My Mom taught me the basics and I still have a few of her cookbooks--Betty Crocker and similar. Baking, though, more so than any other kind of cooking requires careful measuring, sifting when it says to do so, and care before making any substitutions. There are simple recipes and very complex ones.. Start with a basic cake or biscuits and build your confidence. Cookies are easy. Tarts and pies are generally more a challenge. Baking is fun to me, but unfortunately, I can't resist eating what I make so not much baking in my house. I do make healthy whole grain breads, but i use a breadmaker.

Good idea.

Measuring - careful measuring - is more important than in soup/stew/main course cooking - baking is chemistry, and small seemingly insignificant details can be very important. Ingredient substitution can be very tricky.

If you like chocolate, this cake - http://everybodylikessandwiches.com/2011/05/happy-birthday-cake-to-me-black-magic-cake-with-vanilla-bean-buttercream/ - one of our faves - is just dead simple and comes out great.

Scones are really easy, as are most cookies - always best to read through the entire recipe, get the ingredients assembled then go for it.

Have fun with it, though - perfect activity for that great kitchen dancing!

I am a really good cook but create dishes that are good by adapting as the cooking goes along.

Can't do that with baking. It is chemistry and you need to be precise. I guess once you understand the chemistry enough, you can make the proper adjustments but I have NEVER gotten to that point.

But the precision trained into me in my chemist training comes in really handy.

I actually had to learn to go the other way - get comfy with improvising and trusting my intuition when cooking savory things - am finally at the point where I don't need cookbooks much - just know what we like and what works - so wing it most of the time.

Preheat the oven to 425.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour (all purpose unbleached, up to half of it whole wheat if you choose)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon

until blended.

Into that mix using two knives at 90 deg angles or a hand held pastry blender, but 6 tbsp cold butter into the above - you will get a crumbly mixture of pea sized pieces of butter coated with the flour mixture.

At this point you can add 1 cup raisins or currants or (our favorite) chocolate chips! - using a fork, just stir it to distribute those into the mix.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 egg and 1/2 cup half and half.

Pour the egg/half and half mix into the butter/flour mix, and using a fork, stir it around - it will combine then keep stirring and it will start to form a ball. flour your hands and gather it and press it into a smooth ball (if too sticky, add a little more flour).

On a floured surface, pat the ball into a disc that is about 10 inches in diameter, 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 8 or 10 wedges as you prefer - put them on an ungreased cookie sheet - sprinkle with some raw sugar, and bake at 425 for 14-16 minutes, until browned.

Easy and nearly foolproof.

It's really simple, but you do need a heavy, lidded dutch oven to do it.

Figure that, hot 'n fresh, would go great with a chowder - fish, clam or basic corn.

Your first loaf or two may not be perfect, but you'll get it quickly enough.

A couple of pointers.

Do not use heavy flours (whole wheat, etc). Unbleached white flour from TJ's or the King Arthur brands work great.

The initial dough should be tacky but not wet.

Do not cut the bread until it has cooled. This one is really hard to do.

Let me know how it comes out.

for any type of baked goods that you want to try. They have a ton of recipes, and you can find great tips if you always read the reviews for tweaks.

The only real trick to baking is paying attention to the ingredient measurements. They matter in baking.

Have fun! ?

I will look at several recipes for the same thing, and figure out what they have in common, and modify the one I use.

the "I Never Cooked Before Cookbook" is great, by Jo Coudert. It says "Step 1, do this" step 2 "do this". etc.

Unfortunately it's out of print. here's a real simple one:

BAKED CHICKEN
Ingredientes:
2 whole chickens or 8 chicken breasts if you like white meat.
16 oz. sour cream
1 small can sliced mushrooms
1 envelope dried onion soup mix.


1. Put 3 or four chicken breasts in a paper bag and shake with 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/8th teaspoon of pepper. Repeat until all chicken pieces have been coated.

2. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a flameproof casserole and brown the chicken on all sides in this.

3. Mix 16 oz. of sour cream with 1 envelope of onion soup mix.

4. Add this to the casserole along with 1 can of drained sliced mushrooms. Sprinkle a pinch of thyme over all.

Cover and bake 1 hour in a 325 degree oven.

It's a crowd pleaser and you should be able to get good rhubarb now.

Dice about 4-5 cups of rhubarb (enough to cover the bottom of a 9x13 cake pan packed in pretty good)
Sprinkle one package of jello over the rhubarb (I usually use strawberry--and the vegetarian variety, but any will work)
Sprinkle about 3/4 cup sugar over the rhubarb
Make a white cake mix (kids just use a box but you can find easy scratch ones).
Pour the cake batter over the rhubarb so it is evenly dispersed and covers it all.

Bake at the same temp as the cake directions but you will need to bake about 15 minutes longer. When it is brown and firm like the cake should be, it's done. Let it cool and cut. Flip the piece over to put the rhubarb on top and it is great with whipped cream.

Thanks all.

(aside) I live in a 100 year old bunga0lw. It has an old, large pull out metal work tray (baker's shelf?) with cabinets above and storage drawers below. That and reading baking discussions here gave me the idea. That and the lack of a good rye loaf here abouts...

But I think there are some other relatively simple recipes you can use.

Maybe someone will help you with that.

All I can't get locally is a good rye.

The worst that can happen is that you throw out some flour, a couple of eggs, etc. Then you learn.

The first cake I made was a chocolate pound cake. It turned out flatter than a pancake. Tasted good, though!

But I was going to send direct to the recipe page:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeHome

Amazing collection of recipes there!


Cher

I learned a lot about baking at that site. It's a great resource for ingredients as well as information.

