Crafting Recipes: Where to Start

By Caroline Stiff

Sugar cookie recipe.

Beginning anything can be intimidating, especially a project that has no guarantee of turning out after the first try. That’s the name of the game when it comes to recipe development.

This field, pursued as a career by some and a hobby by others, requires dedication and follow through to see the end result of a completed recipe.

A Starting Point

An early decision that will affect other aspects of a recipe is choosing ingredients and flavors.

“When you’re first starting to experiment, stick with things that you already know that you like,” said Anna Ramiz, a pastry chef and professional recipe developer. “You’re much more likely to enjoy your final product if it’s flavors or ingredients that you enjoy. Use what you like and what you kind of are more familiar with, because that will also make the recipe experimenting process easier.”

Ramiz writes “gathered at my table,” a blog dedicated to all things food and recipes. Here she shares tips and the recipes that make it though her development process.

Trial and error is a beneficial and normally unavoidable step in the task of experimenting with a unique recipe.

“I don’t know any chef or pastry chef that has sat down, wrote one [a recipe] out, and hit a grand slam their first attempt,” said Shannon Martinez, owner of Frosted Shenanigans, a Cibolo, Texas-based bakery.

It’s an expected step of the process, and one that these bakers embrace to find their next recipes.

Concepts and Challenges

One of the most important tasks to tackle before developing a recipe is “knowing the fundamentals of science. Food science to be exact,” Martinez said.

While cooking is considered more of an art, baking is seen as a science. Each ingredient is placed in a recipe for a specific reason, and it’s essential to understand the basic reasonings before altering or creating a recipe.

“For example,” Ramiz said, “in a base chocolate chip cookie recipe, knowing what it is that the baking soda and the baking powder are doing in the recipe makes it so that you can kind of adjust as needed. Or knowing the eggs are here to provide structure, and they also provide emulsification and fat. So if I’m going to substitute out an egg, I’m going to need to make sure it’s with something that provides structure, and emulsification and fat.”

Here’s a helpful guide on the purposes of various common recipe ingredients.

By learning about the function of each item incorporated into a recipe, Ramiz said it “kind of gives you the freedom to be able to figure out what you want to tweak and how you want to do that.”

However, there are sometimes more challenges behind crafting recipes than just the intimidating nature of food science.

“Inspiration and creativity is a big difficulty,” Ramiz said. “I go through seasons where I’m overflowing with creativity and I have so many different ideas. But there are definitely seasons where I have nothing. I feel very uninspired.”

To combat this, Ramiz suggests taking a break and stepping away before coming back to the recipe again.

Tips

It can be scary to create or test something new, but there are plenty of tips available for novice bakers to help ease the nerves.

“Dare to try new things,” said Tammy McKinney, a home chef and baker living in New Braunfels, Texas, who’s spent a few decades experimenting in the kitchen. McKinney recommends trying various levels of flavors, as well as avoiding “rushing a baking recipe and not letting things rest.”

While writing things down while trying to create a recipe may seem like the thing to do, it may be worth it to simply try experimenting first.

“Sometimes we create something based on senses,” Martinez said. “No measuring, just going with what feels right. Be prepared to take note when it tastes great.”

As an introduction to development and learning about ingredients, not every recipe has to be made from scratch right away.

“I think everyone can be into recipe development in their home. You don’t have to necessarily be a chef or recipe developer to play around,” Ramiz said. “Kind of just be aware of what you’re eating and tasting as you go. Then start small and get bigger and bigger as you go. Don’t be nervous to mess something up, because it’s going to happen.”

Deciding how to write down a recipe can sometimes be tricky, but Martinez’s rule of thumb is title, ingredients, list and preparation method. This article goes into a bit more detail of these general steps.

Recipe

While I haven’t personally created any recipes yet, my great grandmother made a sugar cookie recipe that’s been used in my family for decades.

These cookies can be a crisp, crumbly cutout or take on a pillowy texture depending on how they’re baked. The subtle sugar in this cookie allows for general appeal, regardless of someone’s sugar level preferences.

Sugar cookies made from Grandma Bette’s sugar cookie recipe.

Grandma Bette’s Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup neutral oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Parchment paper (for baking)

Instructions for dough:

1. In a bowl, cream together the sugars and butter.
2. Add in the oil, eggs, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
3. Into a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the flour mixture is combined.
5. Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least an hour.

Instructions to bake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Once the cookie dough is removed from the fridge, it can be rolled out for cookie cutters, or rolled into balls and flattered with the bottom of a glass.
3. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake for 10–12 minutes, then let rest for 5 minutes before enjoying.