like pies, lesagnes etc) Plan to make a BBQ chicken lesagne tonight with a bbq sauce recipy i have and my imagination!!

I also tend to do my own bread recipys, as i found a really useful site that told me the different ratios of water to flour for diff consistancies of bread!

As far as baking goes i tweek and combine most recipys, i always make it exactly as recipysays the first time then change stuff.... flour and fat amounts usually stay the same but i add or take away or substitute other ingrediants. i also combine recipys quite often..... my chocolate eclare recipyuses the pastry from one book, cream from another and chocolate from a third!!!


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## spiders (Feb 14, 2008)

Cooking is art. Baking is science.

If you are ready to be creative, apply yourself to non-baking recipes. You can make all sorts of wonderful dishes from what your favorites are and from what's at hand.

But baking requires precision. I always measure my recipes by weight and do it to the gram so there is never a mistake.


Linda


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## babetoo (Feb 14, 2008)

*? what is it ?*



LadyCook61 said:


> Sometimes I do create recipes, with ingredients I have on hand and when hubby tastes it , he asks what is it called? I don't have names for them


 
hey ladycook, u sound like me . i change things as i go and should write it down but never do.

baking is more percise but has a little wiggle room, different flavors i.e.
vanilla , or lemon or almond, etc. or chocolate chips or chunks. you get the picture. 

cooking is an endless source of pleasure for me.

babe


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## BreezyCooking (Feb 14, 2008)

As far as regular cooking, I could probably fill several cookbooks with recipes I've either originated myself or morphed completely from base recipes found elsewhere.

As far as baking, the only things I've ever changed have been adding a lot of extra fruit/nuts, etc.  Basic recipes never seem to specify enough fruit or nuts to make a bakery item really good.  They're so stingy with them - lol!!


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## LadyCook61 (Feb 15, 2008)

*ground chicken chili*

I don't know what to really call it .  I just received my meat grinder and had some chicken breast in the freezer so I ground some.  
I decided to be creative with the ground chicken.  I browned the chicken in olive oil, with diced red onion, chopped scallions, 2 minced cloves of garlic, salt , pepper, when chicken finished browning/cooked, I added a can of black beans, (rinsed beforehand) and the interesting ingredient... cinnnamon .
Stirred everything together... and voila , tasted it..  not bad at all, I liked it.


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## Maverick2272 (Feb 15, 2008)

BreezyCooking said:


> As far as regular cooking, I could probably fill several cookbooks with recipes I've either originated myself or morphed completely from base recipes found elsewhere.
> 
> As far as baking, the only things I've ever changed have been adding a lot of extra fruit/nuts, etc.  Basic recipes never seem to specify enough fruit or nuts to make a bakery item really good.  They're so stingy with them - lol!!



That is soo true! If they are gonna be blueberry muffins, then they better well be good and blueberryish!!
Then again I have been known to go overboard and just as quickly ruined the recipe...


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## Maverick2272 (Feb 15, 2008)

LadyCook61 said:


> I don't know what to really call it .  I just received my meat grinder and had some chicken breast in the freezer so I ground some.
> I decided to be creative with the ground chicken.  I browned the chicken in olive oil, with diced red onion, chopped scallions, 2 minced cloves of garlic, salt , pepper, when chicken finished browning/cooked, I added a can of black beans, (rinsed beforehand) and the interesting ingredient... cinnnamon .
> Stirred everything together... and voila , tasted it..  not bad at all, I liked it.



Very cool! Cincinnati chili has cinnamon and coco powder in it I believe.


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## LadyCook61 (Feb 15, 2008)

Maverick2272 said:


> Very cool! Cincinnati chili has cinnamon and coco powder in it I believe.


 
I didn't know that.... here I thought I was being different .


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## BreezyCooking (Feb 16, 2008)

Maverick - you definitely have much more leeway adding extra dried fruit or nuts than you do with fresh.  The problem with fresh fruit is that it exudes a lot of moisture, so a lot of extra can end up adding a lot of extra liquid to a recipe, which can be death to some baked goods.


