I was shocked to discover how easy it is to make foccacia. It is so expensive to buy a little square, that I guess I had the idea it was somehow fancy. For 1/4 the price, I made a whole pan of it and was amazed at how good it was. You mean, THAT'S IT? It's THAT EASY? Why haven't I been making it for years?

I make these really good yeast rolls. Slightly crunchy on the outside and really soft and yeasty on the inside. People always think they are store bought.

This accomplishment is particularly exceptional for me because I'm not a very good baker.

onetime i prepared sushi, it actually came out pretty good for the first time. for some reason its never been as good subsequent times, maybe because there was no expectation that first time.

I was somehow passed over by Girl Scouts last year, so I made my own Samoas. They were definitely waaaaaaaay better than the boxed kind, but super labor intensive and messy. I would have shown them off to everyone... had I wanted to share! haha :)

Definitely baking proper French baguettes. I was initially proud of pizza dough, but the baguettes are definitely it. It takes forever, requires buying special flour online, but is super worth it.

I think the homemade Samoas / Caramel Deelights were one of my favorites, but most of A Year From Scratch has been very rewarding to do (at least my half, though I know Ben has enjoyed his half as well).

Ha! I didn't see before posting that kmbieker and I have the same favorite culinary achievement.

Like adamwa I'm really proud of the first time I sushi. I was expecting my the rolls to fall apart and it to be a mess but it was so tidy and pretty!
I'm also really proud of making pasta. I don't have a pasta roller so it requires a little more love haha

Years ago, before I started cooking, I got it into my head that I wanted to make bread. My mom and all her friends told me not to be discouraged when it didn't turn out becuase it never turns out the first time. Well I, of course, decided that was a challenge. I made it. It was fine. I've never made it since.

More recently, I was very proud of making ravioli stuffed with butternut squash. I have a cooking bucket list!

my croissants http://larecetadelafelicidad.blogspot.com/2009/01/croissants-de-pierre-herm-bueno-ahora.html and my imprisioned apples http://larecetadelafelicidad.blogspot.com/2011/03/manzanas-asadas-rellenas.html , because people won't believe I made them and are really surprised by them! And now I want to try your marshmallow recipe :) Thank you

I got fed up with how expensive pita bread was at our local grocery store, so I decided I wanted to make it myself. It turned out great, and it was 100 times better than the grocery store. I was really surprised how easy it was, too.

Pulling off jam and goat cheese successfully made me feel very accomplished! :)

Jam: http://theyearinfood.com/2010/09/after-picking-blackberries-bare-armed.html

Goat cheese: http://theyearinfood.com/2010/03/homemade-goat-cheese-what.html

I made pad thai and it was awesome!

I am also really proud of my sushi - even more when I make cute bento boxes but I don't do it that often.

On more everyday terms I am just proud I manage to make dinner about 5 nights a week and 90% of the food I serve my family is made from scratch. It's definitely not easy so I'm kind of proud of it. I also make bread bi-weekly and try to keep a sweet baked good in the house for the hubs to snack on.

Oh - I also make Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes from http://smittenkitchen.com/ exceptionally well for friends birthdays and family holidays. Even after I shared the recipe people still request I make them.

the first time I made homemade mozzarella... I felt a bit like a mad scientist making curd, mixing odd substances, taking temperatures. It came out great, and now it's often requested by guests! Go me!

What I'm proudest of: good crackly-crusted bread.

What got the biggest reaction from other people: marshmallows or apple pie

I've been baking bread since I was around 10 (my mom never baked bread, but one day I got it in my head and made my first loaf--been doing it ever since). The two that are my proudest accomplishments have been the first time I made ciabatta and panettone. Both take a fair amount of time, but are not as hard as I would have thought, and are well worth the results.

I have a major sweet tooth. And, I'm not much of a baker. But, when I saw this recipe for Cake Pops on the kitchn (http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/how-to-make-cake-pops-078637), I HAD to have a vegan version. So, I tweaked a bit, took inspiration from some existing cake recipes and made my own vegan cake pops!

Cinnamon rolls this past Christmas morning. In my dad's words, "they tasted so real!"

I think my biggest achievement has been making salted caramels - I thought it would be really difficult getting the candy to the perfect temperature. They were so delicious - think I should make some again soon!

gnocchi! and they were so good.

I've recently become obsessed with making banana bread. My grandma always buys loaves when she makes the trek to the market and serves it with tea. She's one of those grandmas who makes almost every baked good from scratch, so considering that she only buys it I've only ever really known banana bread to be a store-bought thing.

I don't like eating bananas when they're too ripe (I like them when they're almost a bit green) so once they get spotty and brown they go into the freezer. I made a loaf yesterday, had two slices with butter for breakfast and felt like a champion. Looks and tastes just like the stuff from the market!

Indian Vadai, when I pulled those off the first time I was thrilled

I'm so proud of my homemade sourdough. Yes it does take a week to get the starter just right, but its worth it in the end! I give loaves out to friends and they really appreciate the effort, although it is really simple!

Lasagna totally from scratch: homemade ricotta (so easy and more cost-effective than store-bought), tomato sauce (hey, I'm not bragging here, but it was a homemade element), and homemade spinach noodles! So satisfying to start with a pile of ingredients and end up with lasagna!!

BBQ Pork Steamed Buns. They turned out really great. & I've made then a few times since, but it does take awhile.

I think my husbands would be when he first made corn tortillas. They are so worth the extra effort.

