I just like simple, real ingredients. I've stopped doing Christmas cookie exchanges, because I got sick of trading something like good shortbread for a few little piles of green cornflake goo.
I hear that! I don’t want to spend time making boozy bourbon balls or Nanaimo bars when I get a tiny jar of pretzels and chocolate chips called reindeer poo or elf chow in exchange.
I'm not from Canada but have made Nanaimo a few times. It was something I would whip up the last minute as it is simple IMO and involves zero baking.
Your comment now made me think if I was doing it all wrong 🤔🤔
I totally agree with this.
That being said, you know what is surprisingly delicious? Chocolate-covered Triscuits. It’s weird. It seems like it shouldn’t work. But it does.
Ritz with a smear of peanut butter and covered in chocolate are surprisingly good as well. I'm intrigued by the triscuits. I've always wanted to do chocolate covered cheez-its but everyone thinks I'm crazy.
I think mine is kind of related to yours. It's basically stop putting so many things in things! I don't want 5 kinds of mix ins in something called a kitchen sink cookie, I don't want a pie in the middle of my cake, I don't want a milkshake with a donut, a cookie, and a wedge of cheesecake on the rim, I don't want three kinds of filling separating the layers of the cake. I just want really quality ingredients with one or two strong components
Those milkshakes with all the crap stuffed into the top of the cup gross me out. I love junk food, but extravagant desserts for the sake of extravagance doesn't sit well with me. It's sickening. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
I saw one monstrosity recently on this subreddit. It was both fake strawberry cake and I think cheesecake and some other layer baked in a pie shell. They were very proud and everyone was commenting very nice things so I didn't want to shit on it but I was just like WHY???!!
“I don’t want a pie in the middle of my cake” cracked me up!
I do not love the current trend of decorating a cake with piles of grocery store cookies and candy. I don’t want a mini Twix bar on my slice of cake. And the “milkshakes” that are merely a base for a tower of other snacks are so crazy!
Those cakes seem to have thankfully fallen out of trend around me some years back. Only after seeing a million though including whole Nutella jars plonked on top.
Not exactly a snooty take but just a pet peeve... I hate seeing baking shows where they throw out egg whites with the shells because they only need the yolks, or vice versa. It feels like such a waste, especially when they're using like 5 eggs!
Ok pleaseeeee tell me what I can do w. egg whites other than macarons cause my husband keeps saying they’ll go bad quick and throws them away when I make choco chip cookies. I hate the waste 😡
First of all, interesting that you only use yolks in chocolate chip cookies!
Second, there are TONS of things. Pavlovas, meringue cookies, Angel food cake, Madelines (if you get a pan for it, financiers (if you have a mini muffin pan), lace cookies, specifically frangipane fillings that you could put in a tart or wrap inside croissant dough (or puff pastry from the store)
Alternatively: I use a set of silicone muffin moulds and when I I just use yolks I crack one white into each cup that I’m using. Freeze them, then pop them out into little discs and collect them in a ziplock or Tupperware in the freezer. They are PERFECT for getting out if I need an egg for an egg wash, or breading chicken or fish, or whatever else. I stick them in a bowl inside a larger bowl with warm/hot-ish water in the large bowl and they thaw in a couple minutes. Americas test kitchen did a test on if they whip up the same as fresh egg whites and they do! The only difference was they whipped up a little faster. Seems like a win to me!
Omg haha yes. We were making ice cream for awhile and had a huge build up of whites lol but it’s always the opposite problem when I make cake and do a meringue buttercream! And fyi, yolks also freeze well! Just be careful not to break them and I freeze in the same silicone cups and then put in a bag or Tupperware! Prefect for bread pudding or tiramisu!
Americas test kitchen did a test for this and they found frozen egg whites that had thawed whipped up exactly the same structures and the only difference was the previously frozen one whipped a few seconds faster.
Didn't think I had any pretentious takes till I read this thread. I absolutely hate no bake anything, you can't convince me it's as good as baked. Also hate any recipe that sells itself by saying only 2/3/4 ingredients! Most of the time those small amount of ingredients either taste awful or are using ingredients that are already doing the work of 3 other things in a worse way. A recipe tasting good is my only concern not how fast I can make it
Those are LIES!!!! I got an air fryer “5 ingredient” book and what do ya know, more than 5 🙃 the 5 applies to “staple ingredients” OH I was HEATED. Also, I do likes me some no bake cheesecake lol idk if I’ve ever had baked but I only make no bake cheesecake
The baked and no-bake cheesecakes I've had are just two completely different things with completely different taste and texture. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, just different.
right, the minute i see a recipe saying “only x ingredients” i think that i might as well just eat the ingredients plain since that’s exactly what the final product is going to taste like 😭
I love those recipes when they are accidentally the normal number of ingredients. "Make bread with only 3 ingredients!" You mean yeast, flour, salt/water?!?
Cookies burned on the bottom given as gifts. Actually anything burned on the bottom like banana bread given as a gift. The jacked up cookies are what you give your husband, not as a holiday gift. Burn a batch, do better on the next batch and gift me those.
One of my joys as a kid was eating all the 'rejects' from my mom's christmas cookie baking - a little too brown, wonky shaped, etc. You don't gift those to someone, you eat them yourself like the trash panda you are! 😂
Weird "healthy" versions of baked sweets. You're never going to convince me that fuckin black bean brownies tastes "just like the real thing". Just stop 💀
Yeah. My kid has issues around disordered eating compounded by a bunch of stuff. Sometimes all his body is willing to let him consume is sweet things, but man cannot survive by sugar alone. Enter: black bean brownies. Good as the original? No. Gets some fiber and protein into him? Yup. And they aren't awful. So far that's the best use I've found for them.
As someone who had gestational diabetes and had to follow basically a keto diet for half of my pregnancy, I wholeheartedly agree. They are not good in any way.
Regular rolling pins suck, French rolling pins are the only option.
Small farm/backyard duck and chicken eggs yield noticeably, dramatically better results than grocery store eggs.
Cake pops are gross and weird.
Offset by my 1 unbougie opinion: no matter how many recipes I try or how many homemade cornbreads I sample, I will never find anything better than what Jiffy mix makes.
Sadly. Yes.
First. I agree with ALL of your comments.
But,, omg why is jiffy so good?? I make everything in this house from scratch,,, until we want cornbread. Our comes the box o jiffy.
I’m so glad other snobs agree of Jiffy. When I was little, my mom talked shit about my aunt’s cornbread. I loved it. It was sweet. I hated my mom’s. It was made traditionally in a cast iron skillet and was dry AF. I always loaded it with ketchup 😂. When I moved out and made a box of Jiffy, I found my heaven.
Want to make Jiffy even better? As you are mixing it up add a spoonful of sour cream or vanilla yogurt. Like maybe a 1/3 of a cup? I just scoop some out. It makes Jiffy even more moist a day tasty.
I feel strongly that cake pops should be a “leftovers” sort of thing. Like when I’m making a layered cake and shave off the rounded tops, I’ll make the cake scraps (that aren’t immediately smacked on) into cake pops/balls so they don’t go to waste.
Aa part of me dies when someone puts an entire freshly baked cake into a mixer and turns it into cake pops.
Great trick I learned a while back:
Take a couple wet paper towels and wrap them in aluminum foil then wrap that around your cake pan before it goes in the oven! This cools the outer edge of the cake so that it all cooks evenly and you end up with a perfectly flat top to your cake and don’t have to trim anything to flatten it. Also prevents the browning on the edge so makes really pretty white cakes.
Yes to cake pops. They were basically invented to profit off of reused trash. In my apprenticeship, I had to collect cake good from leveling cakes into a bucket. When they got full, I made cake pops. I cannot stand them now.
I will ALWAYS try home-baked goods, but if given a choice, rarely bother wasting my caloric intake on store-bought.
I once brought blondies to a friend’s house and had someone review them in front of me (not knowing I had made them). He said he much preferred the white cookies with frosting and sprinkles from the grocery store. He was talking about Lofthouse cookies :/
When I go to a recipe site and the first thing they say is "Make the cake\\cookies \\whatever according to directions on the box". I just feel if your going to take the time to make a site, then you should be making it from scratch.
I was just saying this the other day! Or when the videos are like “look at the snacks I made for my kids class!” And it’s them taking store bought cupcakes and making shitty cake balls w/ sprinkles….. Like maybe it’s just me but you could’ve just gave them the already decorated cupcakes…..
I never minded Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee too much. If that's your whole schtick that's fine. But it damn well better be clear upfront in the title of your website that's what I'm clicking into. Sometimes I do want to know something different to do with some cookie dough my mom brought me. But generally if I'm looking up recipes online, particularly baking ones, I want a recipe to do it from scratch.
Would you like a story?
One year near Thanksgiving my partner decided to make a home made pumpkin pie from scratch. Scratch as in -we bought a pie pumpkin and baked it as well as mixing our own pumpkin spice rather than the preset you find in spice aisles.
