I feel that I have been a bit scatterbrained in my approach to picking recipes, and I think this has prevented me from cooking and baking many things. As such, I wanted to formalize a way to choose a recipe, so I stop spending hours searching.
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Step One: Decide on the flavor and type of dish desired. This is probably what the surfing is about, is that I am in “I want to make something” idea. If I am really looking to make something, I decide what I want in advance. Like, Vanilla Butter pound Cake, or pumpkin pound cake, or French Buttercream.
- Step Two: Quick Internet Search to see if I am unique. (I think my Strawberry Jalapeno Cupcakes are the closest thing to absolutely unique that I have done.
- Step Three: Cookbooks. I have several cookbooks that I want to cook from more than I do. The first is my prized possession of my Grandmother’s 1984 Hospital Auxiliary Cookbook. The four baking books are:
- BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
. One of the best books at explaining the whys of baking.- The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks)
and King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains (King Arthur Flour Cookbooks)
, which are HUGE volumes from King Arthur Flour, and their bakers test the recipes, so I know they are good. (If they are not good, King Arthur has a telephone hotline and online chat so I can ask what went wrong.)- Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented
(And their original book if I get it). This bakery makes the 2nd best cupcakes in the entire city, (and, because I am a frosting snob, I contribute that to their use of Cooked Flour frosting (though, theirs is slightly different.)- Step Four: Make Recipe, and take pictures.