swearswearswear

mardatha

:mad: after reading this thread and recipe lists, I got all keen & started cooking. Made banana bread which tastes nice but is burnt. Also did fruit cobbler which was half raw in the middle, chewy and disgusting.And finally flapjacks which taste ok but you have to eat with a spoon because they fell apart. At my age I should just give up and realize I never could cook and never will :mad::mad::mad:

shelley_crow

mardatha wrote: »

:mad: after reading this thread and recipe lists, I got all keen & started cooking. Made banana bread which tastes nice but is burnt. Also did fruit cobbler which was half raw in the middle, chewy and disgusting.And finally flapjacks which taste ok but you have to eat with a spoon because they fell apart. At my age I should just give up and realize I never could cook and never will :mad::mad::mad:

I can sympathise totally, if you persevere you will get there.

The burnt banana bread was either because you left it in too long or had the oven too hot.

Can't help with the fruit cobbler, sorry.

I inflicted a week of flapjack tries on my family. From what i've made, it sounds like you either didn't use enough fat or used too many oats so it didn't bind together. Also i found leaving in the oven a bit longer helped firm it up a bit.

EDIT: forgot to say don't touch the flapjacks for about an hour after they come out of the oven, if you disturb them while they are cooking they go crumbly.
x

Kaz2904

Aww hun, it'll get better, honest. Next time, the banana bread doesn't need so long. The fruit cobbler may need to go closer to the top of the oven or a higher temp. Flapjacks may need a little more liquid or packing- someone will be able to advise.
Keep trying though.

Sola

How old is your oven? Could there be something wrong with the thermostat?

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Don't give up just practice.Maybe your oven just needs adjusting.I found everything burning on the outside and not cooked on the inside when I changed my oven.I spent a couple of quid on an oven thermometer and my my baking is much better.I know it's frustrating but it'll be worth the bother.

madge7

DONT GIVE UP! what temp did you cook your banana cake on? i cook mine for an hour (its quite a big loaf!) at gas m 4 for about an hour and if it looks cooked on top just put a bit of foil loosely over it. you'll get there, keep practising with easy things!

floyd

Sola wrote: »

How old is your oven? Could there be something wrong with the thermostat?

This is what I suspect. When we moved house I suddenly lost the ability to bake anything. Cakes and muffins would be burnt on top and underdone in the middle, cookies would be annihilated and crumbles wouldn't cook in the middle before the top was charred to sawdust proportions. Bought an oven thermometer and discovered the temp was 2 full gas marks higher than the dial setting :eek:
There could also be hot and cold spots in your oven

Addiscomber

I am 56 and have been cooking since I was about 7. Do you know what? I still burn things occasionally, or else things don't turn out quite as I expected or hoped. Hardly anything is totally inedible and if I want to cook that recipe again I work out what went wrong and adjust. I have never yet made a flapjack that didn't crumble, but I read the other day to make sure that the mix is a minimum of 2cm, spread it right into the corners and firm it down really well. In my opinion most recipes do not provide enough mix to do that for the given size of tin.

liz545

You can at least salvage the flapjacks - crumble it up and sprinkle it on natural yogurt, or mix it into muesli or cereal to make the posh Dorset Cereals/Dorset type muesli, or fold into a basic muffin mix to make tasty breakfast granola muffins! Don't give up - you can cook - as you say, the banana bread and the flapjacks both taste good, which is the crucial bit. It may well be that your oven temp's off, but that's easily fixed. Practice makes perfect! If you want to make something baked that doesn't rely on your oven, how about potato scones? http://www.glasgowguide.co.uk/scottish_recipes_Potato_Scones.htm - they're simple, the ingredients aren't expensive so if you screw up it's not a tradgegy, but most importantly, they're delicious!

belfastgirl23

Just to add as well, were you perhaps trying to do too many things at once? This is a MAJOR failing of mine which is why I asked. Tonight for instance I was making a couscous salad (which involved roasting and steaming veg), ciabatta bread, and boiling off some cannellini beans. I ended up with the beans cooked to mush, the steamed veg a bit too soft and the roast veg very near to burnt. Although the bread turned out beautifully

Might be worth focusing completely on one thing at a time if they're new recipes....and yes I'm telling myself this too...

tylersbabe

Hi

As a learner baker I have similar(ish) issues

1st attempt at banana cake overcooked as i did not know fan ovens need to be at a lower temp:eek:
2nd attempt over cooked because i was not covinced about lower temp and left it in too long:o

Choccie yog cake 1st attempt....nearly set kitchen on fire as I had knocked temp knob too high....cue me wandering round house sniffing thinking "I can smell burning surely it can't be the cake" Opens oven to plumes of smoke :eek:
2nd attempt Yeah a success at last :T

So don't give up we all have to learn

P.S baking banana cake again tomorrow so wish me luck