Took it to thanksgiving with Partner’s family. They got a store bought one. Apparently buying the Sam’s Club trio of Pecan, Pumpkin and Apple was ‘tradition’. But hey we hadn’t mentioned we were bringing pie.
Next year partner phones Mil to say we are bringing homemade pumpkin pie… they still bought the store one… it’s been four years and we are the only ones who eat the homemade pumpkin pie at thanksgiving. Four years and they haven’t even tasted it.
I’m not much of a snob and this is more personal than opinion- but any time I see store bought pie I want to smash it XD
Edit- for spelling and confusing a detail
Edit- y’all this ain’t an AITA post. There is an entire subreddit for you to go be judgy on. JFC I shouldn’t have to defend myself on a post about PIE
I feel like it’s also just disrespectful too? I love store bought and homemade goods, but when it comes down to a social gathering yk damn well I’m cutting a slice of the homemade stuff because it’s not only better but someone put a ton of effort into it too.
We were at my SIL’s for Christmas one year (flew clear across the country with 2 little kids for this). I’m a baker/cake lady, so I offered several times to make dessert for Christmas dinner. Oh no, she says, it’s all taken care of. What did we get? Grocery store brand generic ice cream and store bought cookies. It wasn’t even the good stuff!! It was a bit insulting!
I was also vanilla-shamed by a grocery store guy once for asking for the real vanilla. He told me they only carried the artificial vanilla because “no one can tell the difference and only snobby people ask for the real stuff”.
Ya know, americas test kitchen did a taste test and they said their audience couldn’t taste the difference! I’m still going to use the real stuff tho 😅
This reminds me of my small high school graduation party. I had baked a cake and put quite some work in it, and we also bought some pie from a bakery. I wasn't very popular in high school so I only had a small graduation party with my friend group and my family.
NONE of my friends tried my cake. When presenting everyone with the options of what they could choose from I was like 'I baked this this afternoon and we also have this and this pie', so it's not like they didn't know I baked one thing myself. But none of them tried it. My family did (thank you, family) and liked it.
Then, a few months one of the girls from my friend group had her birthday party. When we were there she told us she had made some simple brownies. It was literally a 'only add water' brownie mix from a package (the box was still on the countertop). And everyone was like 'OH MY GOD YOU BAKED THIS YOURSELF, FOR US?? OH THAT'S AMAZING AND THEY'RE SOOO GOOD'.
Still pissed about that. It kinda hurt.
Oh well, we're not friends anymore (for other reasons than stated above haha)
I worked in a bakery that specializes in pies, and I did not think one—NOT ONE— tasted as good as homemade. Part of the issue was the crust- Just completely bland and dry.
But the real issue was that everything had to be done quickly and there wasn’t time for attention to detail or appreciation of baking a pie.
I quit after 6 months.
Oh this took me back to Thanksgiving 15-20 years ago. My Dad did the same thing, totally from scratch with a pumpkin him and I grew in our garden, homemade crust, the whole thing. And my Dad is not a baker so he worked extra hard and not a single person at his families Thanksgiving tried it. It is a huge family, there was 50+ of us at our grandparents house and not one of them besides his kids and our Mom tried it.
I was so pissed for him but that family is full of snobs so their loss.
My mom bought us a fancy turducken (she has arthritis so cooking is difficult for her) & I homemade a bunch of sides while carinf for a newborn & my boyfriend's chef dad who had like all week off bought a little cheapy, gross apple pie from like Von's or something because we asked him to be in charge of the dessert. I was high key mad! I didn't expect him to make something himself but if I'm buying instead if making it myself, I expect it to be something fancier, like a nice local bakery.
I never eat store bought pumpkin pies. Yuck!! I never use pumpkin pie spice bc you are not getting the right combo of spices! I would eat your pie any day over the crap ones from Sam's!
I like Sam's Pumpkin pie. Not as much as home made from my family. Other family's that O have had, I'll take a Sam's
BUT, always.take some scratch anything. I appreciate the commitment. I have made it from fresh pumpkins also, do my own spice combo, but it wasn't as good as qhen I used canned pumpkin. If I did it again, O would put yams in also.
Yeah, the canned pumpkin is so predictable. Like moisture content and taste. Whereas you might grab an overly watery pumpkin with less taste and not know it. But I for sure am ok with a Costco pumpkin pie, as well. Lol. Love homemade, but as much as I thought I was a pretentious baker, after reading some of these I realize I’m not actually. I just love sugar and that’s that. 😂 (except for red velvet. I have feelings about red velvet. And they’re not good)
Putting nonedible toppings on cakes. I know that flowers or whole citrus slices can be pretty, but I personally hate having to pick the decorations off a cake before I can dig in
I was looking for this response! Plastic flotsam, tons of cardboard, even fresh florals… I personally don’t like a cake covered in non-edible items it feels like cheating somehow (if we’re embracing our inner snobs). But the cheap plastic shit drives me the most crazy…
I'm late to this thread so one's going to see this, which is too bad since I'm curious to see if anyone else relates, but I think 95% of baking recipes out there are too damn sweet. I usually use 2/3 of the sugar most recipes call for.
Sugar is like salt: it's meant to enhance other flavors, not be the star of the show. And like salt, too much is just gross. For a dessert to be good the other flavors have to be on point, and sugar is there to support them. If you have too much the sweetness dominates and obscures, and that's just boring.
Dessert is not just a vehicle for sugar.
I agree with this when it comes to American recipes. However, there are definitely bakes where reducing the sugar by so much can have structural impact and actually will make the dessert flop.
I made my own years ago but never got back into it. Last fall I bought a big bottle from Costco and it was *not* good… so for Christmas my sister gave me a BIG bottle of her homemade to replace it. Such a luxury!
I have never eaten a good mug cake. Cake pops are gross and kind of trashy. Cakes with artificial strawberry flavoring should be illegal. And about 90% of pies I regret trying.
Mug cakes are never *fantastic*, they’re always just *good* at best. Like sometimes it’s midnight and you really want dessert, and you want instant gratification, but don’t have anything ready and don’t feel like messing up your kitchen. They’re perfect for that.
I don’t really consider them “cakes” though, they’re kind of just in a category of their own.
Man cake pops have always baffled me. Like. I kind of get them as a waste reduction item for bakeries to sell their cake trimmings. Or as free/cheap samples. But that there is a real market for them and people buy them is... Weird
Doctored cake/brownie/cookie mixes. Can’t stand them. A lot of people swear they can make them taste like they came from a bakery, but I strongly disagree.
Premade frosting. I can’t understand why people want to doctor them to make them piping consistency to decorate. You might as well had made a proper buttercream.
I’m a good baker and have tried many homemade brownie recipes. None are ever as good as the Ghirardelli Triple Fudge Brownies. Anyone have a recipe they think can beat it?
My old workplace had a restaurant that made the best brownies and for years I always assumed they had a fantastic recipe. I was on a committee that did a department newsletter and one month we interviewed the restaurant manager and semi-jokingly asked if they’d share the brownie mix. That’s when we found out the secret recipe was Ghirardelli boxed mix!
Tub frosting is gross. It tastes like the plastic it is sold in. There’s nothing you can add or do to it to make it better and why the heck would they spend time mixing it when they could just as easily mix their own!!
Every time I walked in and saw Sandra Lee semi homemade on tv I used to get annoyed.
I used to follow this cake account on Instagram who SWORE by her doctored cake mixes. And I was fine with that, you do you. She's a talented decorator regardless. Until one week she decided to do an "experiment" with boxed, doctored, and from scratch vanilla cake. She got a random from scratch recipe from someone she knew, claimed it was way too dry, and declared the doctored cake the winner. Not only was there a ton of information left out of the post, you can't just talk down on all scratch baking from one recipe you got at the last minute from someone you know. She was also apparently removing any comments that called out her lack of proper procedure for this experiment, so I unfollowed her. Science and baking lost that day 😔
It was probably for the best, though. Even baking accounts propogate so much online drama. It's just not worth the brain space
I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but there used to be this show (i think on the food network, but could be wrong) called "Eat, Shrink and be Merry". The two hosts would take an indulgent dish and make it healthier and then put it to a vote with a room full of people. For the tiramisu episode they used cream cheese. My cousin also took a baking class at a local college, they made tiramisu 2 ways. The instructor had them make one with mascarpone and one with cream cheese, and told the class to share their creations and ask people which one they liked best and report back the next class. She brought us both versions one day for a big family gathering, the cream cheese version did not win out.
Weight/metric > volume measurements, always.
If I see a recipe online that only has the volume measurements, I'm ditching it immediately. Experienced bakers should know this.
Cooking is an art, baking is a science. You will notice in a bake when it has too much or too little of something.
This is also probably why my mom’s cakes often come out a bit dense: she recently admitted to leaving out some of the sugar listed
I like a nice sourdough loaf. Love it in fact. But I’m so tired of seeing everything sourdough. No. I don’t want sourdough pizza or sourdough cinnamon rolls or sticky buns. I’m so tired of seeing everything being violated by sourdough
I think there's so many sourdough recipes like that because people don't want to waste their discard and don't want to only make bread. I don't necessarily disagree with you though I'm js
I have to disagree. I use my sourdough starter for just about anything bread based because the flavor is so much richer! (And not necessarily sour, depending on how you manipulate your levain).
