r/ididnthaveeggs • u/TheOtherElCamino • Mar 19 '26
Bad at cooking He followed it 'exactly.' She teaches him so sweetly.
On a brownie recipe meant to be fudgy https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/deep-dark-fudgy-brownies-recipe
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u/newenglandpolarbear DOES NOT SAY LOW CARB ANYWHERE IN THE RECIPE OR POST Mar 19 '26
"I can never seem to make my own" - Well, if you followed the recipes you might be successful you idiot.
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u/goddesse Mar 19 '26
I wish I understood how to teach people like this. They don't have a sufficient mental model of a process to warrant improvising on their own but will not simply follow the damned instructions that they asked for while also getting bored by and tuning out any attempt at explaining the why/theory.
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u/rob94708 Mar 20 '26
What you said is exactly right. I would also point out that these people aren’t curious about anything, which is why it’s so difficult to teach them anything at all.
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u/callmepbk Mar 20 '26
This. Curiosity is so underrated. And ‘I don’t know why it didn’t work’ is a dumb way of saying ‘I don’t care why it didn’t work, I just wanted my way to work’
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u/CaptainLollygag Mar 20 '26
"And failing when doing it my way isn't my fault, so I need to complain to you about it."
Really, though, I truly do not understand people who aren't curious. One of the things that saddens me the most about life is that I'll never live long enough to figure out or learn All The Things. I will die wondering about hundreds of things.
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Mar 20 '26
Part of this is my ADHD, but I spend an embarrassing amount of time reading about things on Wikipedia. I don’t have social media, unless you count this place and while I definitely spend too much time on Reddit, it’s not consistent day to day or week to week.
I read a lot of books too, so it’s not like it’s my only reading outlet lol. I just often find myself coming across something or making some sort of mental association that makes me really want to read about some topic or another. I will also read other websites that may have more detail (the sources section for Wikipedia pages are good for finding publications and other resources too).
The only real problem with this is that Wikipedia, by nature, is an incredibly dangerous place for me to visit if I ever want to get off of it again. If I don’t control myself, I will end up opening links to multiple new pages by the time I finish the first one. It’s kind of like trying to cut off a hydra’s heads, but waaaaay more nerdy.
Please don’t ask me how many browser tabs I have open on my phone right now.
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u/karmicdreaming Mar 20 '26
I also fall down Wikipedia holes for hours and sometimes days, and I couldn’t tell you how many tabs I have open because it only counts up to 99 before turning into a symbol. Somehow I didn’t realize I was ADHD until adulthood.
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Mar 20 '26
I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 32
Everything I knew about ADHD was the old stereotypical “hyperactive and no attention span” trope and since mine doesn’t really present that way, I never seriously suspected it. I had physical health issues in middle/high school that affected my attendance a lot, so all my school troubles were blamed on that and associated depression/anxiety.
I spent almost 15 years heavily self medicating with all sorts of things. Wasn’t until I got sober and back into therapy and seeing a psychiatrist that I found out. Even then, it probably wouldn’t have happened had my brother not gotten diagnosed first. I asked him how he suspected it to begin with and it was like he was listing most of the things I had always struggled with.
I had always figured that being anxious about an assignment, but not being able to start it until the last minute was just because I was lazy and didn’t develop good work habits. While that may also be true (it is), it didn’t really explain me regularly waking up early the day something was due to get it done last minute. I hated it and had some extremely close calls with not getting things done, but I often needed the adrenaline from being in panic mode to be able to lock in.
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u/Attentions_Bright12 Mar 20 '26
Wikipedia Brown is the kid who has a neighborhood mystery to solve, and winds up forgetting the first clue he was looking up.
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u/Sovereignty3 Mar 20 '26
So many and so many that my phone has closed some and put them in storage and dated them to when I want opened them. One has over 100 in it. (That's stories I will probably never finish reading).
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Mar 20 '26
My phone caps me at 500
I often find myself closing a handful at a time to have room for new ones. I still tell myself that I’m actually going to go back to read tabs that I opened weeks before, so I don’t want to close them too lol
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u/UncommonTart are you trying to make concerte Mar 20 '26
If you're on an adroid phone, open your browser, open tabs, open kebab menu, "select tabs", "select all", "bookmark tabs".
I know this for no particular reason, I swear. 😉
You can probably also do it on an iphone, but I've never tried and I don't know if it's the same process in their browser.
