What's the one thing you just can't cook/bake...

[Jenny]

Try adding gluten.

I used to make pizza dough for a living, from a multi-award winning recipe, and the chef told me that the key to good pizza dough is using high-gluten flour.

I don't know if it's high gluten, but based on Jamie Oliver's recipe, we use Italian pizza flour labelled Tipo 00 - it's so light the dough almost rises too much! We're trying to figure out how to do a thin crust, so suggestions welcome.

[TheGirlCanSkate]

Japfan - A friend told me a secret about crepes - you need TWO pans going. Then when one is done - instead of trying to turn or flip it, you just loosen an edge a little and hold the skillet upside down and the crepe into the other heated skillet. Both need to be non stick skillets. The whole process goes faster too.

Aunt Jemima - I love the mix too but I use the one where you add the egg and oil - I suspect she uses more of a cake flour because nothing comes close to being as light and delicious while still tasting like a pancake.

[Badams]

I simply cannot make good chocolate chip cookies.

Me either! Mine come out TERRIBLE!!! Flat, burned, hard as rocks...It's embarrassing.

[skatemommy]

omelettes - they don't compare to the guy in the hotel restaurant with the funny hat, expensive pan, and 400 ingredients to chose from. Frankly, if I were wealthy I would hire him and a chaffeur!

[Impromptu]

Chocolate chip cookies - to keep them from going too flat, put the dough in the fridge for a while before you put it on the cookie sheet; don't put them on a hot cookie sheet from the oven; also I subsitute about a 1/4 cup of sour cream for 1/4 of the butter, which also keeps them fluffier and softer.

Pie crust - I've only done a homemade pie crust a couple of times, but making sure that the water you add to the recipe is really really cold (in fact, I just put water and ice cubes into one bowl, and then take the tablespoons of water out of that) is what is supposed to help. But I also cheat and roll the dough out on a piece of plastic wrap (I guess a silicon cutting board would work too), and then just flip it into the pie pan, and then peel off the plastic.

[DarrellH]

meringue. i have the worst time with them.

[PDilemma]

omelettes - they don't compare to the guy in the hotel restaurant with the funny hat, expensive pan, and 400 ingredients to chose from. Frankly, if I were wealthy I would hire him and a chaffeur!

That's the one thing I can't do. My dream is for there to be an omelet station with a chef in my kitchen. But it seems like that would be costly. Particularly since we don't want omelets every day.

My grandma constantly repeated to all of us that while you can toss a dash of this and a bit of that and scoop of something into cooking, the rule of baking is to be exact with every ingredient. Make sure you have measured it carefully, level off the dry ingredients, etc... And if you are having trouble with yeast breads or rolls, be sure you check to see that your yeast is active first.

[duane]

Fried chicken. I recently bought a deep-fryer and had my best-ever result, but still not totally right.

[znachki]

Not a specific item, but whenever there is whipping cream involved, I have to stop and remind myself several times that 1/2 pint = 1 cup. I have screwed up more recipies by dumping in a pint box. And I used to cook for a living! (btw that's not the reason I don't any more )

[Latte]

fudge. I have tried several recipes and it just won't get hard. I am cursed with fudge.

[Sparks]

The secret to a good omelett is to heat the non-stick pan, spray it, lower the heat, add egg mixture, and keep shaking it. I like to use a bit very cold water and no milk.

[MacMadame]

Me either! Mine come out TERRIBLE!!! Flat, burned, hard as rocks...It's embarrassing.

Some of that sounds like over-cooking. Over-cooking cookies is a common problem. They need to look a little undone when you take them out of the oven, but not too undone.

[skategal]

Lemon cheesecake squares were my worst disaster...couldn't get the lemon to firm up on top of the cheesecake mixture.

I also am not good at pancakes....they stick to the pan or tear apart. My mom tells me to use more oil in the frying pan.

I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie (you have to watch them like a hawk or they will burn) and apricot/raisin cake.

[Sparks]

Hot pan, cool oil = no stick.

[Wiery]

Bread; I just cannot seem to knead it correctly; it's always sticky and gummy and ends up everywhere but the bread pan.

[Rob]

Gravy -- either too thin, too gloppy, too salty or tasteless no matter what I do.
Vinaigrette dressing -- if I pour olive oil and vinegar right on my salad, it is just fine, but if I try to make a jar of vinaigrette, it is either too oily or too vinegary no matter what recipe I follow or what ratio I put in.
Eggs over easy - I always break them.

But I can bake without recipes. I just know how the dough/mix should feel. Go figure.

[puglover]

My worst are meringues and yorkshire pudding. Sometimes the yorkshire pudding rises and other times they turn out like hockey pucks. It makes me sad because I grew up having yorkshire pudding every Sunday as both my mother and grandmother were such pros at it. My family is happier when I don't even try because I am always so disappointed when they don't turn out and everyone is trying to make me feel better by making a gallant attempt at eating them.

[nubka]

Like several others, I'm not much of a baker - I cook everything else, but haven't really baked much since cookies and boxed mixes as a child.

One thing I do do well is pie crust - I have any awesome recipe (happy to send Aceon6, just let me know), totally delicious and flaky every time, perfect for fruit pies, savoury tarts, pot pies. But I totally suck at forming the darn thing, and no matter how careful I am, it comes out a big mess. Delicious, but distinctly unattractive. I have tried calling it "rustic" or "free form" but no one's falling for my PR efforts

I'd love to have your pie crust recipe!

[nubka]

Gravy -- either too thin, too gloppy, too salty or tasteless no matter what I do.

Gravy! How could I forget about that? I can make a white flour/meat fat/milk gravy, but when I try to make roast, chicken, or turkey gravy it never works...

[kwanfan1818]

What can I just not bake? EVERYTHING!

Add me to that list.

My little sister, though, would decide at 9:30 at night to bake an apple pie, and within two hours, a delicious pie, for which she hadn't measured a single ingredient carefully, would be on the cooling rack. I'm missing that gene.