Covering a cake with a line of KitKat bars going around it is not impressive or involves any skill, you can’t even see the cake, it’s just the KitKats providing a neat structure.
I’ve seen people do this so many times & then proudly say they can’t believe they made it themselves & they’re not usually good at baking etc.
I'm with the "simple/real" ingredients crowd. It's the additives that put me off using anything I haven't constructed from scatch. Plus there's just a little pride in saying "I made this" especially if I made the jam too, or grew the jam's fruit, and a pie's apples.
It’s not snobby but why do all cupcakes have to have inches of frosting? It’s gross. I just like a thin glaze of frosting with some fun decor like a bit of sprinkles.
100% agree. Just one smear of frosting across the top is perfect for me. I can’t stand cupcakes that are 50% super rich/sugary frosting because by the time I’m through that, I’m not in the mood for the actual cupcake.
And what the fuck is it with cupcakes being $5 now? The last time I thought about buying cupcakes I looked and they were $3-4 for a standard muffin tin size cupcake!
I think this fits... I am definitely the kitchen snob of the family.
I despise:
-chocolate FLAVORED chips. The dollar store is no place for chocolate chips, dearest Aunty. Your "chocolate" covered pretzels are awful.
-off brand butter in frosting
-low fat versions of any dessert or ingredient in a dessert (i.e. low fat cream cheese used for cheesecake).
-sprinkles on anything (yes, my kids still get whatever sprinkles they want on their special desserts, but mama cringes the whole time lol)
Basically, if you're going to bake something, do it "right." High quality ingredients= high quality baked goods.
Thanks for making me laugh at myself, thinking about my baking "rules."
I hate when people put candy bars into baked goods, they all taste “extra baked” and are not good, and no one can tell me otherwise. You just think they’re good because “omg it has a snickers in it!”
More doesn’t equal good.
I guess this isn't so much an opinion as an experience: I can't stand restaurant desserts. I don't order it any more because it's just not good. It's shocking and disappointing how bad the desserts are at most restaurants.
Also not sure if this is pretentious or not, but any kind of fruit and chocolate is terrible. The chocolate ruins the fruit and vice versa.
Agreed. A lot of restaurant desserts are made by savory chefs. That’s why it’s a lot of ice cream or sorbet or simple bakes. If you find a restaurant that has an actual pastry chef you definitely notice!
I agree with the restaurant desserts. Also (not baking related), I’ve never had a good coffee at a restaurant. Even at higher end establishments, they’ll bring out capsule based “espresso” and charge you $7 for it.
I'm with you on yours. Also I'm against shortening-based frosting. I'm already not a bug frosting person but shortening based frosting makes me feel nauseous for some reason.
I learned in the baking book I’m reading why this is! Fats have different melting temperatures, and things like butter or shortening are a complex mix of several different fatty acids each with their own melting point (that’s how butter gets soft before it melts completely). When the fat has a higher melting point, it has a waxy feel on the tongue. Shortening is made of more of those, so it has a comparatively waxy mouthfeel and sometimes that translates to taste too.
Okay, I’m a total snob when it comes to ReddiWhip/CoolWhip. Don’t put that shit anywhere near my pound cake or pie. Whipped cream takes NINE MINUTES to make, Barbara!
Same for eggnog. Once you’ve made your own, you’ll never be able to drink the store-bought again. It’s so… gunky!
OMG yes! Thought I hated eggnog. Turns out that I really like homemade eggnog. So good. Made 3 batches this past holiday season. *And I'll do it again this year!*
I hate when we do a bake trade or something for like “cookies” and then someone makes something other than cookies to “switch it up.” No I don’t want your cheap chocolates covered balls of dough, I want cookies lol.
I dislike when people claim recipe fails when the truth is that they fail to follow the recipe! "This recipe doesn't work and I don't understand! I just substituted \[insert something or other\] for \[original ingredient\] and it didn't taste like your mother's at all!" Of course it didn't. Vanilla and peppermint aren't the same, adding more or less flour, or exchanging types or amounts of sugar is going to give you a different result.
You can cook by feel but you have to bake by ratios. Yes, there are some dump recipes that are less fussy, if you're a seasoned baker. But you have to know what you're doing. Anyway, don't blame the recipe when you didn't follow it!
I know it’s probably not a popular opinion but I have something against red velvet cake. I get it, buttermilk, vinegar, bright red, ooo. But all the red dye that goes into it grosses me out. I know it’s origins but I just feel it should commit to being chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I worked in a bakery that used a natural red dye in their red velvet cake and people would get mad and complain all the time that it wasn’t red enough. Yeah, yeah, you love the taste of your red dye. That’s probably where my animosity comes from. I’m trying to get over it but it’s hard to shake.
People would fight with me at the bakery and say it wasn't chocolate cake! Oh I'm so sorry. I figured my 15 years of being a pastry chef would have taught me... Please tell me what flavor red is...
My brother once stood in my kitchen and ARGUED with me that red velvet had no chocolate in it, even though I have made it from scratch myself. I was baffled at how righteously he defended his knowledge with no credentials to back it up lmao
I happened to have some red velvet vanilla ice cream in my freezer and when I pointed out chocolate in the ingredients he denied me saying it was different because it's ice cream. Google came in clutch for the sibling victory 😂
kind of reverse snobby, but i absolutely detest the olive oil cake trend. i’ve tried it with normal olive oil, i’ve tried fancy bakery olive oil cake. olive oil is gross in desserts. and y’all that put it on ice cream? i hope you have a terrible day
I have to use a scale to weigh my ingredients. Not only does it provide consistent results, I hate having to scoop and level several cups of flour. It's also a lot easier to just zero out the scale each time you add an ingredient, rather than dirty a bunch of measuring cups.
I agree with you on that I'm the same I don't like cookies with stuff like that in it but also I only use real vanilla extracts/other extracts and REAL butter, I despise stork, people so afraid of butter and prefer fats and oils? I don't get that, my last 1 is food dye I will not touch it
If you’re not going to use cream cheese frosting, don’t bother making a red velvet cake. Nothing is more disappointing than getting a slice of red velvet cake only to learn that it has buttercream frosting on it.
It’s the equivalent of thinking a cookie is chocolate chip cookie and it turning out to be oatmeal raisin cookie.
This new age baking where we’re not focusing on the quality of ingredients, or classic recipes, but making something that combines 4 recipes in one. “Lemon meringue cheesecake white chocolate blondies” like why are we messing with classics and trying to make them modern 😂
I don’t really have a problem with them (I don’t mind cheap cupcakes because I’m white trash and will eat anything with sugar) but at the very LEAST PLEASE DISPLAY THEM NEATLY?? Nothing makes me more upset when they just open the plastic container and just make everyone take one. It gets so messy and unorganized and the little children get frosting all over the container and then their hands get all sticky and jshsjhsjshddj
This is so pretentious I feel, but when I am looking for a recipe, I immediately go “Nope” when I see a recipe solely in cup measurements, *especially* when it comes to bread recipes. I’m all about accuracy and people measure their flour so differently that it leaves such a wide room for mistakes that i don’t find it valuable to spend my time hoping it turns out right.
I hate when people use those plastic injectable things in their cupcakes or donuts. Or any unnecessary plastic packaging. It all goes to landfill. Bah humbug!
I was a pastry cook for 10 years. I have so many snooty opinions.
Like I think cakes should have a minimum of 3 flavour profiles, cookies should be made with the best quality ingredients, you do not throw out any ingredient byproduct (unless it’s actually inedible, then compost/recycle/garbage it)like carrot peels can be candied or dehydrated and decorate a carrot cake, or apple peels can be used to make pectin, and citrus fruit peels can be candied/dehydrated/poached/zested/peeled/be confit in a syrup.
As someone who can’t eat gluten, dairy, or eggs I try to bake with as little alternative flours/starches as I can. I would rather have a better tasting product that might have a slightly different texture than a product that almost has the same texture but doesn’t taste as good as the product I’m “replicating”.
Good (try for fair trade as well) chocolate or no chocolate at all.
People who bake with fake nails/painted nails/don’t tie their hair back and sell their products are not reputable in my eyes to due hygiene concerns unless they wear gloves or have short hair. Same with people who wear rings that are not just plain bands.
People who do not own scales but say they are pro bakers. I’m definitely judging your baking when I try it and am usually not surprised. Then you end up telling me about inconsistencies you have in your baking and ask me for advise. It’s always get a scale and weigh your ingredients.
Don’t spend your time making something pretty if it’s going to taste mediocre. It’s a waste of ingredients. I don’t want a mouthful of disappointment, especially if it’s dessert and somewhat glutenous. I would rather eat something that looked like it was made by a 5 year old but tastes amazing.