Be sure to grease and flour it really well. It's not hard to do, just coat evenly and completely with butter, margarine, shortening, whatever. Then put about 1/4 cup of flour in it, and gently shake and roll around to coat it all. Then give a firm upside whack over a bowl or pan to get rid of the excess flour.

If that all proves too much, you can always buy one of those sprays with oil and flour for baking. They're not bad, they do work.

slathered with butter. Coat evenly, add flour and knock it all around.

or baking soda or eggs - that develops gluten and will make cake, muffins etc. tough.

On the other hand, you want to develop the gluten in breads leavened with yeast, that's why recipes call for kneading.

that if you have never, ever baked anything, start with a box and play with it to check how you mix stuff, oven temps, etc. Yeah, yeah, I know it's sacrilege, but why not? Really?

A chocolate cake mix and you throw in some nuts and chocolate chips... A corn muffin mix and you throw in some Craisins or blueberries...

Frozen pie crusts also help insure success, especially since the important part is the filling.

Cookies are ridiculously easy-- butter, flour, flavor&stuff... damn near anything goes with cookies and you can just drop blobs on the cookie sheet.

Coupla quick hints... baking parchment makes a lot of things less messy (you find it on the supermarket bottom shelf under the aluminum foil)

if you get to the point of rolling out cookies or pie crusts, get a French rolling pin

I have a bunch of baking books and regularly hit the sites others listed but the best place I have for basic baking info is still The Joy of Cooking-- the chemistry is usually explained very simply

http://www.sprinklebakes.com/ Heather Baird is beyond her original blog and is now all over the place, but she is worth every bit of the attention she gets

Oh, it's summer around here and the oven can turn the kitchen, maybe even the whole house, into a festering hell. Fall and winter are baking seasons. (But don't let that stop you)

Found my old Joy of Cooking edition among some other books.

Heat's not much of a problem here. I live 12 miles from the coast & we have ~ 10 - 12 days of really hot weather late August early September. Otherwise pretty mild.

taught me much about the basics of bread-making when I was first learning. Sure I had The Joy of Cooking, and The Way to Cook (Julia Child) but Brown's book was simple, to the point, and satisfying.

I see it's available on Kindle, too (The Tassajara Bread Book) so I may get a copy of that to update my 20-year-old copy

Good luck in your endeavors, whichever route you take

It's the best way to start

The first one, The Cake Bible is, IMHO, not very good. She has a recipe which she says is better than a sachertorte, and it isn't. She also has this thing about not using butter and flour to coat a baking pan. I believe that this book is over-rated and over-priced.

Her second book, The Bread Bible is much better. Her recipe for ciabatta is great. If you are going to try it, and if you are going to do baking seriously, you need a scale, preferably a digital scale. Salter makes very good ones.

Ciabatta recipe

For this recipe, you will want a good stand mixer, since the dough is very soft and sticky. It can be done by hand, but a mixer makes things much easier.

You begin by making what Americans call a starter and Italians call biga

Ciabatta

Starter (Biga)
75 grams (2.6 oz or a generous ½ Cup) all purpose flour
1/16 tsp instant yeast
¼ C (59 gm or 2 oz) water at room temperature (70° to 90°F)

Combine all ingredients for biga and stir with wooden spoon for 3-5 minutes or until it is very smooth and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Will be slightly sticky to the touch. Cover the bowl with oiled plastic wrap and set aside until tripled and filled with bubbles (6 hours at room temperature or refrigerate for up to 3 days before baking. If you refrigerate it, remove to room temp 1 hour prior to mixing dough.

Dough

136 gm (4 ¾ oz or 1 Cup) all purpose flour
¼ tsp instant yeast
½ tsp salt
½ C (118 gm or 4 oz) room temperature water
Biga

In mixer bowl, whisk together flour and yeast. Then whisk in salt. Add water and biga. Using paddle attachment, mix on low speed for a few seconds, just until flour is moistened. Raise speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes. Dough will be moist and soft, almost soupy.

Gradually it will start to develop strands of gluten. Lower the speed to medium and continue to beat for 2 minutes. If dough hasn't pulled away from the bowl after 1st 3 minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium-high for another 2 minutes. If it still doesn't pull away, beat in a little flour 1 tsp at a time on low speed. The dough should cling to your fingers if touched.

Using an oiled spatula, scrape dough in to a 2 quart container, lightly greased with cooking spray or oil. Push down dough and lightly spray the top. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until tripled in size (1¼ - 2 hours at 75° F)

Sift flour onto a counter in a rectangle at least 10 in x 8 in. With oiled spatula, gently scrape dough onto the flour and sift more flour on top. Handle dough gently to avoid loosing the air bubbles. Using the palms of your hands against the sides of the dough, push it together slightly. Using your fingertips, make large deep dimples in the dough about 1 in apart, elongating it. Push the sides together a second time. Carefully lift up the dough and invert it onto a floured baking sheet. It will be 10-11 inches in length. Push in the sides so that the dough is about 4 1/2 in wide. It will be between ½ inches to1 inches high. Sift flour over the top and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until 1½ inches high, 1½ to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 475° F 1 hour before baking. Have an oven shelf on the lowest level and place a baking stone (if you have one) or a baking sheet on it and a cast iron skillet or sheet pan on the floor of the oven before preheating.

Remove the plastic wrap and quickly but gently set the baking sheet on the hot baking stone/baking sheet. Toss ½ C ice cube into the pan beneath and immediately shut the door. Bake for 5 minutes. Lower temperature to 450° F and continue baking for 20 minutes or until the bread is deep golden brown. Halfway through baking, turn the pan around for even baking. Turn the oven off, prop the door open and allow the bread to sit for 5 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely. Brush off the flour from the surface.

easy easy easy

Duncan Hines cake mix and frosting, but realized that my smartassedness doesn't always translate over the internets.

But you really can't go wrong...