I bake a lot, but mostly bread. But I bake a lot, and when I do all of these things, it always works out. If I skip something, it does not. Here we go.
Basically I read the recipe. Entirely. All of it. And then I read it again.
Then I measure out all of my ingredients separately. I use weights. So I have a ton of mixing bowls and a little gram scale. If something calls for X butter here and Y butter here, I separate those out too. If you find yourself REALLY struggling with keeping track of everything, at this stage, read the recipe again and while reading it organize the ingredients so you can grab the right amount at the right time.
Then just follow the recipe. If it says knead by hand, knead by hand. If it says mix slowly, mix slowly. If it says combine A and B, then slowly add half of C, then add D, then slowly add the rest of C...DO that. Slowly. Carefully. One step at a time.
Then WAIT. If it says to let it sit on your counter for an hour in a plastic wrapped bowl, put it on the counter and walk away for an hour.
Next, baking it. Your oven is wrong. If you have it set to 350 it might be 360 or 330 or 400. Buy like a 5 dollar oven thermometer and learn your oven. Set it to 350 and see where it's at...mine is 10 degrees cool at 350, so if a recipe says "350" I set mine to 360 so that my oven thermometer says 350.
Then bake. Do NOT touch it unless the recipe says so. Do NOT open the oven unless the recipe says to. If it says to check if after 20 mins, just a quick check. Don't pull it out, poke it, look at it for a minute, and then put it back. Open, glance, decide, and shut, and wait a bit longer before checking again.
Lastly, let it cool by whatever the recipe says. If it says to leave it in the pan and put the pan on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes, then put it on that rack and walk away. Do not come check it after 5 minutes, poking it, whatever. Just walk away and let it do its thing. If it says to chill for 2 hours before serving, do that. To remove from pan and eat immediately, do that.
And if you do all of that, carefully, and you're sure you didn't skip a step because it probably will be fine, and it STILL didn't work out....get a different recipe.
I bake a lot, but mostly bread. But I bake a lot, and when I do all of these things, it always works out. If I skip something, it does not. Here we go.
Basically I read the recipe. Entirely. All of it. And then I read it again.
Then I measure out all of my ingredients separately. I use weights. So I have a ton of mixing bowls and a little gram scale. If something calls for X butter here and Y butter here, I separate those out too. If you find yourself REALLY struggling with keeping track of everything, at this stage, read the recipe again and while reading it organize the ingredients so you can grab the right amount at the right time.
Then just follow the recipe. If it says knead by hand, knead by hand. If it says mix slowly, mix slowly. If it says combine A and B, then slowly add half of C, then add D, then slowly add the rest of C...DO that. Slowly. Carefully. One step at a time.
Then WAIT. If it says to let it sit on your counter for an hour in a plastic wrapped bowl, put it on the counter and walk away for an hour.
Next, baking it. Your oven is wrong. If you have it set to 350 it might be 360 or 330 or 400. Buy like a 5 dollar oven thermometer and learn your oven. Set it to 350 and see where it's at...mine is 10 degrees cool at 350, so if a recipe says "350" I set mine to 360 so that my oven thermometer says 350.
Then bake. Do NOT touch it unless the recipe says so. Do NOT open the oven unless the recipe says to. If it says to check if after 20 mins, just a quick check. Don't pull it out, poke it, look at it for a minute, and then put it back. Open, glance, decide, and shut, and wait a bit longer before checking again.
Lastly, let it cool by whatever the recipe says. If it says to leave it in the pan and put the pan on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes, then put it on that rack and walk away. Do not come check it after 5 minutes, poking it, whatever. Just walk away and let it do its thing. If it says to chill for 2 hours before serving, do that. To remove from pan and eat immediately, do that.
And if you do all of that, carefully, and you're sure you didn't skip a step because it probably will be fine, and it STILL didn't work out....get a different recipe.
Hope it helps!