The term ‘master recipe’ can be very misleading. Most people assume it means that you have to be a master level cook to make it successfully, when the opposite is true. Master recipes are the first recipes beginner cooks should learn when first starting out. They can be as simple as knowing what ratio to combine sugar and cinnamon to make a master breakfast spice mix, or as complicated as master yeast bread or master egg pasta. Neither of which is hard, by the way.
I’m frequently asked what a master recipe is. Quite simply, a master recipe is a basic recipe that can used as is or easily be altered or bumped up to make something more. I have 4 master recipes that I use almost everyday, though no one would ever know it if I didn’t tell them. Master recipes are versatile and easy to use, and can often be learned by heart so they don’t need to be looked up every single time you use them.
A good example of a master recipe is the master baking powder biscuits recipe in this article. I use this same recipe as a base to make both breakfast and garlic dinner biscuits, as well as banana scones, blueberry muffins, pancakes, 5-minute pizza crust, and much, much more. A master recipe is nothing more than a solid foundation for any given culinary experience.
So, how do I turn master biscuits into banana scones? By simply substituting the shorting in the recipe with mashed bananas, adding a teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry mix, and dropping in small heaps directly onto a non-stick cookie sheet. Pancakes are the same recipe, but with 1/4 cup of sugar and water or milk as needed to create the consistency you’re you want. Blueberry muffins? Add 1-cup rinsed blueberries and just don’t fold the dough; instead, drop it by the spoonful into a paper cup lined muffin pan.
Likewise, master bread can be turned into cinnamon bread by increasing the sugar to 1/3 cup, adding a tablespoon of ground cinnamon to the dry mix, and then sprinkling breakfast spice over the dough after you’ve rolled it out, but before you roll it up into a loaf. You can substitute 4 of the 6 cups of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour to make wheat bread, or 1 cup for flax seed meal to make flax bread. If you’re feeling adventurous you can start to mix and match those suggestions to come up with something all your own!
More from Candes:
4 Cooking Techniques That Will Save You Money
3 Easy Toppings for Pasta
How to Roast and Prepare Pecans