Sunday, August 31, 2008

Baking help

Tiffany, are you out there??? I am seeking your trained pastry chef expertise, or anyone else who can help me. Recently I posted about my pathetic cookie-baking ability. Sometimes, though, bar desserts are equally disastrous...

Tonight I made a new recipe for butterscotch brownies. Easy recipe, just melt butter, add brown sugar, egg, vanilla, milk, flour, salt, baking powder, stir to moisten, spread in pan. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. They turned out like other bar desserts have turned out for me - very weird consistency. Flat and dense, not a smooth surface (very pock-marked looking):
They taste good, but look weird. Do you think it could be an altitude thing? Should I try more baking powder?

Thanks for any help you can provide! I feel sadness about never being able to make my mom's chocolate chip bars, because they are a great dessert, but they turn out the same way.

4 comments:

Lara said...

As long as they taste good, right? I have nothing else to say about your cookie and bar making. NOTHING. Not a word.

Kristina said...

I second Lara. Between baking, Kraft spagetti, and 10 hamburgers from one pound of beef, it is a pretty good thing you have redeemed yourself in other cooking areas. Stick to dinners and you should be fine. I have heard that bakeries make yummy things...

Lori said...

altitude could be part of the problem. Were there alternate directions for higher altitude? I am as stumped with you as I am with my husband. Great chef, not so great a baker......

Tee said...

Sorry it took so long to respond...it's been crazy lately for me!

Anyhow, it sounds like there is a possibility of overmixing once the flour is added. It's a good thing to cream the fat and sugar for a long time, but once the flour is added, you dont want to over-mix. Do you still have those tips I emailed you? Those all would apply here, as well.

Altitude could also be the problem. Maybe try a different recipe made for high altitude, because sometimes the formulas are just plain off.