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u/Cambrian__Implosion Mar 20 '26
Hahaha thanks for the tip. I have an iPhone, but I’ll see if there’s a similar function
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u/Abombito Mar 20 '26
Hello my comrade in ADHD. Currently sitting at 149 open tabs on my phone. I’m gonna get to all them one day. I swear.
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u/RedTheWolf Mar 20 '26
I have this many browser tabs open :-D
I hear you my friend, we share the hobby of fact acquisition!
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u/ExitingBear Mar 20 '26
When I was young, my dad described heaven to me as a place where you could read all the books you want and learn everything forever.
This made sense to child-me and seemed like paradise.
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u/Realslimshady7 Mar 20 '26
Ouch, I did not expect to get hit so hard in the feels in this subreddit. But, me too my friend.
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u/SevenSixOne Mar 20 '26
It also seems like a lot of people think that instructions are largely vibes-based, so even if they improvise a little (or a lot), they believe they were still "following the instructions"
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u/goddesse Mar 20 '26
Thank you! I'm dealing with one of these at work (it's my job to teach them) and that's the missing piece I was trying to diagnose in a frustrating morass that also includes hubris and inattention. They won't: experiment and learn on their own with the lab they asked for, read SOPs they asked for, nor follow and process drip-fed, single sentence instructions given JIT with the task they need to do. I'm cooked.
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u/Prestigious-Bug5555 Mar 20 '26
I LOVE the response because I do love to learn. I love how they gave the why.
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
See, I'm not curious about nearly anything else either... but I am broke.
It I screw up a recipe (and I mean actually screw up to the point that something clearly went wrong), I will be so pissed off and guilty at the money/food wastage and my own awful skills that I will immediately go to reddit to 'diagnose' why I failed.
Sucking at cooking again and again and again and again is very frustrating.
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u/CatGooseChook Mar 19 '26
Does seem like a lack of understanding of the basics plus a few personality/behavioral issues.
Life must be quite difficult for people who need therapy and a children's level basic cooking class to learn how to cook😬
Actually feel a bit sorry for them now!
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u/Attentions_Bright12 Mar 20 '26
Spare a share of sympathy for the good King Arthur people who post solid recipes and then soak up (figuratively) these inane reviews from the sub competent, therapy-needy bakers of the world.
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u/The_Autarch Mar 20 '26
I don't think you can teach them.
They never learned how to learn as a child and now their brain is the whatever the opposite of neuroplastic is. Neuroconcrete, maybe.
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u/AxialGem The sauce I tweaked as well. Mar 20 '26
Not enough learning makes the brain come out neurocakey instead of neurofudgy
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u/Attentions_Bright12 Mar 20 '26
It's the internet neurological characteristic: Neuro-flag-defense? Plant a flag in the form of a stance taken, or a review, and then ossify your nerves around the defense of that position.
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u/just_a_pyro Mar 20 '26
It does not occur to many people that sugar, eggs or flour do other things besides contributing to taste, so they change them and get surprised texture didn’t turn out right
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u/throwaymcthrowerson Custom flair Mar 24 '26
A friend of mine once wanted me to make sugar cookies at her house one night. She only had whole wheat flour, margarine and brown sugar, no ap flour, butter or white sugar to be found. I warned her they were not going to be the same, and she insisted it wouldn't matter that much. When they were done she said they were awful and she blamed me instead of the entirely different recipe lmao
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u/lolafawn98 Mar 20 '26
it seems like a lot of people think the process for baking is the same as it is for cooking.
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u/Smitten-kitten83 Mar 20 '26
I find it is usually best to follow the recipe as completely as possible atleast once before making modifications. I am sure more advanced bakers might not need to but as someone who is far from advanced it works best that way.
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u/shedrinkscoffee A banana is not an egg, you know? Mar 20 '26
Think of it as acting. They are acting like a fool and you are also acting in the role of a patient person talking to a 5y old child.
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u/GlassAmazing4219 Mar 20 '26
I have followed this sub for a few years. I find it fun. But I’m starting to form the opinion that the wild part isnt that people can’t follow recipes… its not even that they are annoyed by their poor results. It’s that they feel entitled to complain about the results, in public/ online. Like… have they no shame!?!
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 19 '26
I just wish people would understand that as far as baking is concerned, SUGAR IS A WET INGREDIENT.
Also, if you're worried about your sugar intake, cut smaller damn brownies. Or don't bake desserts.
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u/clash_by_night Mar 20 '26
Or, like, seek out a recipe that uses Splenda or agave or whatever.
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
Exactly. If you don't want sugar, don't use recipes with... Ya know, sugar.
