Trying out different recipes can be challenging, and sometimes not yield the results you were looking for. This is why I will be testing out if it’s worth baking your own goods this Thanksgiving. I’ll test this by giving them to unsuspecting friends and asking them which their favorite was. Then, I’ll rank them here and let you all know the results of what real people actually want when it comes to baked goods!
To put a unique twist on this experiment I decided to give my friends one store bought/premade item, one item that was boxed mix, and one item from scratch. They all told me about things they like so I could pick recipes and pre-made items that they would prefer. I ended up going to Trader Joe’s and picking out their Danish Kringle for the pre-made option, gluten-free brownie mix, and lastly making Simit Gevrek from scratch.
We all tried the Danish Kringle and it was spectacular. It was flaky and thin but had a generous amount of almond paste in between layers. This immediately made me worried because of my limited baking ability and how good this was. All of us raved about the Kringle and were pleasantly surprised; most had not tried this before. Would I be able to beat the man (or more like the Joe)?
The boxed gluten-free brownies have been a staple for a long time for gluten intolerants and tolerants alike. I knew that these would be a good contender against everything on the last because they are a classic. A little trick I used in making these brownies richer was using olive oil instead of general vegetable oil. These were very good as well and were baked perfectly, slightly crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside.
Lastly, I decided to make this recipe because of one of my friends who is from Europe and has had Simit Gevrek there. I have some experience in baking with my family, but doing it on my own is a different story, so I enlisted some help for twisting the Gevrek correctly and we did pretty well. This delicacy is a ring that has sesame seeds and is twisted into a loop that you bake in the oven. You also have to put molasses and water onto the top of each loop in order to make the outside more like a pretzel. These tasted like bagels and I was told “the more sesame, the better” so I went a little off the recipe and put sesame oil into the molasses mixture as well.
When it came down to ranking, the brownies came in last. According to my friends, they were good but just not as good as the rest and not that special. Overall, they tasted good but were “just sugar and chocolate” and the other options had more depth to them. The second was the handmade Gevrek; I’m not entirely sure if this was because of the fact that this was savory and the others were sweet. They did not turn out the way that they normally are in Europe and needed to be thinner but, still, they were good. The winner is the Kringle which was probably the best pre-made dessert I could have picked up. On one hand, I am happy because this means it might be better just to pick up desserts to bring to others. On the other hand, I am a little sad; maybe if I made something sweet it could’ve competed. Perhaps next time I should learn how to make Danish Kringle!