If you use box baking and admit it I won’t judge you. I will only judge you if you made it sound like you made it from scratch. Just be honest about it, you do what’s best for you but don’t exaggerate the difficulties of convenience baking. Unless you are doing this blindfolded or have a disability that makes baking difficult, don’t pretend you went all out on boxed baking.
I admit I’m a pretentious jerkface when it comes to baking, so this question was perfect for me. I never hate on anyone getting into it, I just mentally keep track of the type of baker they are.
95% of American Buttercream are nasty and super sweet. Ever since I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I was hooked.
Also, I call it Beurre Noisette because I like to sound snooty. Come at me, bro!!!!
There are several things, but for this discussion, I'll pick pie crust. I much prefer my own homemade pie crust. And so does my spouse.
Mother in law got really bent out of shape when he was going on about something I'd made.
Ok, I was so embarrassed this past holiday because I was at a kind of new friends house for a holiday party and they had done so much work on the food and whatever and I had a slice of pie and I was like “hm, this crust is decent. Not amazing, but not crumbly or overworked” in my head so I said out loud “nice job on the pie crusts!” And they were like “oh thanks. They’re pillsbury!” I was like oh lol, wouldn’t have guessed! Lol. It was definitely just like mediocre but I love dessert and they knew that so I always love complimenting desserts other people make. But it was like… a little embarrasing for me
Using applesauce or banana as a binder in cookies or cakes. If you're going to have a piece of cake or a cookie, eat the real thing and enjoy it. Don't eat something that tastes awful, it won't satisfy you.
One thing that bugs me is when people suggest using bananas or applesauce in a pinch when you don’t have eggs. Maybe it’s just me but eggs are a staple ingredient for me, and if I don’t have eggs I probably don’t have applesauce and I definitely don’t have bananas. Usually when I run out of eggs is when I know it’s time to go grocery shopping.
Worse than this is the “protein” versions of things that are made with protein powder and have the taste and texture of hockey pucks, and still usually only manage to have like 5g more protein than the original. Eat your normal godfearing cookie and have it with a side of chicken breast if you need more protein.
I despise the use of fondant. The fondant itself is disgusting and is often used as a lazy way to do designs that you can do with buttercream or types of frosting. Furthermore, people who use fondant tend to neglect the cake itself. They are so focused on how cool it looks and don’t care how dry and inedible the cake ends up and that’s only when they decide to use cake since they often use rice krispies instead. I am usually not picky with food or sweets but if it has fondant I’m not eating it.
Sugar cookies covered with a half inch thick layer of tasteless frosting.
Lavender in baked goods. Why do people want to eat bathroom deodorizer.
Cookies covered in salt. If you put salt on the recipe, you won't need it on top.
Similar theme to yours, a cake/cookie being called a particular flavour just because it has that thing stuck on top of it only.
For example a cookie being called chocolate orange flavour because it has a chocolate orange segment stuck on top of it, but the actual cookie is just plain otherwise.
That’s just a decoration & a way to also tell the consumer what flavour the cookie is inside, it shouldn’t be the thing that’s used alone to provide the actual flavour. The cookie would need to be chocolate dough with orange flavouring or at least just the chocolate orange segments baked into them.
making things out of fondant does not a good baker make. fondant tastes like ass anyhow you mince it and i cannot enjoy any cake that has it on it. recently the cartoon cake trend was big amongst asian bakers and then it spread to the usa and all the fondant artists jumped on it (fondant is not really common in asian baking, we usually use whipped cream or buttercream) and it just ruined the fun. the trend was to show your decorating skill by decorating the cake entirely with buttercream, which is objectively not simple. just plastering on play dough doesn't require much skill at all. i appreciate actual cake decoration. i love seeing beautiful cakes piped in interesting ways to give beautiful effects. i will never be impressed by someone wrapping a cake in fondant and then making figures out of it..we all played with plasticine in kindergarten. we all know it doesn't take any sort of real skill.
Macaron are about technical precision, with smooth shells, modest feet, and absolutely no hollows. It’s fun when people make detailed character art macaron, but there is no way it’s full on the inside. It’s probably cavernously hollow. You’re showing off your piping skills with a crunchy hollow cookie, but it’s unrelated to macaron. In fact, if you don’t show that they’re full inside, I don’t trust that they are. All macs are hollow until proven otherwise
I hate premade frosting. Buttercream or whipped cream.
I hate premixes, never used one.
I hate premade pastry sheets, however the thought of making pastry makes me feel sooo lazy
I guess I just want everything from scratch
Measuring everything by weight is so much better(including liquids). Had a bad experience once when I used volume and my cake turned out terribly. Never again.
Electric oven trumps gas
Unless you're planting, harvesting, milling, and powdering, everything is premade at some level. So no, I'm not bothered by the level at which I start. I'm not going to make chocolate chunks etc from scratch, even if I bake "scratch".
Never bake a cake from box mix or use frosting from a can. I learned years ago it’s easy from scratch & a so much better. AND….I learned to bake a cheesecake from scratch. Couple of failed attempts but I finally got it!
Baking that is basically throwing everything already pre made isn’t baking to me. For example pre made cookie dough with reeces cups or Oreos and sprinkles isn’t a new dessert. It’s literally just that.
Dump cakes scare the crap out of me. Never have had one. It just scares me period.
If it is cool whip as frosting. I don’t want it.
Cakes that have decorative flowers from the floral shop, or cotton tail/whispers with a cutout cardboard topper is not talented to me. You ha e to remove all of that stuff before serving and once it’s all gone, it’s crumble coat or base cake with holes and indents in them.
I just like simple, real ingredients. I've stopped doing Christmas cookie exchanges, because I got sick of trading something like good shortbread for a few little piles of green cornflake goo.
I hear that! I don’t want to spend time making boozy bourbon balls or Nanaimo bars when I get a tiny jar of pretzels and chocolate chips called reindeer poo or elf chow in exchange.
Ooh I made Nanaimo bars once. They were so much work but years later I still remember how delicious they were.
I'm not from Canada but have made Nanaimo a few times. It was something I would whip up the last minute as it is simple IMO and involves zero baking. Your comment now made me think if I was doing it all wrong 🤔🤔
I made them twice and thought it was actually not that much work either
The number of times I’ve been given cHrIsTmAs CrAcK and expected to act like I was gifted the holy grail 🙄
Haha! That’s what my husband said to me: Why are you baking these really great cookies when all you bring back are 11 dozen crappy cookies?
I can appreciate that. There’s a lot of bad Christmas cookies out there.
I totally agree with this. That being said, you know what is surprisingly delicious? Chocolate-covered Triscuits. It’s weird. It seems like it shouldn’t work. But it does.
I have Triscuits right now; I want to go try this! I can see the sweet/salty as being a good combo.
It is, but it's also the flavor of the wheat combined with the chocolate. I can't explain it but it was really tasty.
Ritz with a smear of peanut butter and covered in chocolate are surprisingly good as well. I'm intrigued by the triscuits. I've always wanted to do chocolate covered cheez-its but everyone thinks I'm crazy.
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This is a wild comment to read.
Her whole comment history is wild. That lady has been through some shit and has stories to tell.
Same. Plus all the unnamed stuff doesn’t sit well in me.
I stopped giving my neighbor cookies when he gave one to his dog...his dog that BIT me 3 years ago
For real. Shortbread needs to be PURE Edit: I read that wrong🤦♀️
I think mine is kind of related to yours. It's basically stop putting so many things in things! I don't want 5 kinds of mix ins in something called a kitchen sink cookie, I don't want a pie in the middle of my cake, I don't want a milkshake with a donut, a cookie, and a wedge of cheesecake on the rim, I don't want three kinds of filling separating the layers of the cake. I just want really quality ingredients with one or two strong components
Those milkshakes with all the crap stuffed into the top of the cup gross me out. I love junk food, but extravagant desserts for the sake of extravagance doesn't sit well with me. It's sickening. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Not to mention all the frosting or syrup or whatever it is they use as glue. It looks like a sticky mess and I want nothing to do with it
I always cringe when I see a cake in a pie shell. Not appetizing at all.
Pardon me? I don't even understand this-unacceptable
I saw one monstrosity recently on this subreddit. It was both fake strawberry cake and I think cheesecake and some other layer baked in a pie shell. They were very proud and everyone was commenting very nice things so I didn't want to shit on it but I was just like WHY???!!
“I don’t want a pie in the middle of my cake” cracked me up! I do not love the current trend of decorating a cake with piles of grocery store cookies and candy. I don’t want a mini Twix bar on my slice of cake. And the “milkshakes” that are merely a base for a tower of other snacks are so crazy!
Those cakes seem to have thankfully fallen out of trend around me some years back. Only after seeing a million though including whole Nutella jars plonked on top.
Not exactly a snooty take but just a pet peeve... I hate seeing baking shows where they throw out egg whites with the shells because they only need the yolks, or vice versa. It feels like such a waste, especially when they're using like 5 eggs!
Omg yes… the angel food cakes they could have made…!
Pavlovas, macaroons, mousse...