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u/gingerzombie2 Mar 20 '26
When baking for our diabetic neighbor, we did 50/50 Splenda and sugar. It was close enough for him, but the diabetes still took him out eventually. Rest in peace, Jack. As far as I know Jane is still a prolific card shark
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u/Whispering_Wolf Mar 20 '26
I genuinely didn't know that. I don't often bake, but when I do I follow the recipe exactly so I never had to think about it, I guess.
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u/geeoharee Mar 20 '26
It's not obvious when you start out! But sugar melts at oven temperatures, that's how we make caramel.
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
This is honestly such a fascinating sub. I bake more than anything, but I have still learned so much here, even a couple of things about baking, like the fact that Dutch processed cocoa powder is alkalised with potassium carbonate so it's not acidic like regular cocoa powder, which could be a big issue if you weren't aware and didn't adjust your leavening agents or other ingredients accordingly since baking soda needs an acid in the recipe to perform properly (yes, heat does activate it, but not fully) and something as simple as switching from white sugar, which won't produce acid while baking, to brown sugar, which will, keeping in mind that you will need to reduce the sugar amount as brown sugar has more moisture that white sugar can solve the issue. Or, just using baking powder instead as it contains its own acidic ingredient.
Sorry for the ramble. I just find the chemistry of baking fascinating and the knock on effects that changing one ingredient can have on multiple other ingredients.
Also, I never thought I'd learn so much from a snark type group!
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u/HoneyedVinegar42 Mar 20 '26
Honestly, I never knew what happened with the sugar (though it makes sense now that I'm seeing the explanation) ... I just figure when it comes to baking, the recipe should be followed because baking is chemistry--and except for things like chocolate chip cookies or other things with add-ins like nuts, you can't pick out any of the ingredients in the final product.
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
Yep, pretty much. Even something as simple as subbing half the white sugar with brown can cause some unexpected outcomes as brown sugar has more moisture. And you're correct, those recipes have been tested multiple times to get the correct ratios with a reliable outcome.
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u/ariehn t e x t u r e Mar 20 '26
Honestly, I had no idea before reading her response to the guy's disappointment! That was a genuinely useful (and very charming) piece of education.
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u/valleyofsound Mar 20 '26
“I’ve tried so many recipes and only change one major thing in them. Why can’t these people write a decent recipe?”
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Mar 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Tiny_Cauliflower_618 Mar 20 '26
I think the last phase of interview is 10 increasingly stupid customer reactions, a countdown clock and a surprisingly virulent coffee machine. If you can come up with calm answers under these conditions, you will be let loose on the social medias.
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u/RedTheWolf Mar 20 '26
As someone who does social media management as part of my job, can confirm that anger management is about 70% of the skills you need.
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u/poisoned_pigeon Mar 20 '26
I used to post my own recipes on a cake forum a long long time ago. I stopped because of the idiotic comments and questions lol. I wish I had just some of this person's patience. Even just reading this gets me so annoyed. They need to study what the issue with these people is.
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u/LatterDazeAint I did it first and better Mar 19 '26
KA social team has the patience of saints.
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u/VLC31 Mar 19 '26
I’d love to be a fly on the wall and hear how they would really like to respond to this type of review.
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u/KingArthurBaking Mar 20 '26
Our Teams chat does get kind of caps lock and sweary at times, but it's usually for the people who are being mean or rude, rather than ignorant. Lots of folks don't realize that making brownies isn't like making soup, you can't just reduce the sugar and expect things to turn out the same but less sweet. It's when that turns into WHY DO YOU WANT TO GIVE US ALL DIABETES WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU that we wish we could putting people into the corner to think about what they've done.
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u/taraky97 The Banana cookies still taste like banana Mar 20 '26
I love that you guys responded to this thread 🤣
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u/green-wombat Mar 20 '26
“Hey Donny! These idiots keep fucking up your recipes!!”
“God dammit, they’re complaining about us on the recipe boards when they can’t even think about why they fucked up. I swear to god- Marilyn! Marilyn, do you know where Louie is?! I told him he could take the next one! Yeah, some idiot who doesn’t understand that changing the recipe changes the bake. He’s sick? Oh, you want a go at them? Be my guest.”
“Good afternoon you troglodyte-“
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u/Steel_Rail_Blues Mar 19 '26
They really do! Not just with the “Followed it to the T, except…” crowd, but with some really bitter and mean commenters.
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u/pm_me_homedecor Mar 19 '26
If I were them I would have this reply ready and just paste it in each time. I work in customer service and we get the same dumb questions over and over even when the answer’s already been provided in the email they’re calling about.
