Do you develop your own recipes?

[htc]

Hi, How many of you develop your own recipes? (both baking and cooking) I find that for cooking, it's much easier to make something creative and brand new, but with baking, I've never been able to develop any recipes from "scratch". The best I can come up with is taking a recipe I like and tweaking it to add a personal touch.

Would love to learn the ratios for making my own recipes (i.e. quick breads, cookies, scones--basically anything that doesn't require yeast to rise, too lazy to wait). Flour to b.powder to b.soda ratios. Anyone have any tips?

Thx! :D

[mudbug]

htc, baking is always called more of science than "plain" ole cooking. Measurements and weights of ingredients are much more important in baking than in other forms of cookery, so it's rather difficult to improvise if you want your cake to form a beautiful crumb or the bread to not be a brick.

If you don't bake much, take a recipe you like and try playing around with the "additives", such as fruit, nuts, flavors, glazes, etc. You'll find out what worked and what didn't. Kind of fun, actually. Thsi works especially well with quick breads.

If the results suck, you've learned what NOT to do again. Flour, baking soda, sugar, etc. are cheap, so you haven't wasted much and have gained wisdom.

[htc]

baking really is a science! I am going to try my hand at developing my own "recipe". I will let you all know how it goes! :-)

[cats]

I often come up with new meal ideas, and my husband is great for trying new things. Baking wise, I also stick to the recipe and tweek it a bit at times. For example, today I was making cookies that called for them to be rolled in confectioner's sugar prior to baking. That was fine, but I decided on subsequent batches to roll them in either finely ground walnuts, almonds, or macadamia (sic) nuts. I moistened the rolled cookie ball of each one with some whipped up plain egg white to make the nuts stick. As I moved along with my adventure, I decided to add in some green and red Christmas sugar with the various nuts. I ended up with quite a variety of the same basic cookie, but different tastes. They look great and the ones with the nuts are better than the confectioner sugar coating, per my husband's expert opinion, and mine as well. I really don't understand the science of baking, like the need for baking soda vs. baking powder or sometimes both, etc. Safer for me to stay with the cookbooks. Happy Holidays to everyone! :D

[luvs]

for baking, i use recipes, which i hate using, so i hardly bake.
for regular foods, recipes are out. i invent on my own. :D

[htc]

Cats, sounds like your cookies turned out wonderful! So creative! I am slowly trying, but am not very creative...I'm trying though! :D

[Haggis]

I'm not sure if what I do would be called creating recipes, most of the time it is taking a recipe and adapting it to different ingredients, or getting the basic ideas for a recipe then just adding however and whatever much you want (the best way to approach stews I think).

Although there have been a couple of original inventions, mostly when it comes to absolutely nothing in the cupboard and you have to get creative to eat properly. As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention.

Personally I think you have to be cooking and trying new ingredients by themselves or in pre-set recipes for a while before you can suddenly go "you know what would be great with ingredient X? ingredient Y!!!" and off you go. Well, that was how it was for me anyhow.

[choclatechef]

I have both tweaked old recipes to make them my own, and created some of my own original recipes.

Both are fun to do.

[chez suz]

I love creating my own stews and braises. Dry rubs are never the same twice!
But when it comes to baking...I have never created my own recipe, however I do make changes and additions....to suit my own taste.

[DampCharcoal]

I enjoy tweaking recipes too! I've also come up with different thing completely by accident. For example, my cousin told me that soaking ribs in orange juice and pineapple juice for 24 hours would make them "slide off the bone." Didn't work out that way but the meat tasted amazingly like Teriyaki Pork! :?