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## Shaheen (Feb 16, 2008)

I do that most of the time! Especially, when I don't have all the ingredients the recipe calls for and I'm simply craving to try it, I improvise. I don't really think of what I'll use before hand. I simply start cooking and go with the flow. There are times when I've got something totally new and wonderfully different than the regular stuff.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Feb 16, 2008)

I'll weigh in on this topic and state that with a bit of understanding, the average cook can indeed "wing it" and create new recipes when baking.  Yes, there are hard and fast rules, but they are few.  And if those rules are followed, they give great freedom in creativity.

Ratios: - 2 to 3 tsp, doble-acting baking powder per cup of flour

            2 to 3 tbs. fat per cup of flour

            1/2 tsp. salt per cup of flour

            1 to 2 tbs. sugar or other sweetener for most breads or frying   
            batters per cup of flour.

            Butter causes cookies to spread out more than does lard or 
            shortening.

            If adding acidic incrediants to quickbread recipes (those using 
            baking powders and sodas as the leavening agents) such as 
            pineapple, citrus or citurs juices, acidic berries, etc. extra alkali 
           (usually baking soda) is required to restore a proper chemical 
            ballance.

           Time is your enemy as the reactive chimicals that produce the 
           carbon-dioxide bubbles that raise the batter deplete themselves 
           over time.  So work quickly.

           Stir the batters or dough as little as possible to avoid developing 
           the gluten.

           When frying batters (funnel cakes, batter-caoted foods, 
           hush-puppies, etc.) the oil must be at least 360' F. to avoid 
           absorbing too much oil into the batter as it cooks.

           When increasing the volume (size) of a recipe, the cooking 
           temperature must be reduced to give heat sufficient time to 
           penetrate to the center of the batter (middle of the cake) without 
           burning the outside portions.

           Water doesn't provide a moist textural feel to the end product.  If 
           your breads, cakes, pancakes, doughnuts, etc. are comming out 
           dry, add additional oil to the batter by 1 tbs. per cup of flour used.

           If a recipe is made larger, add an extra egg to give the product 
           sufficent body to remain together as 1 cohesive piece rather than 
           crumble apart.

          Use the center portion of your oven as much as possible to insure 
          even cooking of the top, bottom, and sides of your recipe.

          Coblers, crunches, and other similarily topped deserts can be 
          successfully made by tossing together ingredients such as 2 cups 
          flour, 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. 
          cinamon, 1/2 tsp, nutmeg, 1 stick melted butter, etc.  Stir 
          together.  Taste.  Add more of whatever you want to make it taste
          the way you want it to taste.

          Most cakes and single loaf bread recipes start with 3 cups flour

          For lower fat creations, you can substitute ingredients such as 
          applesauce, blended banana, psillium husk fiber, bran, gums 
          (xantham, etc.), and other fiber-rich substances as these aborb 
          and hold moisture, creating a moist texture without the added oil.  
          But, too much fiber-rich ingredients create a gummy mouth-feel.  
          So use to reduce, not replace the oil in the recipe.

Everybody seems to think that baking is an exact science.  I routinely throw together a group of ingredients, and more often than not, come up with a successful outcome.  Baking, once you learn the basics, is just as intuitive as is cooking.  It is every bit as much of an art.

After all, you can't be artistic with paints until you understand the relationships of various paints to the canvas or other medium to which they are applied.  The type of color carrying agent is important.  Oil-based paints have a thicker, more textural affect, and tend to bleed into the canvas or paper than do solvent or water-based paints.  

Rock, or clay, or sugar, metal, glass, even ice, can all be used to create beautiful sculptures, with each requireing specialized tools and techniques.

Cooking meat to get a tender, flavorful result requires different cooking techniques, depending on what variety of meat is used, what cut, and what animal.

