Neither arrogance nor stupidity plays well in baking

[navlys]

I wanted to make a cake for my neighbors' anniversary using my heart shaped baking pans. I decided to doctor up a cake mix with added bananas. I found a recipe online but had to adjust for the fact that cake mixes now weigh 3 oz. less. I read the instructions on the box that said "mix for 2 minutes". Unfortunately I missed the "by hand" part. Mixing away with my hand mixer and timer I noticed large bubbles in my batter. At that point i remembered that cake batter should not be overmixed and I reread the instructions...a little late. The cake actually came out somewhat ok.

Then I decided to make my own apple cider syrup instead of buying it from KABC. The instructions called for using a measuring stick in middle of pan to know at what level it should be reduced to . I thought that was ridiculous because I could tell by looking at it. I ended up with a solid block of syrup after iIpoured it into a jar. What you see may not be what you end up with.! A lesson learned too late.

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[cwcdesign]

I'm so sorry navlys! We all have stories like that. I try to suppress the memory and then it will happen again - I'm much better if I actually remember to write the notes I think to myself

[Mike Nolan]

I write notes on recipes all the time. I've taken to using post-it notes in cookbooks rather than writing in the book itself, the post-it notes also act as bookmarks.

They make some smaller post-it notes where instead of a small strip of adhesive the adhesive covers most of the back. These make pretty good freezer labels as long as you don't get them damp. (Tupperware has apparently discontinued making their labels, so I'm looking for alternatives.)

[Mike Nolan]

Regarding your solid syrup, add a little hot water and let it sit for a few days. I do this with barley syrup and molasses when they get too thick to use.

I've got a refractometer (under $20 at Amazon) that I could probably use to measure the sugar content of a syrup as I reduce it, but I sometimes do it by weight.

I've never been very good at eyeballing how much something reduces.

I put a cork pad on the scale, weigh it and the empty pan, then weigh it again after adding the liquid to be reduced. I compute what I want it reduce to (including the weight of the pan), it only takes a couple of seconds to turn on the scale, move the pan over to weigh it, and then move it back to the burner.

I use the back page of one of my cooking notebooks to write down the empty (tare) weight of pans. The only problem is if you have more than one pan in the same size, there can still be a bit of difference in their weight. I have a few pans where I've written A or B on the sides with a permanent marker so I know which one I'm using.

[navlys]

Mike thanks for the ideas.

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