Home baking - am I wasting my time?

[annedonnelly]

Oh, I am going to be so popular tomorrow. I think they'll ignore the flapjacks. I've been on a Middle Eastern cookery class - there's no way I can eat all that baklava myself. That'll have to go to work too!

 

[Reynard]

Oh, I am going to be so popular tomorrow. I think they'll ignore the flapjacks. I've been on a Middle Eastern cookery class - there's no way I can eat all that baklava myself. That'll have to go to work too!

Does your trebuchet reach as far as East Anglia?

I loooooooooooooooove baklava.

P.S. I do make my own, but it's a rare and slightly naughty treat because it's one of the very few sweet things that once I start eating, I can't stop eating...

 

[annedonnelly]

Does your trebuchet reach as far as East Anglia?

I loooooooooooooooove baklava.

P.S. I do make my own, but it's a rare and slightly naughty treat because it's one of the very few sweet things that once I start eating, I can't stop eating...

It does seem to be something that has no healthy ingredients. So perhaps not the best food staple

 

[biggs682]

I regularly make my own fruit crumbles and banana loafs and really enjoy it

 

[Andy_R]

When you home bake, you tend to use the best ingredients because you're after the flavour - for example when I make cheese scones I use extra mature cheddar, full fat milk, proper butter etc. Mass produced baked goods are made with poorer quality ingredients - just look at the list of ingredients on a store bought cake, and won't have the same care and quality invested in them.

 

[MartinQ]

If I have visitors or go out to someone's house I always try to take something home baked. Rather than buying a cake or biiscuits in a shop. I'm not the world's best cook & there's nothing fancy about what I bake but I've a few reliable recipes.

A recent conversation with a friend (I usually bake something if I know he's going to call in) has made me wonder if this is a waste of time & that people would be just as happy with something from the supermarket.

Anyone have any thoughts? When people are thanking me for the home-made scones, cookies or flapjacks are they really wishing I'd brought a supermarket chocolate cake?

When you get round to inviting me, home baked will be much appreciated :-)

 

[Reynard]

When you home bake, you tend to use the best ingredients because you're after the flavour - for example when I make cheese scones I use extra mature cheddar, full fat milk, proper butter etc. Mass produced baked goods are made with poorer quality ingredients - just look at the list of ingredients on a store bought cake, and won't have the same care and quality invested in them.

^^^ this

Same applies to baking bread.

My bread only has flour, water, yeast, salt and oil in it. And a lot of time. And with bread, the longer it takes to prepare, the better the flavour and texture of the bread. And you get good "shelf life" without the need for preservatives etc.

A sliced bread made by the chorleywood process takes an hour or so from ingredients hitting the mixer to the finished loaf being loaded on the vans. It uses lots of yeast plus various chemical raising agents and a lot of air whipped into the dough to make it rise so quickly.

N.B. Flour encompasses wheat, rye, spelt, buckwheat and rolled oats.

 

[Ridgeway]

We bake at least once a week, typically 2-3 times and most things never make it off the cooling rack and often there's just a few crumbs left on the table just minutes afterwards. Many of the gifts we give out are HM, jams, picked walnuts, eggs from the girls in the garden and on any of the children's birthday when they are asked to take in a cake, then it has to be home made, nothing ever comes back !!!

Beyond that anything we take to other peoples houses for lunches or dinners we prefer to be home produced as it show you made an effort. The hardest part of it all is remembering to take back your box or tin that you took it in the first place, we often forget them.....

 

[Reynard]

Many of the gifts we give out are HM, jams, picked walnuts, eggs from the girls in the garden...

Yup, I have a similar modus operandi.

Though in my case it's jams, chutneys, pickles and marmalade plus baked goods in the form of speculoos, lebkuchen or bread. I find it's appreciated so much more than something shop bought. Plus price never comes into it.

P.S. I've won the above classes for preserves in produce shows on a number of occasions...

 

[annedonnelly]

Beyond that anything we take to other peoples houses for lunches or dinners we prefer to be home produced as it show you made an effort. The hardest part of it all is remembering to take back your box or tin that you took it in the first place, we often forget them.....

I'm very protective of my boxes - I hate it if I don't get them back

 

[Salad Dodger]

Home baked every time!
Even if it's just little fairy cakes. Home baked every time.

 

[annedonnelly]

We have regular volunteers to help us at work. This week, when offered a bisuit, one of the guys asked if there weren't any of the flapjacks left that I'd brought in the week before. Makes it worth the effort of baking

I'm planning to try Goosnargh cakes this week.

 

[ozboz]

Ms ozboz makes a particularly nice cake with fresh berry’s and apple , is really nice , well , .........she has to hide it from the cake monster otherwise gone in 60 seconds !! ,

 

[gbb]

Home baked every time. I dont have a sweet tooth mind, I can't stand sugar saturated supermarket cakes.

 

[Ridgeway]

Just finished a batch of macarons. Not quite the result from the shiny recipe book but not too bad, learning notes taken down for the next attempt.....

PS: all 32 have been eaten already