Let’s face it we all have done it. We’ve made that recipe either from a book or from a friend of a friend or even one we created ourselves and it just doesn’t work out as planned.

Maybe it was because we lost our concentration, the environment, the products. Sometimes we just read it wrong (because you know sometimes, you just don’t put our glasses on) or the notes we have are hard to read.

No matter the reason – the reality is there are a few givens when trying new recipes:

• Expect to have to make it several times
• Never plan to use it for a party or unsuspecting guests unless you’ve pre-warned them
• Take notes as you go, especially when it comes out of the oven and when you taste it. Don’t try to rely on memory
• And ultimately, don’t take it so hard. For most of us this is just an opportunity for laxation or feeding the people we love their expect us to nail it right every time if we make it too hard on ourselves we lose the fun and passion in the process.

Tonight I had one of mine with an attempt at a chocolate chip version of Irish soda bread. It ended up under cooked, dense and tasting at flour still. A great reminder for me to use my thermometer even with breads again😛). Yeah trying to cover it up with cherry jam didn’t help.

But the outer sides were crunchy and sweet where I wanted it to be. So just means I keep retooling it.