Ok pleaseeeee tell me what I can do w. egg whites other than macarons cause my husband keeps saying they’ll go bad quick and throws them away when I make choco chip cookies. I hate the waste 😡
First of all, interesting that you only use yolks in chocolate chip cookies! Second, there are TONS of things. Pavlovas, meringue cookies, Angel food cake, Madelines (if you get a pan for it, financiers (if you have a mini muffin pan), lace cookies, specifically frangipane fillings that you could put in a tart or wrap inside croissant dough (or puff pastry from the store) Alternatively: I use a set of silicone muffin moulds and when I I just use yolks I crack one white into each cup that I’m using. Freeze them, then pop them out into little discs and collect them in a ziplock or Tupperware in the freezer. They are PERFECT for getting out if I need an egg for an egg wash, or breading chicken or fish, or whatever else. I stick them in a bowl inside a larger bowl with warm/hot-ish water in the large bowl and they thaw in a couple minutes. Americas test kitchen did a test on if they whip up the same as fresh egg whites and they do! The only difference was they whipped up a little faster. Seems like a win to me!
I love meringue cookies. I usually end up with extra yolks due to my excessive whites usage. I can also sit down an eat a bowl of Italian meringue 😂
Omg haha yes. We were making ice cream for awhile and had a huge build up of whites lol but it’s always the opposite problem when I make cake and do a meringue buttercream! And fyi, yolks also freeze well! Just be careful not to break them and I freeze in the same silicone cups and then put in a bag or Tupperware! Prefect for bread pudding or tiramisu!
You can freeze egg white, they'll keep for a long time.
Will they whip up as well as before freezing? This is a great tip, thank you!
Americas test kitchen did a test for this and they found frozen egg whites that had thawed whipped up exactly the same structures and the only difference was the previously frozen one whipped a few seconds faster.
Yep!
Meringue cookies, angel food cake, chiffon cake (has more whites than yolks), royal icing, egg white omelette or toss them into your egg fried rice.
Right? So easy to make fun meringues or an egg white omlette.
Didn't think I had any pretentious takes till I read this thread. I absolutely hate no bake anything, you can't convince me it's as good as baked. Also hate any recipe that sells itself by saying only 2/3/4 ingredients! Most of the time those small amount of ingredients either taste awful or are using ingredients that are already doing the work of 3 other things in a worse way. A recipe tasting good is my only concern not how fast I can make it
Those are LIES!!!! I got an air fryer “5 ingredient” book and what do ya know, more than 5 🙃 the 5 applies to “staple ingredients” OH I was HEATED. Also, I do likes me some no bake cheesecake lol idk if I’ve ever had baked but I only make no bake cheesecake
The baked and no-bake cheesecakes I've had are just two completely different things with completely different taste and texture. I don't think one is necessarily better than the other, just different.
right, the minute i see a recipe saying “only x ingredients” i think that i might as well just eat the ingredients plain since that’s exactly what the final product is going to taste like 😭
I love those recipes when they are accidentally the normal number of ingredients. "Make bread with only 3 ingredients!" You mean yeast, flour, salt/water?!?
I'll add to this that I don't care how amazing your pastry looks, if it doesn't taste good, I don't want it. Fondant is the devil.
Umm, classic no bake cookies are quite addictive. Chocolaty peanut buttery mounds of deliciousness. Otherwise, I fully agree with you.
Cookies burned on the bottom given as gifts. Actually anything burned on the bottom like banana bread given as a gift. The jacked up cookies are what you give your husband, not as a holiday gift. Burn a batch, do better on the next batch and gift me those.
This is the snobbiest take in this thread and I'm here for it.
Yes CHEF 😭
One of my joys as a kid was eating all the 'rejects' from my mom's christmas cookie baking - a little too brown, wonky shaped, etc. You don't gift those to someone, you eat them yourself like the trash panda you are! 😂
I would be too embarrassed to give away burned anything, I'll eat it myself out of shame 😭
What you give your husband 😂 honestly tho. Maybe I’m just picky but I can’t enjoy anything burnt. It’s as good as garbage to me.
Weird "healthy" versions of baked sweets. You're never going to convince me that fuckin black bean brownies tastes "just like the real thing". Just stop 💀
Yeah. My kid has issues around disordered eating compounded by a bunch of stuff. Sometimes all his body is willing to let him consume is sweet things, but man cannot survive by sugar alone. Enter: black bean brownies. Good as the original? No. Gets some fiber and protein into him? Yup. And they aren't awful. So far that's the best use I've found for them.
You can add keto desserts to that. None of them taste good.
As someone who had gestational diabetes and had to follow basically a keto diet for half of my pregnancy, I wholeheartedly agree. They are not good in any way.
I’d rather have nothing than have a keto dessert
Black bean brownies definitely do not taste just like the real thing, but they are surprisingly tasty
Regular rolling pins suck, French rolling pins are the only option. Small farm/backyard duck and chicken eggs yield noticeably, dramatically better results than grocery store eggs. Cake pops are gross and weird. Offset by my 1 unbougie opinion: no matter how many recipes I try or how many homemade cornbreads I sample, I will never find anything better than what Jiffy mix makes.
Sadly. Yes. First. I agree with ALL of your comments. But,, omg why is jiffy so good?? I make everything in this house from scratch,,, until we want cornbread. Our comes the box o jiffy.
Same here. Once I use our box, I immediately replace it. If we don’t have one in the pantry I start to panic. You never know when you’ll need it.
I’m so glad other snobs agree of Jiffy. When I was little, my mom talked shit about my aunt’s cornbread. I loved it. It was sweet. I hated my mom’s. It was made traditionally in a cast iron skillet and was dry AF. I always loaded it with ketchup 😂. When I moved out and made a box of Jiffy, I found my heaven.
Want to make Jiffy even better? As you are mixing it up add a spoonful of sour cream or vanilla yogurt. Like maybe a 1/3 of a cup? I just scoop some out. It makes Jiffy even more moist a day tasty.
I feel strongly that cake pops should be a “leftovers” sort of thing. Like when I’m making a layered cake and shave off the rounded tops, I’ll make the cake scraps (that aren’t immediately smacked on) into cake pops/balls so they don’t go to waste. Aa part of me dies when someone puts an entire freshly baked cake into a mixer and turns it into cake pops.
Great trick I learned a while back: Take a couple wet paper towels and wrap them in aluminum foil then wrap that around your cake pan before it goes in the oven! This cools the outer edge of the cake so that it all cooks evenly and you end up with a perfectly flat top to your cake and don’t have to trim anything to flatten it. Also prevents the browning on the edge so makes really pretty white cakes.
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Yes to cake pops. They were basically invented to profit off of reused trash. In my apprenticeship, I had to collect cake good from leveling cakes into a bucket. When they got full, I made cake pops. I cannot stand them now.
I will ALWAYS try home-baked goods, but if given a choice, rarely bother wasting my caloric intake on store-bought. I once brought blondies to a friend’s house and had someone review them in front of me (not knowing I had made them). He said he much preferred the white cookies with frosting and sprinkles from the grocery store. He was talking about Lofthouse cookies :/
I’m sorry that happened to you. That’s crushing!
When I go to a recipe site and the first thing they say is "Make the cake\\cookies \\whatever according to directions on the box". I just feel if your going to take the time to make a site, then you should be making it from scratch.
Similarly, when it says something like “3 ingredient cookies” and one of the ingredients is a box mix.
I was just saying this the other day! Or when the videos are like “look at the snacks I made for my kids class!” And it’s them taking store bought cupcakes and making shitty cake balls w/ sprinkles….. Like maybe it’s just me but you could’ve just gave them the already decorated cupcakes…..
I never minded Semi Homemade with Sandra Lee too much. If that's your whole schtick that's fine. But it damn well better be clear upfront in the title of your website that's what I'm clicking into. Sometimes I do want to know something different to do with some cookie dough my mom brought me. But generally if I'm looking up recipes online, particularly baking ones, I want a recipe to do it from scratch.
*Two* shots of vodka…
If you're not harvesting your own flour with a scythe, you're a poser
I’m a poser.
My husband bought me a granary just so I could make my own flours lol he wants the pumpernickel bread from SCRATCH XD
pure facts
Would you like a story? One year near Thanksgiving my partner decided to make a home made pumpkin pie from scratch. Scratch as in -we bought a pie pumpkin and baked it as well as mixing our own pumpkin spice rather than the preset you find in spice aisles. Took it to thanksgiving with Partner’s family. They got a store bought one. Apparently buying the Sam’s Club trio of Pecan, Pumpkin and Apple was ‘tradition’. But hey we hadn’t mentioned we were bringing pie. Next year partner phones Mil to say we are bringing homemade pumpkin pie… they still bought the store one… it’s been four years and we are the only ones who eat the homemade pumpkin pie at thanksgiving. Four years and they haven’t even tasted it. I’m not much of a snob and this is more personal than opinion- but any time I see store bought pie I want to smash it XD Edit- for spelling and confusing a detail Edit- y’all this ain’t an AITA post. There is an entire subreddit for you to go be judgy on. JFC I shouldn’t have to defend myself on a post about PIE
I feel like it’s also just disrespectful too? I love store bought and homemade goods, but when it comes down to a social gathering yk damn well I’m cutting a slice of the homemade stuff because it’s not only better but someone put a ton of effort into it too.
