Rant: I spent 2 years creaming butter and sugar wrong because I watched the wrong tutorial

My cookies always came out flat until a pastry chef at a farmers market in Austin told me I was over-creaming by like 3 minutes and now they actually hold their shape - has anyone else had a basic technique click way later than it should have?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_robin1mo ago

Oh man, "basic technique click way later than it should have" hits hard. I feel like that's the story of most of my adult life honestly. We all get stuck doing things a certain way just because that's how we first learned them, not because it's actually the right way. It reminds me of how people will keep using a dull knife forever because they don't realize how much easier cooking is with a sharp one. You just assume you're doing it right until someone finally shows you different.

riley_coleman81mo ago

The dull knife thing is spot on. I went years using a crappy chef's knife that couldn't cut through a tomato without smooshing it, figured that's just how cooking was. Then I borrowed my buddy's sharpened Wusthof for one meal and nearly cried when I sliced an onion without fighting it. Same with typing - I used two fingers my whole life at like 30 wpm, refused to try proper home row typing because I thought it'd slow me down. Finally forced myself to learn last year and now I'm at 60 wpm and feel like an idiot for waiting so long. It's wild how we'll settle for frustrating results just because the fix feels like too much hassle.