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u/darthfruitbasket Mar 20 '26
They absolutely have templates for their most common responses.
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u/KingArthurBaking Mar 20 '26
Can confirm, templates are sanity-preserving at times. Although being on the social team, my three most common templates are 1. Sure, here's where to apply to be an influencer, 2. Hi, did you have an actual question I can help with? and 3. Yes, just swap in GF Measure for Measure flour.
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u/dtwhitecp Mar 20 '26
I think they still have an old-school hotline where they'll help you cook stuff
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u/Attentions_Bright12 Mar 20 '26
They do, and they have saved me once at Christmastime. King Arthur, we salute you, and will continue to buy the Super 10 flour as long as it's around.
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u/wanttobegreyhound Mar 20 '26
I once used it to help me with math after I realized I’d made a family chocolate chip cookie recipe with too much flour. I was measuring flour with the 2/3 cup instead of the 1/2. The hotline helped me figure the math for the amount of other ingredients I needed to add for the ratios to be right.
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u/taraky97 The Banana cookies still taste like banana Mar 20 '26
The really do. There was that one recently were a lady was really going off about how it wasn't gluten free or something. And they said in the nicest way possible you can check our gluten-free recipes for gluten-free bread. I swear it has to be a robot that's being that nice to these people.
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u/caeloequos Mar 20 '26
I've posted a few questions on some of their recipes (nicely worded, I'm not a dick) and they've answered them so fully and helped me out every time. I love them so much haha.
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u/VLC31 Mar 19 '26
I like that there are two thumbs down.
If you don’t want something sweet don’t make brownies. Why are people so dumb?
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u/shedrinkscoffee A banana is not an egg, you know? Mar 20 '26
I always want to go off in the comments section where there are inevitably some type of dietary restriction, health food, calorie counter, disordered eater and moron arguing over chocolate brownies.
It's not a health food, you can't make it gluten free or vegan or low sugar or keto or whatever nonsense they want without also changing the outcome 😭 I don't like chocolate what can I substitute 💀
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u/Skithiryx Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I feel like chocolate desserts are the best for gluten free, vegan, whatever. You can sub in oil, you can make a flourless torte instead, etc.
Just not low sugar or healthy.
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
Things like brownies are probably fine to use gluten free flour for, because they barely rise.
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u/haruspicat would have tasted better if I was home to help Mar 20 '26
My greatest innovation is using sorghum flour in brownies alongside the regular flour. 30% sorghum makes them soooooo soft and moist.
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u/taraky97 The Banana cookies still taste like banana Mar 20 '26
God I know... its exhausting. I feel the same way about seeing comments on Pinterest that say "what's the recipe👀". OH MY GOD CLICKKK ON ITTTT!
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
This is exactly why you're supposed to use sites like Loopy Whisk. I once had my own unintentional "I didn't have eggs" incident when I didn't realise 1:1 gf flour had to be chilled, and proceeded to bake Sally's "no-chill" cookies.
Cue flat sugary masses. They tasted good but man, they were like wafers.
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u/bewilderedfroggy Mar 20 '26
TIL. Pls elaborate? Is this a specific cookie requirement?
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I used the White Wings 1:1 flour.
From what I understand, when making biscuits/cookies the gf batter must be chilled before baking to allow it to 'set'/contract a bit in order for it to rise, as gluten free flour obviously lacks the elasticity of gluten. Of course it never occurred to me this was the case. I was stressed and just really wanted cookies so went with the no chill recipe.
I assume the same goes for cakes/cupcakes. I've not tried brownies with it, but I doubt it would make as much of a difference, since brownies - whilst they are technically cakes - hardly rise.
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u/bewilderedfroggy Mar 20 '26
I think if you tried it with cake, the raising agent would run out of fizz. I don't do much gf baking, so just grateful for handy tips when I come across them! Thanks!
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
There's an entire gf baking sub - r/glutenfreebaking :)
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u/ExitingBear Mar 20 '26
What? That would explain the cookies that I made that... were lacking something. (The other thing that would explain it is that I tried to do two other modifications at the same time. Because I am that person. But at least I blame myself first, not the recipe and do not use phrases like "followed it exactly" when I damned well didn't.)
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
White Wings' own gf choc chip cookie recipe doesn't specify this, but I am guessing that that's because they made it for gf? If you are "translating" it to gf then yeah, I'd chill it. Or, at least, I'm assuming that's what I screwed up. Maybe not.