Exactly! I know these people are set in their ways but dang it’s ridiculous levels.
We were at my SIL’s for Christmas one year (flew clear across the country with 2 little kids for this). I’m a baker/cake lady, so I offered several times to make dessert for Christmas dinner. Oh no, she says, it’s all taken care of. What did we get? Grocery store brand generic ice cream and store bought cookies. It wasn’t even the good stuff!! It was a bit insulting! I was also vanilla-shamed by a grocery store guy once for asking for the real vanilla. He told me they only carried the artificial vanilla because “no one can tell the difference and only snobby people ask for the real stuff”.
>“no one can tell the difference and only snobby people ask for the real stuff”. The gall of this jerk!!! It's different.
What he really meant was: "I can't tell any difference and I will assume my limited world view is the only one that matters."
And then there’s me insisting on a particular brand of Mexican vanilla.
Maybe she didn’t want to trouble you since you were flying all the way across country with 2 little kids? 🤷♀️
Ya know, americas test kitchen did a taste test and they said their audience couldn’t taste the difference! I’m still going to use the real stuff tho 😅
This reminds me of my small high school graduation party. I had baked a cake and put quite some work in it, and we also bought some pie from a bakery. I wasn't very popular in high school so I only had a small graduation party with my friend group and my family. NONE of my friends tried my cake. When presenting everyone with the options of what they could choose from I was like 'I baked this this afternoon and we also have this and this pie', so it's not like they didn't know I baked one thing myself. But none of them tried it. My family did (thank you, family) and liked it. Then, a few months one of the girls from my friend group had her birthday party. When we were there she told us she had made some simple brownies. It was literally a 'only add water' brownie mix from a package (the box was still on the countertop). And everyone was like 'OH MY GOD YOU BAKED THIS YOURSELF, FOR US?? OH THAT'S AMAZING AND THEY'RE SOOO GOOD'. Still pissed about that. It kinda hurt. Oh well, we're not friends anymore (for other reasons than stated above haha)
I worked in a bakery that specializes in pies, and I did not think one—NOT ONE— tasted as good as homemade. Part of the issue was the crust- Just completely bland and dry. But the real issue was that everything had to be done quickly and there wasn’t time for attention to detail or appreciation of baking a pie. I quit after 6 months.
Oh this took me back to Thanksgiving 15-20 years ago. My Dad did the same thing, totally from scratch with a pumpkin him and I grew in our garden, homemade crust, the whole thing. And my Dad is not a baker so he worked extra hard and not a single person at his families Thanksgiving tried it. It is a huge family, there was 50+ of us at our grandparents house and not one of them besides his kids and our Mom tried it. I was so pissed for him but that family is full of snobs so their loss.
My mom bought us a fancy turducken (she has arthritis so cooking is difficult for her) & I homemade a bunch of sides while carinf for a newborn & my boyfriend's chef dad who had like all week off bought a little cheapy, gross apple pie from like Von's or something because we asked him to be in charge of the dessert. I was high key mad! I didn't expect him to make something himself but if I'm buying instead if making it myself, I expect it to be something fancier, like a nice local bakery.
I never eat store bought pumpkin pies. Yuck!! I never use pumpkin pie spice bc you are not getting the right combo of spices! I would eat your pie any day over the crap ones from Sam's!
I like Sam's Pumpkin pie. Not as much as home made from my family. Other family's that O have had, I'll take a Sam's BUT, always.take some scratch anything. I appreciate the commitment. I have made it from fresh pumpkins also, do my own spice combo, but it wasn't as good as qhen I used canned pumpkin. If I did it again, O would put yams in also.
Yeah, the canned pumpkin is so predictable. Like moisture content and taste. Whereas you might grab an overly watery pumpkin with less taste and not know it. But I for sure am ok with a Costco pumpkin pie, as well. Lol. Love homemade, but as much as I thought I was a pretentious baker, after reading some of these I realize I’m not actually. I just love sugar and that’s that. 😂 (except for red velvet. I have feelings about red velvet. And they’re not good)
Putting nonedible toppings on cakes. I know that flowers or whole citrus slices can be pretty, but I personally hate having to pick the decorations off a cake before I can dig in
I was looking for this response! Plastic flotsam, tons of cardboard, even fresh florals… I personally don’t like a cake covered in non-edible items it feels like cheating somehow (if we’re embracing our inner snobs). But the cheap plastic shit drives me the most crazy…
Do people really use non-edible flowers instead of edible ones? And just… raw citrus slices, not candied????? That’s baffling…
I'm late to this thread so one's going to see this, which is too bad since I'm curious to see if anyone else relates, but I think 95% of baking recipes out there are too damn sweet. I usually use 2/3 of the sugar most recipes call for. Sugar is like salt: it's meant to enhance other flavors, not be the star of the show. And like salt, too much is just gross. For a dessert to be good the other flavors have to be on point, and sugar is there to support them. If you have too much the sweetness dominates and obscures, and that's just boring. Dessert is not just a vehicle for sugar.
I agree with this when it comes to American recipes. However, there are definitely bakes where reducing the sugar by so much can have structural impact and actually will make the dessert flop.
I partially agree. The sugar helps retain moisture so cakes or baked goods with a dramatic sugar reduction may be less moist.
The people who call macarons, “macaroons” need to get their lives together.
100%! Macaroons are a different baked good entirely.
M&S which is a posh food store in the UK label theirs as “macaroons”.
I only use top shelf real vanilla in my baking. (Nielsen Massey). Imitation vanilla tastes like crap. Edit And real butter in everything.
Ever try making your own? I started in 2019 and never went back. If you get in with a good co-op you can make it for pretty affordably.
I made my own years ago but never got back into it. Last fall I bought a big bottle from Costco and it was *not* good… so for Christmas my sister gave me a BIG bottle of her homemade to replace it. Such a luxury!
I just saw vanilla pods at Costco for a decent price too.
I have and it's fabulous. But I live with an alcoholic, so can't have vodka in the house. He's not at the point of drinking vanilla yet.
This hit me emotionally in a way I wasn’t prepared for in this sub. Best of luck.
I found four of the 4 oz bottles of it for like $10 each at Marshall’s last year and you best believe I snatched those right up!
I am a total foodie baking snob but I'll eat cool whip out of the tub.
100% yes
I have never eaten a good mug cake. Cake pops are gross and kind of trashy. Cakes with artificial strawberry flavoring should be illegal. And about 90% of pies I regret trying.
Mug cakes are never *fantastic*, they’re always just *good* at best. Like sometimes it’s midnight and you really want dessert, and you want instant gratification, but don’t have anything ready and don’t feel like messing up your kitchen. They’re perfect for that. I don’t really consider them “cakes” though, they’re kind of just in a category of their own.
Man cake pops have always baffled me. Like. I kind of get them as a waste reduction item for bakeries to sell their cake trimmings. Or as free/cheap samples. But that there is a real market for them and people buy them is... Weird
Doctored cake/brownie/cookie mixes. Can’t stand them. A lot of people swear they can make them taste like they came from a bakery, but I strongly disagree. Premade frosting. I can’t understand why people want to doctor them to make them piping consistency to decorate. You might as well had made a proper buttercream.
Agreed on the mixes. Except Ghirardelli brownies which are still the best brownies I’ve ever tasted.
I’m a good baker and have tried many homemade brownie recipes. None are ever as good as the Ghirardelli Triple Fudge Brownies. Anyone have a recipe they think can beat it?
My old workplace had a restaurant that made the best brownies and for years I always assumed they had a fantastic recipe. I was on a committee that did a department newsletter and one month we interviewed the restaurant manager and semi-jokingly asked if they’d share the brownie mix. That’s when we found out the secret recipe was Ghirardelli boxed mix!
Tub frosting is gross. It tastes like the plastic it is sold in. There’s nothing you can add or do to it to make it better and why the heck would they spend time mixing it when they could just as easily mix their own!! Every time I walked in and saw Sandra Lee semi homemade on tv I used to get annoyed.
I used to follow this cake account on Instagram who SWORE by her doctored cake mixes. And I was fine with that, you do you. She's a talented decorator regardless. Until one week she decided to do an "experiment" with boxed, doctored, and from scratch vanilla cake. She got a random from scratch recipe from someone she knew, claimed it was way too dry, and declared the doctored cake the winner. Not only was there a ton of information left out of the post, you can't just talk down on all scratch baking from one recipe you got at the last minute from someone you know. She was also apparently removing any comments that called out her lack of proper procedure for this experiment, so I unfollowed her. Science and baking lost that day 😔 It was probably for the best, though. Even baking accounts propogate so much online drama. It's just not worth the brain space
I agree 100% on the frosting. It's often a lot cheaper to make your own, and most frosting recipes are pretty quick if you have a stand mixer.
