Very often I am asked by many of my friends why they just could not get the same taste as I made even when they have followed my recipe to the letter. My own sister also complained she just could not get the same result of my Chai Kueh skin wrapper or Ham Chim Peng.
Actually there is no secret, you just have to be prepared to throw a few kilos of flour to the bin when you are learning and do not expect to get good result on first attempt. Very often, the simpler the recipe is written the more easy to make mistake. This is because for simple recipe, many steps have been omitted and taken for granted. For example, eggs must be at room temperature and never mix yeast together with salt.
Another very common mistake by most people is trying to modify a recipe without following the basic set formula ratio. A common example ~ " I do not want or like a sweet cake, and so just reduce sugar amount in the recipe accordingly". Sugar beside adding sweetness to a cake has other properties function. As in cake making, sugar helps to tenderize the batter (slows down the gluten development in the flour) but also sweetens the batter, moistens the batter which helps keep the cake fresh, and helps with browning. Thus, when reducing sugar all other ingredients MUST be adjusted accordingly!
Even for myself, when I tried to bake my gelatinized rice bread the other day, at the last stage, the dough did not turn out well and the whole half kilo of dough and ingredients went to the bin. Maybe I did not fold or knead it properly and this is not the first time I made this bread.
Actually there is no secret, you just have to be prepared to throw a few kilos of flour to the bin when you are learning and do not expect to get good result on first attempt. Very often, the simpler the recipe is written the more easy to make mistake. This is because for simple recipe, many steps have been omitted and taken for granted. For example, eggs must be at room temperature and never mix yeast together with salt.
Another very common mistake by most people is trying to modify a recipe without following the basic set formula ratio. A common example ~ " I do not want or like a sweet cake, and so just reduce sugar amount in the recipe accordingly". Sugar beside adding sweetness to a cake has other properties function. As in cake making, sugar helps to tenderize the batter (slows down the gluten development in the flour) but also sweetens the batter, moistens the batter which helps keep the cake fresh, and helps with browning. Thus, when reducing sugar all other ingredients MUST be adjusted accordingly!
Even for myself, when I tried to bake my gelatinized rice bread the other day, at the last stage, the dough did not turn out well and the whole half kilo of dough and ingredients went to the bin. Maybe I did not fold or knead it properly and this is not the first time I made this bread.
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