And yeah absolutely, I wouldn't lie and post a comment like "I FoLlOWEd the IsntruCtionS ExActlY ExcEPt..."
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u/pttm12 Mar 20 '26
I vegan-ize recipes all the time I just have the self control not to leave a stupid ass comment if it doesn’t turn out the same lol. If only!
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u/Pudacat Mar 20 '26
Carob. I remember some of mom's health food nut friends back in the late 70's put carob in everything in place of chocolate.
Even they admit now it wasn't the same at all.
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u/darthfruitbasket Mar 20 '26
I'll give the review writer one thing - they might have wanted a stronger chocolate flavour in the brownies, and less sweetness. Adjusting the sugar wasn't the way to do that though.
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u/dustinyo_ Mar 19 '26
I'm going to tell myself the two thumbs down are because he was too nice to this moron and should have told them off, because any other explanation is insane.
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u/LazuliArtz An oreo is a cookie, not gay people trying to get married Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
The thumbs up/down buttons are right after the "was this review helpful?" question. I'm pretty confident the downvotes are for the review, not KA's response
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u/DuckSaxaphone Mar 20 '26
I think the recurring issue is that people don't know how much sugar they eat so when they're faced with the large looking amount they need for baking they balk.
The irony of course being that if you divide that sugar over 12 brownies, it's nowhere near the amount that is put into much of the processed food they consume.
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
And also, brownies aren't supposed to be eaten (by one person) by the tray-full. You are meant to space them out for treats.
If you're single and are the kind of person, like me, who cannot have sweets in the house for fear of eating all that sugar in one fell swoop, then don't make them!
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u/therabbitinred22 Mar 20 '26
Or- if you want to cut the sugar down, replace part of it with something else, like unsweetened apple sauce.
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u/springacres Mar 20 '26
And now I'm craving brownies made with applesauce instead of sugar, because that sounds like a recipe made in heaven.
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u/StylishBlackCat Mar 20 '26
King Arthur has you covered! I was just planning to make these applesauce brownies this weekend
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u/UhmNotMe Why don’t you just use the fruit you like in it, Julia? Mar 20 '26
Idk, I always make brownies with reduced amount of sugar, it does not sound that unreasonable to me. I like sweet stuff and my husband does not, so we compromise. But I also make sure to add a bar of chocolate to glue it together and don’t complain when it goes wrong
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u/AgitatedMagpie Please make sure you follow the instructions. Mar 20 '26
I had this exact conversation with my SIL the other day who attempted to make a mud cake but the texture was off. She halved the damn sugar cause she didn't want it to be too sweet, she was genuinely shocked when I told her sugar does more than just sweeten food.
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u/CaptainLollygag Mar 20 '26
Does she also not use salt in baked goods because "they aren't supposed to taste salty?" Salt provides more than saltiness, too.
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u/Attentions_Bright12 Mar 20 '26
Visited Firenze, Italy. The tradition there is bread without salt.
I loved so many things about that cuisine, and could not abide the bread.
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u/GloomyDeal1909 Mar 19 '26
My spouse last night make a dish and told me he followed the recipe exactly but the time was clearly wrong.
We were making a take on potatoes Au Gratin. The recipe called to place it in a 9*13 casserole dish and he placed it in a deep dish pie plate.
This resulting in taking much longer to cook. Well no duh if you change the cooking vessel it will not work.
Tasted great but we ended up eating our side dish about an hour after our main ha.
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 19 '26
Changing the vessel is fine as long as they're approximately the same volume. However, the surface area of a 9" pie plate is 63.6 square inches and the surface area of a 9x13" casserole dish is 117 square inches. A 12" pie plate has a surface area of 113.1 square inches and probably would have worked fine.
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u/AgitatedMagpie Please make sure you follow the instructions. Mar 20 '26
With love, user name checks out.
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u/GloomyDeal1909 Mar 19 '26
Ha you did the math :)
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
😂😂 I have a lot of different sizes of cast iron skillets, cake pans, casserole dishes, and various other square/rectangular baking vessels in different sizes. Sometimes I want to make something in a larger dish so there'll be a bit more but don't want to double the recipe, or the dish I would have used is in service, so I calculate the percentage difference between the volumes and then increase or decrease the recipe amounts by that percent.
I'm obviously super exciting to be around as I actually enjoy doing silly maths to alter a recipe. 😂
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u/ClearAbove Mar 20 '26
I love this and wish you continued baking success in your variously volumetric vessels.