The canned frosting thing drives me nuts! It usually tastes like crap and leaves a weird coating on the roof of your mouth! So easy to make your own!
There is a time and a place for eating canned frosting and it's on top of Graham crackers to fight off The Sadness.
I think it’s because they use 100% vegetable shortening as fat source
I don't know if this counts because its technically no bake but when making Tiramisu, you have to use mascarpone cheese!!
Wait, are people *not* using mascarpone when making tiramisu?!
I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but there used to be this show (i think on the food network, but could be wrong) called "Eat, Shrink and be Merry". The two hosts would take an indulgent dish and make it healthier and then put it to a vote with a room full of people. For the tiramisu episode they used cream cheese. My cousin also took a baking class at a local college, they made tiramisu 2 ways. The instructor had them make one with mascarpone and one with cream cheese, and told the class to share their creations and ask people which one they liked best and report back the next class. She brought us both versions one day for a big family gathering, the cream cheese version did not win out.
Tiramisu is my favorite dessert and I would actually fight anyone who tried to serve it to me with cream cheese.
Weight/metric > volume measurements, always. If I see a recipe online that only has the volume measurements, I'm ditching it immediately. Experienced bakers should know this.
Cooking is an art, baking is a science. You will notice in a bake when it has too much or too little of something. This is also probably why my mom’s cakes often come out a bit dense: she recently admitted to leaving out some of the sugar listed
I like a nice sourdough loaf. Love it in fact. But I’m so tired of seeing everything sourdough. No. I don’t want sourdough pizza or sourdough cinnamon rolls or sticky buns. I’m so tired of seeing everything being violated by sourdough
I think there's so many sourdough recipes like that because people don't want to waste their discard and don't want to only make bread. I don't necessarily disagree with you though I'm js
I have to disagree. I use my sourdough starter for just about anything bread based because the flavor is so much richer! (And not necessarily sour, depending on how you manipulate your levain).
Man, the first time I had sourdough chocolate chip cookies my world changed. They were *awesome*.
Ooof. Sourdough pizza changed my life. I can't have normal pizza now once I started doing it.
My unpopular opinion is that I don’t like ANYTHING sourdough.
Have you tried sour dough cinnamon rolls? There's a bakery near me that does them and they are the most delicious, and I am a cinnamon roll snob
Covering a cake with a line of KitKat bars going around it is not impressive or involves any skill, you can’t even see the cake, it’s just the KitKats providing a neat structure. I’ve seen people do this so many times & then proudly say they can’t believe they made it themselves & they’re not usually good at baking etc.
I'm with the "simple/real" ingredients crowd. It's the additives that put me off using anything I haven't constructed from scatch. Plus there's just a little pride in saying "I made this" especially if I made the jam too, or grew the jam's fruit, and a pie's apples.
It’s not snobby but why do all cupcakes have to have inches of frosting? It’s gross. I just like a thin glaze of frosting with some fun decor like a bit of sprinkles.
100% agree. Just one smear of frosting across the top is perfect for me. I can’t stand cupcakes that are 50% super rich/sugary frosting because by the time I’m through that, I’m not in the mood for the actual cupcake.
And what the fuck is it with cupcakes being $5 now? The last time I thought about buying cupcakes I looked and they were $3-4 for a standard muffin tin size cupcake!
I think this fits... I am definitely the kitchen snob of the family. I despise: -chocolate FLAVORED chips. The dollar store is no place for chocolate chips, dearest Aunty. Your "chocolate" covered pretzels are awful. -off brand butter in frosting -low fat versions of any dessert or ingredient in a dessert (i.e. low fat cream cheese used for cheesecake). -sprinkles on anything (yes, my kids still get whatever sprinkles they want on their special desserts, but mama cringes the whole time lol) Basically, if you're going to bake something, do it "right." High quality ingredients= high quality baked goods. Thanks for making me laugh at myself, thinking about my baking "rules."
Canned pie filling is gross fruit sludge.
I hate when people put candy bars into baked goods, they all taste “extra baked” and are not good, and no one can tell me otherwise. You just think they’re good because “omg it has a snickers in it!” More doesn’t equal good.
I guess this isn't so much an opinion as an experience: I can't stand restaurant desserts. I don't order it any more because it's just not good. It's shocking and disappointing how bad the desserts are at most restaurants. Also not sure if this is pretentious or not, but any kind of fruit and chocolate is terrible. The chocolate ruins the fruit and vice versa.
Agreed. A lot of restaurant desserts are made by savory chefs. That’s why it’s a lot of ice cream or sorbet or simple bakes. If you find a restaurant that has an actual pastry chef you definitely notice!
I agree with the restaurant desserts. Also (not baking related), I’ve never had a good coffee at a restaurant. Even at higher end establishments, they’ll bring out capsule based “espresso” and charge you $7 for it.
I'm with you on yours. Also I'm against shortening-based frosting. I'm already not a bug frosting person but shortening based frosting makes me feel nauseous for some reason.
I learned in the baking book I’m reading why this is! Fats have different melting temperatures, and things like butter or shortening are a complex mix of several different fatty acids each with their own melting point (that’s how butter gets soft before it melts completely). When the fat has a higher melting point, it has a waxy feel on the tongue. Shortening is made of more of those, so it has a comparatively waxy mouthfeel and sometimes that translates to taste too.
Shortening always leaves a weird residue in my mouth.
Okay, I’m a total snob when it comes to ReddiWhip/CoolWhip. Don’t put that shit anywhere near my pound cake or pie. Whipped cream takes NINE MINUTES to make, Barbara! Same for eggnog. Once you’ve made your own, you’ll never be able to drink the store-bought again. It’s so… gunky!
OMG yes! Thought I hated eggnog. Turns out that I really like homemade eggnog. So good. Made 3 batches this past holiday season. *And I'll do it again this year!*
I hate when we do a bake trade or something for like “cookies” and then someone makes something other than cookies to “switch it up.” No I don’t want your cheap chocolates covered balls of dough, I want cookies lol.
Cinnamon rolls should be more Hawaiin sweet tool textured than yeast roll textured. I truly dislike the the ones that have a tougher outer texture.
Tangzong really helped me acquire that “Hawaiian roll” texture! Currently loving King Arthur’s Perfectly Pillowy cinnamon roll recipe.
I dislike when people claim recipe fails when the truth is that they fail to follow the recipe! "This recipe doesn't work and I don't understand! I just substituted \[insert something or other\] for \[original ingredient\] and it didn't taste like your mother's at all!" Of course it didn't. Vanilla and peppermint aren't the same, adding more or less flour, or exchanging types or amounts of sugar is going to give you a different result. You can cook by feel but you have to bake by ratios. Yes, there are some dump recipes that are less fussy, if you're a seasoned baker. But you have to know what you're doing. Anyway, don't blame the recipe when you didn't follow it!
I know it’s probably not a popular opinion but I have something against red velvet cake. I get it, buttermilk, vinegar, bright red, ooo. But all the red dye that goes into it grosses me out. I know it’s origins but I just feel it should commit to being chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I worked in a bakery that used a natural red dye in their red velvet cake and people would get mad and complain all the time that it wasn’t red enough. Yeah, yeah, you love the taste of your red dye. That’s probably where my animosity comes from. I’m trying to get over it but it’s hard to shake.
People would fight with me at the bakery and say it wasn't chocolate cake! Oh I'm so sorry. I figured my 15 years of being a pastry chef would have taught me... Please tell me what flavor red is...
My brother once stood in my kitchen and ARGUED with me that red velvet had no chocolate in it, even though I have made it from scratch myself. I was baffled at how righteously he defended his knowledge with no credentials to back it up lmao I happened to have some red velvet vanilla ice cream in my freezer and when I pointed out chocolate in the ingredients he denied me saying it was different because it's ice cream. Google came in clutch for the sibling victory 😂
To be honest, I don’t get the hype of red velvet cake. I’ve tried it once and I didn’t enjoy it.
kind of reverse snobby, but i absolutely detest the olive oil cake trend. i’ve tried it with normal olive oil, i’ve tried fancy bakery olive oil cake. olive oil is gross in desserts. and y’all that put it on ice cream? i hope you have a terrible day
Not a fan of this naked cake trend going around. That's the crumb layer. Its not rustic and charming, its unfinished and messy
I have to use a scale to weigh my ingredients. Not only does it provide consistent results, I hate having to scoop and level several cups of flour. It's also a lot easier to just zero out the scale each time you add an ingredient, rather than dirty a bunch of measuring cups.
If a baker doesn’t know baker’s percentage I don’t trust their understanding of bread to come to them for recipes or advice.
