how to develop recipes pt.1
or at least how I do it.
The other day I did a little IG Q&A, and to my surprise most of the questions were about the realm of recipe development. Which I guess makes sense since for the past 3 months I’ve been non-stop talking about my switch to being a full-time developer. So, I decided it would be best to make a whole post answering these questions. I’m gonna break it up into two parts. This first one will answer the questions y’all asked and then next week I’ll be doing a deeper dive and walk through of how I personally go about developing recipes.
This is a post that I’ve been meaning to write for a while- but I was never really sure how many people were interested in this information. I get it though, there aren’t a ton of resources that teach you how to develop a recipe especially a baked one. In the brief time I was in culinary school there was never a touch on how to develop your own recipes. I did take a Menu Development class but it only touched on how to format a menu and how to compose a balanced menu. Teaching things like, a menu shouldn’t be only chocolate dishes, seasonality, etc- but never teaching us how to develop the recipes for the menu.
This is also all from the perspective of a pastry cook’s journey through developing recipes. I am not a savory girlie, I obviously enjoy eating savory foods, but I’m not really interested in cooking. Recipe development for baking and pastry very different from savory development. I think, personally savory development is easier since that do or die scientific element isn’t looming over it.
How did you get into recipe testing?
I’ve been baking for a long time, since I was really young in the kitchen with my abuela. I would bake a ton in high school, and my parents would literally ground me from using the oven as punishment. I would always be thinking about what I could add to something to make it taste even better. Even if it was just some orange zest to cinnamon bun filling. I think that’s how a lot of us get started. We have recipes we really like and then we start making changes to make them better suited to our personal preferences, it just grows from there.
This inherent desire to make things better and add even more flavor to baked goods carried with me as I eventually entered the culinary work force. In 2018 I made my way to San Francisco and was working at Mr.Holmes Bakehouse. Every day they’d have a “Chef’s choice” donut, which normally was the leftover cruffin filling from the day before or something the cook on bake shift prepped with dead stock ingredients on the shelves or in the freezers. I worked the bake shift for a couple months making some really crazy borderline fucked up shit- jalapeno lime aid curd, brown butter cornflake cookie custard, mandarin elderflower jam, to root beer curd made with flat root beer. One day the owner took a real notice to everything I was making and offered me a position to put together all of the on the menu donut + cruffin fillings as well as work on other seasonal menu items. And that was my big break into actually getting paid for recipe development. At the end of 2019, I moved to LA with MH to kinda expand the title. A few months later, I was laid off. Which is how I found my way to cake. It was a means to survive. But, everything I learned about flavor and about developing came with me to create cakes that I actually wanted to eat.
What are you most excited about as you transition from cakes to recipe development?
I’m most excited to be doing my own thing in my own way. With cake menus I was constantly in this anxious state of like “will people like this? will it sell?”. Obviously the “will people like/respond to this in a positive way” is still there. But, I’m more so focused on making foods I like and that I want to eat and sharing those. If you like it you like it, if you don’t just keep scrolling ya know. I’m also excited for people to have my recipes to use them and make them their own. I want to be a source of inspiration and help people break out of this sort of idea that you have to ask permission to be creative. Sure you can make a recipe as is and its something really solid but I think of them as starting points rather than finish lines. I want more people to share this mentality.
Where did you learn recipe development?
Mostly, I am self taught. But, through working in kitchens and being a little sponge. I learned a lot just by watching the people around me. If i saw chef working on something new- I’d go ask questions or set up my station to be close to where they were working so i could watch what was going on and learn from that. On the self taught front, there was a lot of reading and research. Pure just trial and error.
Is there a golden ratio to follow when testing ratios? Like to keep thing stable
There’s not just one, there’s many. The ratio for cake is different from the ratio for cookies or scones. Even different types of cake have different ratios. Baking is all ratios/percentages. These ratios are still just starting points- not finish lines. Part of the testing process is sometimes seeing how far you can push a certain ingredient in the ratio until it’s perfect or it goes too far. I’ll get all into this in the post next week when I dive into how I develop recipes!
How many times does it take you to work on a recipe until you have the one?
It really depends, it can be as few as 2 rounds of testing + tweaking to 15? 30? I’ve seen people who will test something 100+ times. Twelve is where I fully give up-I either scrap the whole idea or look at the best version I had and go back to that for maybe 3 more tests to see if I can get it right. But, also maybe it’s something I just need to step away from for a couple of months and circle back to when the time is right.
How do you keep the ingredient costs down from multiple test batches?
