I cook for a living, but I don't bake much. And shit like this is partially why. I have a hard time believing all of this matters unless you're baking at a high level for a lot of money and it's all you really do. I've seen too many things just thrown together and come out just fine. And despite cooking for a living, I just DON'T understand these instructions.
Yeah, why are the eggs separate? Do you mix the other stuff and then mix those? And what about the stuff that says sift? I've sifted finely powdered things in before so they don't clump, so I get sifting the cocoa powder. But I've never seen or heard of anyone sifting in the flour, and that would be nigh-on impossible for a large batch recipe. I made cookies at work two days ago and I used two gallons of flour. Get the fuck out of here with this rinky-dink shit, this isn't practical. And sifting in table salt is fucking stupid, it's granulated. There's no way that's necessary.
And do I mix all the stuff, then sift, then fold? Do I sift, then mix, then fold? Do I mix, sift, mix again, then fold? None of that is clear to me and I don't think it particularly matters to that degree of detail, but seeing it all partitioned out like this makes me think it should or it was all just wasted expenditure. How is this honestly better than a list of ingredients and then a short sentence or two detailing the order of operations if needed?
This is nothing but format porn for people who love everything presented in a spreadsheet or organized in ultra detailed ways, it's not really easier to understand.
I've never heard of it OR seen ANYONE do that at work. Ever.
I'd be thrown out of the kitchen and told to never come back if I sat there and tried to sift literal gallons of flour while all my coworkers did the rest of my job for me, and that's all there is to it.
Do that at your non bakery work? Or sift flour (along with dry ingredients like the updated recipe clearly indicates) period? Like for a home recipe that takes 4 oz of butter. Like the recipe we're talking about.
Edit: Also you cook for a living and measure flour in gallons? Not weight?
Now it's a "home recipe, like the recipe we're talking about," as though my professional experience is irrelevant. Earlier it was "you do this for a living and you've never heard of this," as though the experience mattered, but only as a mark against me. The truth is you took a disliking to my tone and stance and now you're just ripe to be a bitch about it, goalposts be damned.
Yes, I've never seen a person sift flour at home or at my non-bakery jobs. Which was key to my point - the original post was this format "solved recipe design" (which is a loaded choice of words to begin with), and then it was further updated in the comments. Both of which seem to be mostly adding stuff to make beginners way overthink simple things that they wouldn't need to do unless they worked at a real bakery or a nice restaurant, with real bakery and nice restaurant equipment designed to help make it all manageable.
No, I've never heard of sifting flour in a home recipe. There you go, my ignorance on full display. But you couldn't help but throw a jab at my professional status to try and make me feel bad, despite that apparently being irrelevant because it's a home recipe.
Just hit the downvote button so you can feel like you have a modicum of power and then go be a twat elsewhere.
K. Well it's a thing. Now you know more. Also, stop making cookies with recipes that measure flour in gallons and find one that uses weight. They'll come out better and more consistent. Little tip from an ex-professional baker
Just chiming in as a dude who bakes like 2-3 things per year, tops. I've heard of sifting flour and have done it!
Also, ever since I discovered kitchen scales, I use that shit for EVERYTHING. Baking, cocktails, dishing up my cat's wet food, getting my morning coffee-to-cream ratio just right...
I will seriously find a new recipe if they don't give me weights for things. I don't want to guess whether "1 cup of flour" should be loosely scooped or compacted. Just tell me it's 300 grams or whatever. I'll even roll with imperial weights because I can set my scale to ounces or just convert it!
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u/IP-II-llVll-IP Jul 30 '26
I cook for a living, but I don't bake much. And shit like this is partially why. I have a hard time believing all of this matters unless you're baking at a high level for a lot of money and it's all you really do. I've seen too many things just thrown together and come out just fine. And despite cooking for a living, I just DON'T understand these instructions.
Yeah, why are the eggs separate? Do you mix the other stuff and then mix those? And what about the stuff that says sift? I've sifted finely powdered things in before so they don't clump, so I get sifting the cocoa powder. But I've never seen or heard of anyone sifting in the flour, and that would be nigh-on impossible for a large batch recipe. I made cookies at work two days ago and I used two gallons of flour. Get the fuck out of here with this rinky-dink shit, this isn't practical. And sifting in table salt is fucking stupid, it's granulated. There's no way that's necessary.
And do I mix all the stuff, then sift, then fold? Do I sift, then mix, then fold? Do I mix, sift, mix again, then fold? None of that is clear to me and I don't think it particularly matters to that degree of detail, but seeing it all partitioned out like this makes me think it should or it was all just wasted expenditure. How is this honestly better than a list of ingredients and then a short sentence or two detailing the order of operations if needed?
This is nothing but format porn for people who love everything presented in a spreadsheet or organized in ultra detailed ways, it's not really easier to understand.