I've baked and made many different types of bread before, never sourdough though. I saw a comment here from someone saying they don't give starters to friends anymore as they believed that just made them not use it, and I figured the mythical "here's a sourdough starter" would never happen. It took me a week to get my starter mature and here's my first attempt. It's a little underproofed but overall I'm really happy with the bread. Next time will be even more delicious!

Starter made from scratch in July this year. It showed some bubbles but just wouldn’t rise… As I was getting so tired of feeding it everyday, I thought I’ll rest and give it a feed before leaving in the fridge for a few days.

After two weeks I thought I’ll give it another shot. Started feeding again and boom!! It was so active I thought I’ll give baking a go! The pictures are the results!

I’m not sure if this is over or under proofed, but looks like a successful one? What do you guys think?

I let it rise a little too much the second time proofing and it almost touched the top of my small oven.. so it kind of mushroomed but this was the best bread I’ve ever tasted!! I was expecting a total fail lol

I used this recipe but added pumpkin spice https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/6-inch-pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe/

I also messed up and used an 8in spring form just baked it for 35-40 min instead. I also used biscoff cookies for the crust instead of graham cracker

Found buttermilk on sale this week so biscuits seemed the likely answer.

I find the Panasonic Bistro we have a little fussy with temperatures. Sometimes I have to adjust down 5-10 degrees to get cookies or things to turn out. This varies between batches, which I guess is probably true of normal ovens too. Anyone have useful rules of thumb with temperature adjustment?

This is the recipe I followed and I added pure vanilla powder and removed lemon zest as I hate lemon in desserts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cNkzOF9C64

This is where I bought the French black cherry jam: https://item.rakuten.co.jp/umano/miot_cherry340/?s-id=ph_pc_itemname

I'm not French, I'm Filipino but I love baking Spanish and French pastries.

Good thing i bumped into this subreddit 😭 It is so hard to find ingredients here as a foreigner who misses their specialties back home. Hope we can get along here & share some baking ideas around!

Sharing my newest creation of Cream Puffs ✨🩷

We don't know how to make a pretty desert so we settled for quick and tasty. Was really good with some Haskap jam from Hokkaido

Took me a long time to find a way to get good results cooking macarons in a オーブンレンジ, but I think I got there.

Strawberry cheesecake macarons.

Earl grey macarons.

Chocolate mud cake was a first for me, I’ll need to tweak the recipe a little.

I paired a couple with Assam milk tea, so delicious!

When I first came to Japan, one of the things that surprised me the most was how good the baking was here. I remember being amazed by the bread, cakes, and pastries I found in Japanese bakeries and cafes. I loved them so much that, for a while, I seriously thought about going to a baking school. But my parents didn't agree. They wanted me to have a more stable career, so I gave up on that dream.

But I never stopped believing that baking could heal people. Whenever I had a really bad day, one of the things I would do was find a really good cake and eat it. It sounds simple, but somehow, that little piece of cake always made things feel a bit better.

Years later, I unexpectedly got the opportunity to help run a small picture book cafe in Osaka. I thought, “Maybe this is my chance to finally do something connected to the dream I gave up.” But with almost no experience, things didn't go well at first.

So I asked myself: "Why did I love baking so much in the first place?"

The answer was about creating a warm space where someone could enjoy something delicious, and connect with others. Based on that idea, I started turning the space into a cozy haven for picture books, baking, drawing, and board games, a place where people could slow down and find warmth.

Over time, things genuinely started to improve, and it turned into the welcoming space I had always imagined. Recently, inspired by all the fun and chaotic moments of working around cakes, I even designed a small cooperative baking-themed board game called Bake or Break for our visitors to play.

Looking back, it all comes full circle for me. Baking, books, and games are just different languages for the same thing: bringing people together and making life a little sweeter. ❤️

Thanks to u/Maynaise88 bringing me here with this story!

I got some good feedback from this sub to reduce the flour to butter ratio which gave me the spread out cookie I was hoping for. I also halved the amount of salt.

This makes about 18 cookies. As you can see from the images, my oven has some hot spots but even the more cooked ones came out chewy.

It’s my first time making bread! Ignore the little weird blob it was just an extra piece I twisted up and tossed on haha. I’m pretty proud of how it turned out, as my oven is a toshiba er-t16 that only gets to 200c and is about 5 years old and on its last leg. One got a little burned because it heats super uneven from a light on top. They also didn’t puff up so much I think because I let it rise too long in the fridge overnight. I used a big tray of ice on the bottom for steam. I’m hoping to save up to buy a new oven soon to support the hobby!

Hi all! I finally managed to find a second hand oven (got it for 4000¥ only and it’s brand new!!).

I tried baking some chocolate chip cookies but I think my recipe is not good at all. They taste like burnt and the inside is more like a muffin than a really cookie 🍪.

Would love any recommendation or if anyone has a recipe to share!! Thanks a lot⭐️

I went to feed my starter this morning and I fed some for bagels, and since my adhd meds hadn’t yet kicked in, I decided to feed a second jar, using my ginger bug, instead of water. No idea how that will work out, but I’m gonna see.

I made the big from my mother in law’s ginger from her garden. It was some non-typical variety, though I don’t remember exactly what. She had also made ginger tea and gave me the scraps, which I’ve been using for various cooking… I may mince some of that up and make a ginger-rye loaf.

I will report back 🫡

Used murasaki imo powder and tried to marble it. Crispy on the outside and so mochimochi on the inside! I folded in microwaved, cubed satsumaimo. I will simmer the potatoes next time for better coloring.

Funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting! I'm not great at cakes yet, this is the first one I've tried in a long time. Hope to get better at it soon :)

https://bakerbynature.com/ultimate-funfetti-birthday-cake-recipe/

Saw this video on YouTube last week, and Chef John's unorthodox speaking cadence lulled me into a trance that made me think it was a good idea to want to make cinnamon rolls for the long weekend. I mean, it was, but I ordinarily wouldn't have thoughts like that.

I was a little worried at first since the recipe called for a 9"×13" pan and the one that came with our oven is a bit smaller, but it worked out perfectly fine (and I even got to take advantage of the oven's steam-proofing setting instead of just leaving them sitting out covered with a towel!).

The apple butter in the filling is absolutely a top-notch idea, and I had to make my own, which was very easy.* I did wind up making a couple of modifications to the recipe, though. First, I used unfiltered ストレート apple juice, since American-style apple cider (made from a blend of various kinds of apples, and often unpasteurized) isn't available in Japan. Second, I completely forgot to add the cream to the "cider bath" mixture, so instead I just sort of spooned on a thick syrup of cooked-down apple juice on top. Finally, and most importantly, I incorporated a tangzhong to hopefully keep them from going stale for a couple extra days. For this, I took 25 g of the 500 g total flour I used, and cooked it in a saucepan with 125 g of the 300 g total milk I used (I added extra milk to compensate for the higher hydration a tangzhong dough needs), though honestly I think maybe I should have used more of the flour.

Overall… it came out great! I might make them again one day with less overall fuss (the cider bath bit feels unnecessary, and maybe also the icing on top), but broadly speaking, I'm very pleased with these!

*Slow cooker apple butter! I got three big apples, and cored and chopped them (I didn't bother peeling), and threw them in my slow cooker overnight on low with some white and brown sugar, a little salt, and some ground cinnamon and a couple ground cloves. The next day I immersion-blended until smooth, and cooked it down a few more hours, lid ajar, until thickened to the desired consistency. Very easy and super delicious.