Vent about your screw-ups

[Matthew.Taylor]

OK, once again I have tried to make Macarons, and surprisingly, these were even worse than the first time, cracked all over and not tasting good at all.

 

As such, in honor of this event, I am starting a venting thread for those bakes that just didn't work out. You were sure you were doing everything right, that you were following all the right instructions, but it just wouldn't come out right. So feel free to open up about this as you wish. Tell us about your disasters, offer advice and comfort where it is needed, whatever,

 

Next weeks project: Mastering Macarons.

[Pastrypastmidnight]

Well, today my goal was to make and compare 6 very different approaches to chewy caramels. During batch #3 I had to run out of the room and I asked my teenagers to keep an eye on the pot (it was a Maillard caramel and needed to boil off a bunch of water still) and let me know if it started to darken. I came downstairs to oblivious teens doing other things and black smoke billowing from my pot. So instead of making more caramel, I spent 65 minutes (after soaking with both boiling water and a mix of hot vinegar and baking soda) with steel wool and Bar Keeper’s Friend removing the blackened mess from my pot. 

 

Does that count?

Edited March 2, 2019 by Pastrypastmidnight (log)

[Okanagancook]

Absolutely counts but I think the teenagers should have been on clean up duty.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, Pastrypastmidnight said:

Well, today my goal was to make and compare 6 very different approaches to chewy caramels. During batch #3 I had to run out of the room and I asked my teenagers to keep an eye on the pot (it was a Maillard caramel and needed to boil off a bunch of water still) and let me know if it started to darken. I came downstairs to oblivious teens doing other things and black smoke billowing from my pot. So instead of making more caramel, I spent 65 minutes (after soaking with both boiling water and a mix of hot vinegar and baking soda) with steel wool and Bar Keeper’s Friend removing the blackened mess from my pot. 

 

Does that count?

 

 

Not recent, but about 30 years ago my teenager was exploring sugar cookery.  I offered what I thought was sound advice.  He picked me up and set me down outside the kitchen.*  The glass thermometer was apparently nonfunctional.  It took years to decarbonize that pan.

 

 

*I am not small.

 

[Pastrypastmidnight]

9 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

Absolutely counts but I think the teenagers should have been on clean up duty.

They both tried. They just didn’t make very much progress. ;)

 

I actually put it on the floor for most of the time so I could use my body weight and gravity to actually get through all the burnt mess. 

[Okanagancook]

Good for them!  

 

One of our friends  who gets distracted easily...decided to make jam for the first time.  He got it bubbling away and remembered he needed to do something outside...well......no jam......pot in the bin......stove permanently scared......wife declares a jam-making ban on hubby.

[Matthew.Taylor]

It's not a good weekend for baking. I decided to try out a White cake recipe for the first time tonight. it's in the oven as we speak. I tried tasting the dough before portioning it out, and it tasted really unsweet, which is because I forgot to add the sugar.

 

Sigh.

 

I quickly added the sugar in, and it tasted much better, hopefully it will turn out okay. I need a good wedding cake sponge.

[julie99nl]

My worst mistake, because it would be the most costly, was when I was kneading 2kg of bread dough in my kitchenaid. My husband came in and asked me to come look at something and I had my hand on the speed slider. As I walked away, my hand must have moved the slider to a higher speed and it didn't register in my mind when I walked away. About 30 seconds after I walked out of the kitchen there was a huge crash as my kitchen aid try to go bungee jumping off the counter. There is now a huge dent in the hardwood floor, the kitchenaid needs repair (will do it myself because kitchenaid wants a stupid amount of money and time to do it) And there is also a cosmetic dent in the top of the kitchenaid that I won't bother repairing. I saved the bread, which was the most important part....😂

[Pastrypastmidnight]

4 hours ago, julie99nl said:

My worst mistake, because it would be the most costly, was when I was kneading 2kg of bread dough in my kitchenaid. My husband came in and asked me to come look at something and I had my hand on the speed slider. As I walked away, my hand must have moved the slider to a higher speed and it didn't register in my mind when I walked away. About 30 seconds after I walked out of the kitchen there was a huge crash as my kitchen aid try to go bungee jumping off the counter. There is now a huge dent in the hardwood floor, the kitchenaid needs repair (will do it myself because kitchenaid wants a stupid amount of money and time to do it) And there is also a cosmetic dent in the top of the kitchenaid that I won't bother repairing. I saved the bread, which was the most important part....😂

Oh no! Best wishes to your KA for a speedy recovery!

[julie99nl]

2 hours ago, Pastrypastmidnight said:

Oh no! Best wishes to your KA for a speedy recovery!

 

It's still working, only the paddle hits the back of the bowl when it goes faster than speed 6. 😓

[minas6907]

Earlier in the week I was in a pretty good mood, so I made some shells in a polycarbonate molds with the intention of making alcohol cordials. I've made these things probably like ten or so times before, basically all successful. Alcohol syrup hardly crystalized. Determined to make it work, I inverted the mold on a rack, let the syrup drain, blotted the cavities dry, remade syrup, this time it crystalized more, but not nearly enough to cap. Since I'm usually a clever person, I remembered something about covering with cocoa butter, then capping. After putting cocoa butter on 1/4 of the mold, I realized how much I was wasting my time. Inverted it, poured syrup out, pulled out the shells, some were being extra stubborn, sugar syrup everywhere, had to clean the mold very throughly, not fun. I love cordials but I'm hesitant to do this again. 

 

[Tri2Cook]

On 3/2/2019 at 7:50 PM, Matthew.Taylor said:

I quickly added the sugar in, and it tasted much better, hopefully it will turn out okay. I need a good wedding cake sponge.

Not that it's really any of my business, but you're not going to risk an oops batch on somebody's wedding cake, are you? Unless you baked enough to be able to sacrifice a layer for tasting, there's no way I'd take that risk even knowing that it will probably be fine. Or maybe I just have some residual paranoia from my catering days caused by dealing with brides, best friends of brides and mothers of brides.  But I'm guessing it turned out fine since you caught the mistake pre-oven.

[Matthew.Taylor]

6 hours ago, Tri2Cook said:

Not that it's really any of my business, but you're not going to risk an oops batch on somebody's wedding cake, are you? Unless you baked enough to be able to sacrifice a layer for tasting, there's no way I'd take that risk even knowing that it will probably be fine. Or maybe I just have some residual paranoia from my catering days caused by dealing with brides, best friends of brides and mothers of brides.  But I'm guessing it turned out fine since you caught the mistake pre-oven.

 

No I'd never dream of that. I'm still working on all the start-up stuff for my business right now. Yeah it turned out fine really, though I feel the layers didn't rise as much as they could, and I still don't fell that it tasted as good as it should. I'm going to be very careful about that in the future. 

White cake is part of what I call the Trifecta of cake (white, yellow, chocolate), and it's reportedly the traditional sponge for wedding cakes, so I need to get one down.