Failure is usually considered a bad thing. Most folks wouldn’t want to fail at something; they’d rather succeed. But if you can laugh at yourself, and you’ll need to do that, you can stretch your wings and even learn from failures in your kitchen.
Being a recovering perfectionist, I’m using failures to practice accepting imperfection. And I’m practicing so I can get better at certain skills. Baking is not my best skill. Cooking is much more forgiving with substitutions. And since I substitute often, that has led to some interesting results…like my recent failures with GF biscuits.
Start with a great recipe…
First, I must say the recipe I had was a very good one. My daughter-in-love got me the wonderful cookbook “Whole Food for Your Family” by Autumn Michaelis at wholefoodfor7.com (check it out here). I’ve tried many of her recipes on Instagram (and now several from the book), and I know she’s a great recipe writer.
…then mess around with it and see what happens (Batch #1)
SO, my failures are not a reflection on Autumn at all! My first time making Cloud Drop Biscuits, I simply didn’t have the coconut flour (she uses 3 flours in this recipe). But I had another, cassava, and I thought I would just use it instead. I also had some coconut milk from a friend that needed to be used up that was one of the runnier ones I’ve had.
I started with 16 biscuit “heaps.” But when they finished baking and I opened the oven door, I had to just laugh and call my husband over to look.
“That’s ONE big FLAT biscuit!” he said. I told him I’d actually made them for him to be able to use his jelly and maybe this would make it really easy to spread. We both got quite a belly laugh out of it.
I cut them into 16 pieces and enjoyed them with Michelle’s Budget Beef Stew (it’s in the book!). They were really tasty and buttery. Definitely worth trying again.
So, Batch #2 – Try, try again
The next can of coconut milk I opened was extremely thick, so I thought maybe that would make the cassava flour work out better. This time I got more like biscuit “cookies.”
My batter heaps ran together but were still defined rather than being one big sheet biscuit. Again, quite tasty, but again I used the cassava instead of coconut flour. Baking is a very precise art. Perhaps just the difference of that flour was what kept my biscuits from being puffed and fluffy.
Batch #3 – gave in and bought the coconut flour
Determined to make this recipe work by simply actually following the recipe this time, I headed to my store and bought the coconut flour. Batch #3 was greatly improved in height AND the taste was a little sweeter due to the coconut flour (cassava is rather bland).
My husband liked all three batches (never met a biscuit he didn’t like), but he compared this one to a macaroon in flavor due to the added coconut. He still thinks the big flat sheet biscuit would have been great cut into squares and then two stacked with an egg in between. Might have to go back to that one at sometime.
The point? – learn from your mistakes in the kitchen!
If you’re baking in particular, try to stick to the recipe 100%. Recipe testers do a LOT of recipe testing, trying to come up with the perfect amount of each ingredient for taste, texture, and form. Substituting ingredients simply won’t always get the same result…much more of a science equation that must be correct.
If you’re cooking, experiment away. And even if you consider something a failure, stop and think how it could be better…and try something different the next time. Happy cooking experiments!
Want to see other ways I’ve failed in the kitchen? (yes, I’m human!) This one was a doozy!