Everything we do, whether it be buidling a missile tracking system, or frying a hamburger, or baking a cake, relies on specialized knowledge, and an understanding of the rules related to the task.  Once you completely understand those basic rules, the the tools and techniques used in the craft, then when you add imagination, the science imspire creation, which is art.  A baker is no less an artist than is a sculptor, or a surgeon, or a musician, or a child making the perfect paper airplane.

Follow the above rules, practice a little, and you will become as intuitive about baking as you can be with any other art form.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## alisontomsmum (Feb 17, 2008)

Thanks for those rules... some i knew some i didnt. 

prob the more you bake the easyer it becomes to be creative and understand the basic rules.


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## LPBeier (Feb 18, 2008)

Goodweed of the North said:


> I'll weigh in on this topic and state that with a bit of understanding, the average cook can indeed "wing it" and create new recipes when baking. Yes, there are hard and fast rules, but they are few. And if those rules are followed, they give great freedom in creativity.
> 
> Ratios: - 2 to 3 tsp, doble-acting baking powder per cup of flour


 
Goodweed, I consider myself well versed in the baking world, but I am not sure what you mean by double-acting baking powder.  What I get here, as far as I know, is just called baking powder and have no problems, either when using recipes or "winging it".

I keep learning something new every day here at DC.


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## nesta67 (Feb 18, 2008)

Thanks for the info Goodweed.  Like the others I find it hard to be very creative with baking.  I also "tweak" baking recipes, but find that sometimes if I tweak to much they don't turn out.  That's what's so great about cooking - - can take 4 or 5 different recipes for the same thing, take what you like best from each, and it will turn out great!


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Feb 18, 2008)

Double acting baking powder has two sets of leavening agents, one that activates when water is added, and a second that doesn't activate until heat is applied.

Calumet and Clabber Girl brands are examples of double-acting baking powders.

If you take my basic pancake recipe, you can decrease the amount of liquid and it becomes bisuit dough.  If you add an extra egg, and more liquid, it becomes crepe batter.  if you remove half of the flour and replace it with cornstarch, it becomes tempura batter.  You can add extra sugar and cocoa powder and it becomes devil's food cake batter.  Add mashed banana to it, and triple all other ingredients and you have banana bread batter.

And the changes I throw together to change my yeast bread recipes are dramatic.  As long as you keep the basic ratios the same, you can create a host of different breads by simply mixing in different kinds of flour such as barley, malt, whole wheat, buckwheat, adding rye, or corn flour, potato starch, etc.

Change the oven temperatures, and add a bowl of water to the oven, along with the risen bread dough and you change the crust texture.  Make a heavy dough, form it into a ring, boil it, then bake it and you have bagels, or pretzles.  

And don't even get me started on cookies.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North


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## AllenOK (Feb 18, 2008)

LPBeier said:


> Goodweed, I consider myself well versed in the baking world, but I am not sure what you mean by double-acting baking powder.  What I get here, as far as I know, is just called baking powder and have no problems, either when using recipes or "winging it".
> 
> I keep learning something new every day here at DC.



If my memory is correct, a "single-acting" baking powder reacts only when heated to release CO2 and leaven the product.  "Double-acting" baking powder reacts not only when heated, but also with an acid in the batter.  This is why some baking mixes, when mixed, then refrigerated for a day or two, will have reacted, and bubbled all over the place.


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## LPBeier (Feb 18, 2008)

Thanks Goodweed and AOK, I will definitely check that out.  I know at the camp I worked at we had Calumet but I was working in special diets and didn't get to bake much.  I will hunt it down.



Goodweed of the North said:


> And don't even get me started on cookies.


 
Ohhhhh, sounds like we need to have an original cookie recipe Throw Down!!!!!


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## GotGarlic (Feb 18, 2008)

Maverick2272 said:


> Very cool! Cincinnati chili has cinnamon and coco powder in it I believe.



That's starting to sound like Mexican mole sauce.


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