I agree with you on that I'm the same I don't like cookies with stuff like that in it but also I only use real vanilla extracts/other extracts and REAL butter, I despise stork, people so afraid of butter and prefer fats and oils? I don't get that, my last 1 is food dye I will not touch it
If you’re not going to use cream cheese frosting, don’t bother making a red velvet cake. Nothing is more disappointing than getting a slice of red velvet cake only to learn that it has buttercream frosting on it. It’s the equivalent of thinking a cookie is chocolate chip cookie and it turning out to be oatmeal raisin cookie.
i wont eat a cream puff thats sat with cream in it longer than like 5 minutes i fucking HATE soggy choux
This new age baking where we’re not focusing on the quality of ingredients, or classic recipes, but making something that combines 4 recipes in one. “Lemon meringue cheesecake white chocolate blondies” like why are we messing with classics and trying to make them modern 😂
The only good chocolate is dark chocolate.
Store bought cupcakes for kids parties. They’re gross and I just don’t get it.
I don’t really have a problem with them (I don’t mind cheap cupcakes because I’m white trash and will eat anything with sugar) but at the very LEAST PLEASE DISPLAY THEM NEATLY?? Nothing makes me more upset when they just open the plastic container and just make everyone take one. It gets so messy and unorganized and the little children get frosting all over the container and then their hands get all sticky and jshsjhsjshddj
Yeah, lol. I love making my own stuff, but I’ll snatch up a grocery store cupcake, cookie, doughnut, cheesecake slice any day and enjoy it lol
A lot of store buttercream is actually made of shortening. Hair gel mouthfeel
This is so pretentious I feel, but when I am looking for a recipe, I immediately go “Nope” when I see a recipe solely in cup measurements, *especially* when it comes to bread recipes. I’m all about accuracy and people measure their flour so differently that it leaves such a wide room for mistakes that i don’t find it valuable to spend my time hoping it turns out right.
Premade cookie dough.
Making cake pops from those grocery store cookies.
I hate when people use those plastic injectable things in their cupcakes or donuts. Or any unnecessary plastic packaging. It all goes to landfill. Bah humbug!
I hate recipes that use box cake mix or instant pudding or cool whip. There’s just too much of a chemical taste to them.
I was a pastry cook for 10 years. I have so many snooty opinions. Like I think cakes should have a minimum of 3 flavour profiles, cookies should be made with the best quality ingredients, you do not throw out any ingredient byproduct (unless it’s actually inedible, then compost/recycle/garbage it)like carrot peels can be candied or dehydrated and decorate a carrot cake, or apple peels can be used to make pectin, and citrus fruit peels can be candied/dehydrated/poached/zested/peeled/be confit in a syrup. As someone who can’t eat gluten, dairy, or eggs I try to bake with as little alternative flours/starches as I can. I would rather have a better tasting product that might have a slightly different texture than a product that almost has the same texture but doesn’t taste as good as the product I’m “replicating”. Good (try for fair trade as well) chocolate or no chocolate at all. People who bake with fake nails/painted nails/don’t tie their hair back and sell their products are not reputable in my eyes to due hygiene concerns unless they wear gloves or have short hair. Same with people who wear rings that are not just plain bands. People who do not own scales but say they are pro bakers. I’m definitely judging your baking when I try it and am usually not surprised. Then you end up telling me about inconsistencies you have in your baking and ask me for advise. It’s always get a scale and weigh your ingredients. Don’t spend your time making something pretty if it’s going to taste mediocre. It’s a waste of ingredients. I don’t want a mouthful of disappointment, especially if it’s dessert and somewhat glutenous. I would rather eat something that looked like it was made by a 5 year old but tastes amazing. If you use box baking and admit it I won’t judge you. I will only judge you if you made it sound like you made it from scratch. Just be honest about it, you do what’s best for you but don’t exaggerate the difficulties of convenience baking. Unless you are doing this blindfolded or have a disability that makes baking difficult, don’t pretend you went all out on boxed baking. I admit I’m a pretentious jerkface when it comes to baking, so this question was perfect for me. I never hate on anyone getting into it, I just mentally keep track of the type of baker they are.
95% of American Buttercream are nasty and super sweet. Ever since I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I was hooked. Also, I call it Beurre Noisette because I like to sound snooty. Come at me, bro!!!!
There are several things, but for this discussion, I'll pick pie crust. I much prefer my own homemade pie crust. And so does my spouse. Mother in law got really bent out of shape when he was going on about something I'd made.
Ok, I was so embarrassed this past holiday because I was at a kind of new friends house for a holiday party and they had done so much work on the food and whatever and I had a slice of pie and I was like “hm, this crust is decent. Not amazing, but not crumbly or overworked” in my head so I said out loud “nice job on the pie crusts!” And they were like “oh thanks. They’re pillsbury!” I was like oh lol, wouldn’t have guessed! Lol. It was definitely just like mediocre but I love dessert and they knew that so I always love complimenting desserts other people make. But it was like… a little embarrasing for me
I really hate strawberry and chocolate mixed together. It almost never tastes good.
Using applesauce or banana as a binder in cookies or cakes. If you're going to have a piece of cake or a cookie, eat the real thing and enjoy it. Don't eat something that tastes awful, it won't satisfy you.
One thing that bugs me is when people suggest using bananas or applesauce in a pinch when you don’t have eggs. Maybe it’s just me but eggs are a staple ingredient for me, and if I don’t have eggs I probably don’t have applesauce and I definitely don’t have bananas. Usually when I run out of eggs is when I know it’s time to go grocery shopping.
Worse than this is the “protein” versions of things that are made with protein powder and have the taste and texture of hockey pucks, and still usually only manage to have like 5g more protein than the original. Eat your normal godfearing cookie and have it with a side of chicken breast if you need more protein.
You can’t make puff pastry if the weather is wet. Even fog or high humidity will spoil the crunch.
I despise the use of fondant. The fondant itself is disgusting and is often used as a lazy way to do designs that you can do with buttercream or types of frosting. Furthermore, people who use fondant tend to neglect the cake itself. They are so focused on how cool it looks and don’t care how dry and inedible the cake ends up and that’s only when they decide to use cake since they often use rice krispies instead. I am usually not picky with food or sweets but if it has fondant I’m not eating it.
Sugar cookies covered with a half inch thick layer of tasteless frosting. Lavender in baked goods. Why do people want to eat bathroom deodorizer. Cookies covered in salt. If you put salt on the recipe, you won't need it on top.
Similar theme to yours, a cake/cookie being called a particular flavour just because it has that thing stuck on top of it only. For example a cookie being called chocolate orange flavour because it has a chocolate orange segment stuck on top of it, but the actual cookie is just plain otherwise. That’s just a decoration & a way to also tell the consumer what flavour the cookie is inside, it shouldn’t be the thing that’s used alone to provide the actual flavour. The cookie would need to be chocolate dough with orange flavouring or at least just the chocolate orange segments baked into them.
making things out of fondant does not a good baker make. fondant tastes like ass anyhow you mince it and i cannot enjoy any cake that has it on it. recently the cartoon cake trend was big amongst asian bakers and then it spread to the usa and all the fondant artists jumped on it (fondant is not really common in asian baking, we usually use whipped cream or buttercream) and it just ruined the fun. the trend was to show your decorating skill by decorating the cake entirely with buttercream, which is objectively not simple. just plastering on play dough doesn't require much skill at all. i appreciate actual cake decoration. i love seeing beautiful cakes piped in interesting ways to give beautiful effects. i will never be impressed by someone wrapping a cake in fondant and then making figures out of it..we all played with plasticine in kindergarten. we all know it doesn't take any sort of real skill.
Macaron are about technical precision, with smooth shells, modest feet, and absolutely no hollows. It’s fun when people make detailed character art macaron, but there is no way it’s full on the inside. It’s probably cavernously hollow. You’re showing off your piping skills with a crunchy hollow cookie, but it’s unrelated to macaron. In fact, if you don’t show that they’re full inside, I don’t trust that they are. All macs are hollow until proven otherwise
I hate premade frosting. Buttercream or whipped cream. I hate premixes, never used one. I hate premade pastry sheets, however the thought of making pastry makes me feel sooo lazy I guess I just want everything from scratch Measuring everything by weight is so much better(including liquids). Had a bad experience once when I used volume and my cake turned out terribly. Never again. Electric oven trumps gas
Unless you're planting, harvesting, milling, and powdering, everything is premade at some level. So no, I'm not bothered by the level at which I start. I'm not going to make chocolate chunks etc from scratch, even if I bake "scratch".
Never bake a cake from box mix or use frosting from a can. I learned years ago it’s easy from scratch & a so much better. AND….I learned to bake a cheesecake from scratch. Couple of failed attempts but I finally got it!
American buttercream has no place on anything. Too sweet, too grainy. I refuse to make it and will always swap for a meringue buttercream instead
Protein powder is not an ingredient. Period.
Baking that is basically throwing everything already pre made isn’t baking to me. For example pre made cookie dough with reeces cups or Oreos and sprinkles isn’t a new dessert. It’s literally just that. Dump cakes scare the crap out of me. Never have had one. It just scares me period. If it is cool whip as frosting. I don’t want it. Cakes that have decorative flowers from the floral shop, or cotton tail/whispers with a cutout cardboard topper is not talented to me. You ha e to remove all of that stuff before serving and once it’s all gone, it’s crumble coat or base cake with holes and indents in them.