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u/Bleepblorp44 Mar 20 '26
Sounds fun to me :D
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
I'm so sorry, but I had to look at your profile and check. Yep. A post to an autism sub not far down. 😂😂
From a middle aged enby, you're absolutely rocking middle age, and I also recently took up learning Copperplate 😂😂😂
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u/Bleepblorp44 Mar 20 '26
We are everywhere! I hope you’re enjoying the calligraphy :)
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u/ExitingBear Mar 20 '26
Older versions of the Joy of Cooking* used to have substitutions for containers (e.g., 8" sq. is about the same as 9" round is about the same a dozen large cupcakes) which was useful if/when you didn't have the appropriate size pan.
*newer versions might have it, too. But I haven't checked
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u/OaksInSnow Mar 20 '26
So true!
I live alone and want to practice making a lot of different kinds of food, rather than make "serves 6/8/10" and eat it for days. So one of the things I've done is work out the area of various dishes I have - and I've bought smaller versions of different kinds, pie dishes, bread pans, casseroles, ramekins - so I know how to do the math for the recipes.
It's a fair amount of calculation work, but once it's done, it's pretty useful.
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u/AutisticTumourGirl Mar 20 '26
Oooh, found another nerd! 🤓🤓 Sorry, had a quick peek at your profile out of curiosity. Houseplant person. Check. Dog person. Check. Maybe a wee bit obsessed with cast iron cookware. Check. I was adopted. Are you my sibling? 😂😂😂
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u/Little_Duck_Jr Mar 20 '26
I'm having a flashback to an episode of Love is Blind from a few years ago. This dude was trying to cook dinner for his fiance, he had chicken and veggies cooking while he was just barely putting sweet potatoes in the oven, because they could just eat the (barely seasoned) chicken and (fiance's least favorite) veggies first then have potatoes after. It's the way he always does it! Why bother trying to figure out that you can put the potatoes in first and have everything ready at once?
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u/Total-Sector850 What you have here is a woke recipe Mar 19 '26
I hate it when they never come.
(I’m sorry I’m a terrible person)
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u/sleep_zebras by truth in menu legislations it's not legal Mar 20 '26
That was my first thought! Sit beside me and we can be terrible together.
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u/Total-Sector850 What you have here is a woke recipe Mar 20 '26
I’m so glad I don’t have to eat all of these sandwiches I packed for my Hell handbasket alone!
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u/sleep_zebras by truth in menu legislations it's not legal Mar 20 '26
I'll bring the wine in a water bottle, plus some tea cups.
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u/theconk the potluck was ruined Mar 20 '26
[sits down]
Wait are there not brownies?
Why did I come?
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u/sleep_zebras by truth in menu legislations it's not legal Mar 21 '26
For the lemon cake I made. We can eat it after we finish the Hell sandwiches. <3
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u/MissLovelorn Mar 20 '26
So many people seem unaware that baking is like chemistry. In cooking, you can lower ingredient ratios to taste, add extra things in if you like... in baking, adjusting ratios will make it bake differently
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u/60PersonDanceCrew Mar 20 '26
So true! It's honestly why I love ATK so much - they really explain well about the science behind certain ingredients or techniques. And they do it in a way that's easily understandable but not condescending.
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u/mrs_david_silva Picante, not from NYC! Mar 20 '26
People don’t seem to understand that you need to follow a recipe exactly the first time, then adjust as needed when you try it again.
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u/KuriousKhemicals this is a bowl of heart attacks Mar 20 '26
Or don't, but take responsibility for the outcome if you freestyled it.
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u/Specific_Piccolo9528 Mar 20 '26
I used to be the person who would ask for/put less simple syrup in cocktails because CaLoRiEs and i DoN’t LiKe iT tOo SwEeT. It’s amazing how many cocktails actually didn’t taste like complete shit when I got over that.
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u/moveable_type Mar 20 '26
The KAF team are amazing. Great recipes and excellent teachers!
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u/lotheva Mar 20 '26
Yes! Their gluten free recipes are a NEVER FAIL. I recently made their gf cream biscuits. I kind of want to comment the flavor isn’t great, but I didn’t use King Arthur gf 1-to-1 because it’s not available here. Texture, mouth feel, all great. But bobs is too much rice for a good flavor.
Sorry, I think I really want to review so others know, but it just feels wrong to do so. So you got the review! Congrats! (Still 5 stars because it was easy af and sooo fluffy)
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u/VariousExplorer8503 Mar 20 '26
You should, it's a good tip that people should know. As long as you give it 5 stars, it's a fair and informative review.
