Baking questions

I don't bake.  At all.  I don't even warm up the pumpkin pie that I buy for Thanksgiving.  So, you get the picture.

However, I am going to attempt brownies or chocolate chip cookies or both for a 4th of July do.

If I use a US recipe with US measurements, are flour and baking powder the same here as in the US?  Should I use a certain flour?  Will the measurements be the same?

If I use a UK recipe, do i measure grams for dry ingredients and weigh grams for things like butter and chocolate?

Any other tips?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, but did I mention that I don't bake?

I prefer using UK recipes when I'm in the UK - just to eliminate any unnecessary ingredient malfunction! Also, I weigh everything. May I recommend Nigel Slater's Very Good Brownies? They are indeed very good.

http://www.food.com/recipe/nigel-slaters-very-good-chocolate-brownies-144713

I make regular old toll house cookies from the recipe on the back of the nestle chip bag.  I use strong flour but use arm & hammer baking soda in the box and they turn out identical to the ones I made in the US. Even burn the same, too.  I am a crappy cook.  Previously I made them a few times with a random container of baking soda I bought at tesco and the cookies were totally flat.  I used arm & hammer, and they were back to normal.  It is entirely possible that it was operator error, because I am a shitty cook.  That's just my experience and not a judgement of uk baking soda.

I weigh out the butter, but have my measuring cups and spoons from the us for everything else.  If I didn't have those, I'd weigh everything.

ETA: I do realize this is the unassimilated way of doing things.  So probably not recommended.

Meh.  I use British recipes for new things, but for my traditional cookies and pies from home I use American recipes. 

I mean, I haven't seen a decent recipe for Shoo-fly pie from the UK so what else am I going to do?  In fact, given that I make "Lehigh Valley" Shoo-Fly pie, (or just Shoo-Fly pie, it should never have a wet bottom! NEVER! and no eggs.) I have rarely seen a decent version of it in the US.  HA! 

I use strong flour, (US flour naturally has more gluten than plain UK flour and strong flour has more gluten in it) and I use cups for everything other than butter.   

Brownies should work fine using a US recipe with UK ingredients. Cookies, however, are a whole other story and I think the general concensus is to use strong (bread) flour instead of plain flour so they don't go flat.

If you never ever bake as you say, my tip would be to buy a brownie mix at the grocery store & go with that! 

Thank you for your suggestions.  I opted for brownies and used a UK recipe like chary suggested and weighed everything.  It was similar to hers but didn't require a mixer which of course I don't have.  The brownies were a hit!    Mrs. Robinson, your suggestion of brownie mix was reasonable, but I guess I should have added that I'm a competent cook so I was comfortable giving a from scratch recipe a try with the extra knowledge I got from you guys.

Thanks again!

Glad your brownies turned out! I used Chary's recommendation for those Nigel Slater brownies and I'll never go back to a mix after making them. They're awesome!

I always use that recipe and everyone loves them! But I'm in the US right now and I tried to make them the other day using my friend's oven. Instead of taking 25-30 minutes to cook, they were burnt after 15 minutes! Total brownie failure! 

But I'm glad yours were a success, gretel44!

Oh my, now I've got a brownie craving.  I think I'll be making these for my barbeque on Saturday.  I may even need to make a test batch, purely for scientific purposes of course. 

I always use that recipe and everyone loves them! But I'm in the US right now and I tried to make them the other day using my friend's oven. Instead of taking 25-30 minutes to cook, they were burnt after 15 minutes! Total brownie failure! 

But I'm glad yours were a success, gretel44!

Uh oh...I haven't tried to make them here yet! 

Thought I'd pitch in on this conversation with my 2 cents (or pence) worth!  I'm a chef and can shed a little light on tips and tricks.  If you're using a specific recipe, it may be a bit tricky to convert it to another system (eg UK to US) because except for teaspoons and tablespoons, pretty much everything else is different in measurement.  You have a US fluid ounce which doesn't equate to UK ounces exactly.  Thus 8 US fl oz is 1 cup, which is slightly less than a UK cup (48mls or so less).  Remember that depending on whether you sift your flour, 500 grams could be a different volume from one day to the next.  Weight will always give you the same amount no matter what.  US measurements of 1 1/2 cup of flour are rough generalisations and can still be off if you scoop the flour with the cup or spoon it in and level it off. 

Baking is a bit of chemistry and you have to get the chemicals (salt, baking soda and/or baking powder) in the right proportions or you won't get a reaction, that is raising effect. 

So, to sum it all up, if you're going to be making a lot of recipes from both countries, invest in two sets of measuring cups from each and a good set of digital kitchen scales. 

I like to experiment with my cooking and baking...always have, always will.....anyway I decided to make a Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.....turned out rather well.....moist and yummy and no added calories as I didn't put frosting on it.........I sometimes use UK recipes but convert everything into a language I can understand.....I am way to old to learn new tricks........