Drew Herrema

Digital and Physical Accessibility

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Whipping up a better recipe: Reformating a recipe to make them more accessible.

A close up of the pages of a recipe book

It’s amazing how little changes, can be so impactful, and how things we don’t consider can cause challenges. Changes to these, to make them more accessible usually also benefit everyone. Today’s example is changing the way recipes are formatted.

Most recipes will start with a bulleted list of ingredients with measurements. These are followed by instructions separated into steps made up of paragraphs or sentences depending on the complexity of each step.

The main problem with this format is that as you work through the steps, unless you pre-measure everything out ahead of time, you have to use your working memory to remember multiple ingredients and their corresponding measurements or move back and forth between the ingredients list and the instructions. If you have the working memory, are well-rested, and there aren’t any disruptions this isn’t a big deal. But for a lot of people, this adds a lot of time and cognitive load and time to following a recipe.

Here is a recipe from Simply Delicious for their Easy Healthy Sandwich Bread that I edited to reduce the cognitive load and my it easier for everyone. Go there and check out the original and try making some great bread.

  • The ingredients are separated into groups and labelled with the corresponding step and the result from that step
  • Grams were added to each ingredient as an option. Grams can be easier to work with if you need to modify the recipe
  • A temperature range was added for the warm water for those that want to remove uncertainty
  • Ingredients in the instructions are bold
  • Times and temperatures were underlined
  • TBSP has been changed to uppercase and tps left as lowercase to help in quick differentiation
  • Edits for clarity

Let me know what you think. And what other things can you think of that need to be reworked?

*Has a second measurement later in the recipe

Quick Reference

Bake Time: 30-40 minutes

Oven Temp: 200°C/390°F

Time to Rise: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For Step 1 — Yeast Mixture

  • 235 g (1½ cups) warm water (105 degrees F to 115 degrees F), not hot
  • 10g instant yeast
  • 4g (1 tsp) sugar

For Step 3 — Flour Mixture

  • 260g (2 cups) white flour*
  • 170g (1½ cups) wholewheat flour
  • 43g (½ cup) quick-cooking oats*
  • 30g (3 TBSP) seeds of your choice (pumpkin/flax/chia/sesame/poppy/sunflower)*
  • 6g (1 tsp) salt

For Step 4 — Rough Dough

  • 76g (1/3 cup) butter / olive oil*

For Step 5 — Smooth Dough

  • 60g (1/2 cup) white flour

For the topping

  • 1 egg beaten
  • 10g (1 TBSP) seeds
  • 4g (1 TBSP) oats
  • 5g (2 tsp) melted butter for brushing

Quick Reference

Bake Time: 30-40 minutes

Oven Temp: 200°C/390°F

Time to Rise: 30 minutes

Instructions

Step 1. Combine yeast, warm water and sugar in a bowl/measuring jug and mix well to make Yeast Mixture.

  • 10 g yeast
  • 235g (1/12 cups) warm water
  • 4 g (1 tsp) sugar

Step 2. Set aside Yeast Mixture for 5 minutes until foamy.

Step 3. Combine the flours, oats, seeds and salt, from the Flour Mixture list in a large bowl and mix to make Flour Mixture. This can also be done in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

  • 260g (2 cups) white flour
  • 170g (1½ cups) wholewheat flour
  • 43g (½ cup) quick-cooking oats
  • 30g (3 tbsp) seeds of your choice (pumpkin/flax/chia/sesame/poppy/sunflower)
  • 6g (1 tsp) salt

Step 4. Pour the Yeast Mixture into the Flour Mixture and bring it together into a Rough Dough. Add the butter or oil and knead.

  • 76g (1/3 cup) butter / olive oil.

Step 5. Add the remaining 60g (1/2 cup) white flour as needed to Rough Dough, 15g (a tablespoon) at a time, and knead until the dough is smooth and soft. You might not need all the flour. It should be slightly tacky but not overly sticky.

Step 6. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and allow to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Step 7. Transfer the dough to a loaf pan and cover it again. Allow it to rise for 30 minutes in the pan while you preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F.

Step 8. Near the end of the rise, brush the top of the loaf with a beaten egg then sprinkle on some extra seeds and oats.

  • 1 egg beaten
  • 10g (1 TBSP) seeds
  • 4g (1 TBSP) oats
  • 5g (2 tsp) melted butter for brushing

Step 9. Place in the oven and bake for 30–40 minutes or until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Step 10. Remove from the oven, brush with melted butter and allow to cool completely before slicing.