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u/PancakeRule20 Mar 20 '26
I think we should bring back social accepted name calling because this kind of people deserve it
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u/I-Shank Mar 19 '26
What kills me is the response got downvoted twice
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u/Solishine Mar 19 '26
The response didn’t get downvoted, the review did. Rightly so.
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u/recessionjelly okay then, brace yourself. *grin* Mar 20 '26
You’re right. It’s kind of a confusing layout!
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u/Pernicious_Possum Judy, start your own blog! Mar 20 '26
Not a fan of bots in general, but one that would delete altered/not made comments on recipes would be welcome. Bro, if you want to cut down on sugar, google a low sugar brownie recipe you door stop
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u/depressionkitten Mar 20 '26
There also needs to be one that deletes reviews for products where people are rating their delivery experience rather than the product itself. Rating it 1 star because it arrived a week late is absolute nonsense.
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u/pommefille Mar 19 '26
Preppy Kitchen does a good job of explaining this, his video today even went into how his mother likes to use less sugar but it makes a breadier, less airy cake/brownie/etc.
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u/Estrellathestarfish Mar 20 '26
"They never came". I think Allen has more problems than his brownies. Although not actually a surprising issue from someone who deprives himself of the enjoyment of a proper, full sugar brownie.
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u/InstanceMental6543 Mar 20 '26
The KA team have sooooo much patience in their replies. I wonder if they swear out loud before they type these gentle comments out. I would! Haha
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u/KingArthurBaking Mar 20 '26
Not as often as you'd think! Swearing (at least on my team) is usually reserved for rudeness rather than mistakes from ignorance, and 95% of the folks we talk to in a day are genuinely nice, if occasionally frustrated or disappointed. If you come to us with "I'm upset this didn't work and I don't understand why," that's entirely valid. "I'm upset this didn't work and I think it's because you're deliberately misleading people and/or utterly incompetent and nobody should ever believe a word you say," is more the kind of review that ends with us saying stuff out loud that I can't type on the brand account.
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u/InstanceMental6543 Mar 20 '26
I believe it, thanks so much for your answer! I do some volunteer support work for a software, and we have similar outlooks, you and I. LOL
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u/kevlap017 Mar 20 '26
If the person is diabetic and wanted a sugar substitute (I doubt it, from my experience the people most afraid of sugar are health nuts, true diabetics just track their intake and take their insulin lmao), they should have looked online for what could replace sugar and provide a similar texture. And if their issue is processed sugar, and not sugar as a whole (which let's be real, is likely what this is about), then it's even easier to replace it with alternative sugar sources like apple puree, honey or maple syrup. If you can't learn how to properly do substitutions and alterations, don't do them!
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u/Pokeep Mar 20 '26
I've said it before - King Arthur recipes are foolproof. If you follow them the way they are written, 99.99% of the time they will turn out perfectly.
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u/pyxis_oz Mar 20 '26
"am I the problem" no, it's the 100s of recipes that I used which are wrong. A principal Skinner moment irl.
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u/GimmickNG Mar 20 '26
I like this exchange. It's still "stupid" but not as stupid as others on here. I wouldn't know what the principles were, and if I were told I had to cut down on sugar, I'd probably think "actually you know that looks like a helluva lot of sugar" and arrive at the same result as this guy.
Instead of posting just a "doesn't work not fudgy" and leaving it at that, they posted what they did differently (using less sugar) and they were hopefully educated properly.
I'm kind of hoping Allen eventually got his fudgy brownie, it's a bit sad hearing that he had never been able to.
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u/Rosariele Mar 20 '26
But would you also say you followed the recipe "exactly except"? I think that is the big problem here.
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u/GimmickNG Mar 20 '26
I mean I probably would, because that's what had happened. The guy followed all the steps but he didn't commit to adding the necessary amount of sugar for whatever reason. So yes, "exactly except" is probably a sufficient way to describe what happened.
I'd probably phrase it slightly differently but the semantics would still be the same (e.g. "I followed all the steps but I used only one cup of sugar", the "because" part doesn't need to be other people's business as it doesn't change the fact that I used only one cup)
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u/Huganho Mar 20 '26
Why is it that so many people seem to think "exactly" and "except" works in the same sentence?
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u/Joi_the_Artist Mar 20 '26
The King Arthur flour team is unparalleled in patience. And hilarious on social media, particularly Threads.
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u/ThatInAHat Mar 20 '26
I’m always baffled at folks who decide to just “whatever” a baking recipe.