LMFAO. This is expensive work especially when there are instances you might be testing something 12 times. But, for the most part as I’m working to get ratios + structure/texture right I’ll use more affordable products. I’m not testing with Valrhona or Plugra when I’m working on something new. Once I’ve got something I’m happy with I’ll move in with the higher quality ingredients that just take it over the edge and verify they work in this application.
What’s the best way in your opinion to test recipes?
Slowly. I’ve been working on a new chocolate cake recipe for months now. It’s a little snacking cake, nothing super flashy. It’s gonna be something that needs to shine on its own. But, I don’t really loooove chocolate. I mean, I do, but I only enjoy in a very specific way and its got be specific chocolates, so it’s rarely my first choice. I really only crave it on my period, so I’ll test the next iteration of this cake when it lines up with my cycle because that’s when I know I’ll actually want to eat it. When you’re testing over and over, you’re also tasting… over and over. It’s so easy for your palette to get fatigued and not be able to discern if you enjoy this or not. Sometimes though I don’t have the luxury to test at my own pace. Working with brands you have shorter turn arounds and deadlines. I was working on an apple cider donut for Graza and last week alone I tested it 9 times. I made so many donuts I swore I never wanted to see a donut again!!
How do you test variations without making big batches of the same item?
It’s really hard to test small batches so I usually stick to the “standard” batch size for common baked goods. I usually scale the test recipe to work around using 1-2 whole large eggs and work from there. If I need the final recipe to have more batter/dough I’ll use my recipe template to scale it up or down to make sure everything works at scale. But, you can’t really test a single cookie and have the recipe work the same when you scale it up to a 12 batch. For something like cookies though that’s fine, because testing isn’t just the ingredients, its also figuring the best time and temp to bake at. So I can bake some of the dough at 350F for 15 minutes or some for 12 minutes at 365, seeing how that affects texture.
How do you know when you have made a good recipe? Like “Yes, this is the one!!”
I go into a recipe with a certain set of criteria I want it hit. For example, my vanilla chiffon recipe, I wanted a chiffon style cake that was light and airy, but sturdy enough to hold up to the weight of cake fillings, not too sweet, with strong vanilla flavor. Once the cake hit each of the markers and made me smile when I ate it- I knew I had what I wanted.
Where do you start if you’re trying to recreate a taste you’re inspired by?
If I’m inspired by a specific flavor I usually try to see how I can work it into one of my pre-existing recipes. There’s really no need to start from absolute zero anytime you want to make something new. In the past two years I’ve been put on to the flavor of peach leaves and I’m obsessed. When stone fruit season rolls around I’m eagerly picking the leaves at my parents house to work with. I’ve infused the leaves into pastry cream, ice cream, and chiffon. There’s a difference between developing flavor and a whole ass recipe. Flavor is much easier to execute, especially when you’ve worked on having very solid base recipes
Where does your income come from as a recipe developer?
Right now, most of my income comes from branded collaborations- which is proving to be the most lucrative source of income. On average I’m getting paid anywhere from $450-$2500 per recipe, at it depends on what my working relationship with the brand is as well as what they’re looking for. I think it’s very important to be transparent about that. Google will tell ya most people charge $200 for a recipe. That’s no where near enough considering how many ingredients + time go into the testing process. These sponsorships are what help me provide more free recipes for y’all.
I also make some money from paid subscribers to the newsletter. I send out a decent amount of free recipes. But, paid subscribers have access to more recipes + a group chat hosted on Geneva. The way I decide what’s put out for free vs behind the pay way comes down to the amount of times something was tested and worked on before achieving perfection.
What do you do with all the test bakes?
Mostly I just give them away to friends, or my neighbors, sometimes to a customer picking up a cake. Anything to get rid of it all. Almost every iteration of a recipe is edible- just not perfect. So I’m like “yeah heres some donuts, but they’re not perfect so if you hate them it’s okay…just don’t hold that as a piece of my work, okay?!!”
Do you have a book/would you ever write a book?
I do not have a book. There was a time a few months ago where I was gungho about writing a book. AND I AM WORKING ON A PROPOSAL, I PROMISE MAGGIE!! So, it’s obviously something I have an interest in it. Truthfully though, the more I sit with it- I think I prefer posting recipes here/on the internet. I think a a lot of people want a cookbook out of someone because they find it to be more credible, as if there’s never a mistake in a book. It’ll come eventually, in time. But, you know the recipes I share here are great- even if they aren’t in a book (-;
Thanks for sharing!
I would love to work with you/under you to learn recipe development! If you're ever looking for an assistant, let us know!