I'll weigh in on this topic and state that with a bit of understanding, the average cook can indeed "wing it" and create new recipes when baking. Yes, there are hard and fast rules, but they are few. And if those rules are followed, they give great freedom in creativity.
Ratios: - 2 to 3 tsp, doble-acting baking powder per cup of flour
2 to 3 tbs. fat per cup of flour
1/2 tsp. salt per cup of flour
1 to 2 tbs. sugar or other sweetener for most breads or frying
batters per cup of flour.
Butter causes cookies to spread out more than does lard or
shortening.
If adding acidic incrediants to quickbread recipes (those using
baking powders and sodas as the leavening agents) such as
pineapple, citrus or citurs juices, acidic berries, etc. extra alkali
(usually baking soda) is required to restore a proper chemical
ballance.
Time is your enemy as the reactive chimicals that produce the
carbon-dioxide bubbles that raise the batter deplete themselves
over time. So work quickly.
Stir the batters or dough as little as possible to avoid developing
the gluten.
When frying batters (funnel cakes, batter-caoted foods,
hush-puppies, etc.) the oil must be at least 360' F. to avoid
absorbing too much oil into the batter as it cooks.
When increasing the volume (size) of a recipe, the cooking
temperature must be reduced to give heat sufficient time to
penetrate to the center of the batter (middle of the cake) without
burning the outside portions.
Water doesn't provide a moist textural feel to the end product. If
your breads, cakes, pancakes, doughnuts, etc. are comming out
dry, add additional oil to the batter by 1 tbs. per cup of flour used.
If a recipe is made larger, add an extra egg to give the product
sufficent body to remain together as 1 cohesive piece rather than
crumble apart.
Use the center portion of your oven as much as possible to insure
even cooking of the top, bottom, and sides of your recipe.
Coblers, crunches, and other similarily topped deserts can be
successfully made by tossing together ingredients such as 2 cups
flour, 1 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp.
cinamon, 1/2 tsp, nutmeg, 1 stick melted butter, etc. Stir
together. Taste. Add more of whatever you want to make it taste
the way you want it to taste.
Most cakes and single loaf bread recipes start with 3 cups flour
For lower fat creations, you can substitute ingredients such as
applesauce, blended banana, psillium husk fiber, bran, gums
(xantham, etc.), and other fiber-rich substances as these aborb
and hold moisture, creating a moist texture without the added oil.
But, too much fiber-rich ingredients create a gummy mouth-feel.
So use to reduce, not replace the oil in the recipe.
Everybody seems to think that baking is an exact science. I routinely throw together a group of ingredients, and more often than not, come up with a successful outcome. Baking, once you learn the basics, is just as intuitive as is cooking. It is every bit as much of an art.
After all, you can't be artistic with paints until you understand the relationships of various paints to the canvas or other medium to which they are applied. The type of color carrying agent is important. Oil-based paints have a thicker, more textural affect, and tend to bleed into the canvas or paper than do solvent or water-based paints.
Rock, or clay, or sugar, metal, glass, even ice, can all be used to create beautiful sculptures, with each requireing specialized tools and techniques.
Cooking meat to get a tender, flavorful result requires different cooking techniques, depending on what variety of meat is used, what cut, and what animal.
Everything we do, whether it be buidling a missile tracking system, or frying a hamburger, or baking a cake, relies on specialized knowledge, and an understanding of the rules related to the task. Once you completely understand those basic rules, the the tools and techniques used in the craft, then when you add imagination, the science imspire creation, which is art. A baker is no less an artist than is a sculptor, or a surgeon, or a musician, or a child making the perfect paper airplane.
Follow the above rules, practice a little, and you will become as intuitive about baking as you can be with any other art form.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
