Two cups flour, one pinch innovation

Can you remember the first thing you ever baked all by yourself? Mine was blueberry muffins from a box, the bread and butter of introductory baking. I can still remember the recipe printed on the back: muffin mix, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup vegetable oil and one egg. That’s all it took. I was only 7 or 8 years old at the time, and baking on my own felt so grown up. I measured that milk and oil with such precision and cracked that egg so carefully. I wanted to get it right.

I think a lot of us learn to bake with a firm set of rules in mind. We’re told that cooking is where you can experiment with flavors, try new ingredients and take big chances; baking, however, is a science. We spend years learning that producing the perfect cookies, fluffiest muffins or most beautiful cakes is based on carefully derived ratios of flour to sugar to spices. We learn that specific ingredients used in specific amounts in a specific order produces specific results. We learn to follow directions.

But where’s the fun in that? Don’t get me wrong, recipes are wonderful things, and baking guidelines are incredibly helpful. But what if you didn’t have to follow every detail exactly? What if, rather than viewing baking as a science, we viewed it as an art? Now before you start shouting “Dada!” and throwing beloved copies of The Joy of Cooking out the window, I should say that when I’m tweaking a recipe, I don’t go totally bananas. If the recipe calls for one stick of butter, I don’t jump to three. Two teaspoons of cinnamon doesn’t mean three tablespoons of salt (unless you’re baking for ponies; I hear they dig the salty stuff). Rather, I think the very best recipe modifications are born from pinches of innovation.

Here’s the route I typically take:

1. Follow the rules — the first time: Any time I try a new recipe, I give it a go with the step-by-step instructions. How else will I know what to do differently next time? It’s important to understand a recipe before you start mixing it up. Maybe it’s too sweet, too dry or just doesn’t make your mouth as happy as you hoped. Once you’ve baked it as the recipe writer intended, you’ll have a point of comparison for all your other flops and successes.

2. Start small: This goes back to the one-stick-of-butter-doesn’t-mean-three idea. When it comes to baking, tiny changes can make a big difference. I almost always up the spice quota in cookies and breads, but that means adding an extra teaspoon or two at most.  Sometimes even that plan can go haywire (cloves, anyone?), but it’s all about the process. And remember, you can always take it down a notch.

3. Don’t be afraid to admit defeat: Sometimes your experiments will fall flat on their face (or in on their face if we’re talking soufflés). There’s a reason that recipes are written the way they are, and changing things up can be risky business. For every innovated masterpiece, there are a half dozen disasters. And it really is OK to revert back to baking your cake as Martha Stewart intended.

So are you itching to bake yet? Here’s a pumpkin bread recipe that’s an absolute favorite in our family. After adding a bit of this and dot of that, this is the recipe we’ve landed on and love. It’s a guideline, not a blueprint, so feel free to experiment away. I can’t wait to hear how it turns out!

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Pumpkin bread

• 2 sticks butter
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups canned pumpkin (16 ounces)
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla (and if a little spills over the measuring spoon, that’s totally fine)
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• ½ teaspoon cloves (plus a smidge, but don’t go too clove-happy)
• 3 heaping (seriously) teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Add pumpkin, and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and salt. Slowly add to wet mixture, and mix until completely combined.

Bake in a greased bundt pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check bread with a knife to see if it’s done; the trick is to pull it out of the oven before the knife comes out completely clean (gooey-covered knife = not done; smidgens of moist bread still sticking to knife end = perfection!). For muffins, fill lined muffin cups to the brim with batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees (same stick-to-the-knife tip applies).

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Happy baking!

XO,
Katrina