Baking is a science where measurements are very important. Sometimes, friends will say to me, “I made this recipe for bread and it didn’t work.” I start asking questions to find out more about why it didn’t work and it turns out that they substituted whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour. That may or may not be the only reason it didn’t work (because there are a lot of factors that affect bread) but when you use whole wheat flour, you often need more water so you can’t just use the same recipe that’s made for all-purpose flour. It will also certainly taste and feel different.
I’m not saying that you can never substitute or don’t experiment but start to think about baking as chemistry and you will see the difference. Here’s an extremely helpful guide for baking substitutions, from The Joy of Baking, recommended by my mentor, Carol Gelles.
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