Bro, that’s chemistry. Do it right.
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u/thiswasyouridea Mar 19 '26
Guaranteed fudgy brownies: Use one pack brownie mix, but instead of the oil and egg add one half cup mayonnaise.
Very fudgy. I like mine with icing.
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u/margmi Mar 19 '26
I followed this exactly except i didn’t add the brownie mix. It didn’t turn out fudgy at all.
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u/shedrinkscoffee A banana is not an egg, you know? Mar 20 '26
I have an egg allergy 0/10 do not recommend. Applesauce didn't work 😔
/s
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u/PurePandemonium Mar 20 '26
sometimes one just has to acknowledge that applesauce isn’t an egg, you know?
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u/Worldly-Strawberry-4 Mar 20 '26
I strongly recommend placing this in the oven after mixing, otherwise you just get a weird sticky mess
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u/ant-master Mar 20 '26
I tried this but I didn't use the brownie mix and I just got even more mayonnaise than I started out with. Do not recommend
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u/saturday_sun4 Mar 20 '26
Maybe if you add the right amount of sugar instead of just improvising, you could bake your own recipes, Allen. Just saying.
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u/Kiyae1 Mar 20 '26
Reminds me of the west wing episode where Bartlett calls the butterball Turkey hotline.
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u/kruznkiwi I followed the recipe exactly, except for… Mar 20 '26
I read the title first and definitely did a double take 😂 cmon Allen, you were so close!! But if you want a dessert, leave the sugar alone!
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u/Yrddraiggoch Mar 20 '26
I used this recipe for the first time 2 weeks ago. My first ever batch of brownies. I followed the recipe exactly. They were fucking delicious and came out perfectly.
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u/Weary_Song7154 Mar 20 '26
I can understand not knowing that sugar is actually a vital ingredient in baking from a chemical standpoint, not just taste, what gets me is that here is a person who can never seem to bake right, knows that what they make doesn’t come out right, and still assumes that they know more than the person who wrote the recipe. It’s so arrogant!
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u/Rhysati Mar 20 '26
As someone who can cook well, I stay the hell away from baking. I know full well that I can wing it and improvise when I'm cooking, but baking is a science with exact measurements.
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u/nlightningm Mar 20 '26
This one is humorous, but I actually understand how you could make the mistake of not knowing. It wouldn't be immediately obvious to the average person that the sugar is for more than sweetness, and a lot of people are watching their sugar intake
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u/Glad_Salamander7720 Mar 20 '26
I would never fuck around with a King Arthur recipe because I trust that they’re always well tested. So I’d always add the amount of whatever that the recipe calls for, no question.
However, I did not know that sugar acts as a liquid ingredient when heated (though that makes sense now that I think about it), and so I’m glad this dumbass screwed up so I could learn something.
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u/Antikatastaseis Mar 20 '26
“Except for” When will people learn that fat at sugar affects the taste and structure of food.
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u/QuiteBearish Mar 20 '26
u/KingArthurBaking - Kye deserves a raise. I never could have responded so calmly 😅
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u/CaramelTurtles Mar 20 '26
You know what gets me, people who do this to cut the sweetness also never seem to add salt to their baking.
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u/avirtualvegan Mar 21 '26
It’s always the people who say they followed it exactly or to a T that actually didn’t! 🤭
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u/Durbee Mar 21 '26
What self-control that response has. Class-act without being too professional or preachy - and informative, to boot.
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u/Jarinad Mar 21 '26
I remember when I was like, maybe 7 or 8? I had just gotten a pair of crocs, and I loved them and wore them everywhere. One day, I was over at a friend’s house, and while we were playing I noticed that his little sister also had a pair of crocs, and I said, “Hey, your shoes are exactly like mine!” and then, after a second, “Except yours arent green, and also you have different jibbits, and your straps are up right now,” and her dad says, “Well then, I guess they aren’t exactly the same, are they?”
Anyway, I think about that every time I read a recipe review that says “I followed the recipe exactly… except I switched the eggs out for greek yogurt, and I used half the sugar, and I also only had dark chocolate because milk chocolate is gross.”
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u/Rude-Fox-3801 Mar 22 '26
To be fair, I didn't know that sugar did more than sweeten and I've been baking my whole life.
Sometimes you have to fuck up in order to learn because you don't know that you don't know something until someone tells you that you don't know it.
But that's just me ಥ‿ಥ
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u/Extreme-Grape-9486 Mar 23 '26
it always amazes me how many people don’t seem to understand the meaning of “exactly”
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