I made Spanish churros on the weekend and I was pretty proud of that! I never thought it would be that easy!
More Than Just Waffles: Churros Con Chocolate Recipe

Yum!

Anything requiring the use of yeast - specifically cinnamon and dinner rolls. Yeast scares me - getting the temperature just right and feeding it (when the recipe requires) make me worried that getting it wrong at this point will make the subsequent hours worthless - not to mention ruin ingredients. But offering up a pan of glazed cinnamon rolls makes me feel like a goddess - and hot buttered rolls make guests feel like you're glad they came. A friend once said to me while reaching for a second roll, "If you weren't such a good friend I'd hate you a little bit."

I'd say my proudest cooking DIY was homemade whole wheat bread (no breadmaker). It was *perfect* and probably the best whole wheat bread I've ever had.

Another proud cooking DIY moment was the first time I ever cooked a turkey for Yule. It was amazing and everyone had seconds (or thirds or fourths!) because it was cooked to perfection. I used a clay baker and cooked a 12lb bird in 3 hours. Not bad for my very first time cooking a turkey! ;-)

Making my own wedding cake, for sure!

Admittedly part disgusting, part amazing were these "guy home alone" creations I concocted one evening: bacon wrapped hot dogs in maple bar donut buns. I never made it again.

I'm setting out to case my own sausages, which should eclipse the above mentioned accomplishment.

Peppermint patties! (from the recipe on the Kitchn!)

The pumpkin no-knead cinnamon rolls I made last fall and the homemade english muffins I made last spring. I was so proud of myself and my hubby even raved about it to our food and cooking loving family and friends.

definitely bacon. home-cured maplewood smoked bacon was the big winner for us.

Gefilte fish! I don't buy the fish alive and keep them in the tub, but I do filet, debone, and grind the fish myself. Let me tell you, homemade is DELISH! My family would walk out on me if I ever tried to serve jarred or frozen gefilte fish again.

Chicken Tikka Masala. I love it so much from Indian restaurants that I was determined to figure out how to make it at home. It is time consuming to make but soooo worth it.

good old granola - easy as can be, and delicious! I also love the fact that I get to control how much sugar, salt, and oil I put in. Each batch is different, but oh-so-delicious. Breakfast = cheap, easy, and there's variety, too! I switch up the dried fruits, nuts and seeds. Add in shredded coconut and you get countless varieties. I am partial to organic large flakes of raw oats, other than that I just like to have fun with it!

Sushi sounds fun, I'll try that next!

I made these chocolate stuffed brioche rolls for a brunch and was so tickled with how perfectly round (not to mention utterly delicious) they turned out!

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/guest-post/-guest-post-from--085769

Another sushi person- sweet potato tempura sushi... still one of my favorites.

Also, butternut squash Mac and cheese!

Very proud of how far I've come along with my bread-making. I started about a year ago and have had great results, but my oven doesn't get hot enough for it to ever get crispy. :( It's all sourdough though, so it still tastes much better than any other bread I can buy.

The other day I made Indian Puri, and was so happy when they puffed up like they were supposed to! And so easy in the end.

Last year my dad had me make an extra bottle of my teriyaki sauce, whilst watching over my shoulder with a notepad. This is like having Heston Bummenthal ask for your cookie recipe. I almost died of pride :)

Maybe the best, and most difficult, thing I ever made was Culibiac, a kind of salmon wrapped in pastry. It includes crepes, dill and rice all wrapped up in a pastry shell with holes so you can pour in about two sticks of melted butter while it bakes . I found the recipe in the Time-Life Russian cookbook from the 1970's.

It is a French recipe that was made for the Czars and is spectacular and extremely tasty.

The recipe takes two days, because you have to make the crepes and rice the day before. It is expensive and time consuming, but if you want to put on a show for a party I have never seen anything better. It is delicious.

The real irony is that I am allergic to salmon so I can only have a small taste.

My proudest moment in the kitchen was when I made a buche de noel for Christmas 2 years ago. It was so much work and almost gave me a heart attack when the cooled sponge cake stuck to my kitchen towel, but the end result was great and everyone raved about it.
Also the first time I made bread. I had so much fun kneading it that even though I have a Kitchen Aid, I've been kneading my own bread ever since.

Making homemade caramel for caramel apples last fall. Also more recently, we made homemade chocolate peanut butter cups, they tasted delicious and looked beautiful:

http://domesticobservances.blogspot.com/2011/02/homemade-peanut-butter-cups.html

Next month, I'm planning on trying Cadbury creme eggs.

My proudest culinary moment was cheese cake from a toaster over when I lived overseas and was without an oven. I couldn't believe it actually worked.

I made bagels a couple weeks ago, and a real-live New York-born coworker said they were legit. This weekend I made the best pizza dough I have ever made, and my first batch of sour-dough starter is sitting in the fridge (I am planning on making my first loaf this week).
http://shamazon.wordpress.com/

Hmm... probably making risotto for the first time. I thought it would be insanely difficult and was convinced it would end in disaster but nope, perfect!

This might not be in the spirit of the question, but I've never felt more accomplished than when powered by "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day." As a famously horrible baker, the ability to actually turn out loaves of better-than-decent yeast bread is a _homemaking miracle_. Even the bad loaves (dough too old/too wet, forgot to slash, burnt to the pan) are good. And the recipes aren't as picky as the authors make them out to be - I've learned I can throw a cup of corn meal and another of whole wheat into any recipe and get away with it.

For me it's a tie between cannoli (it was a true achievement, but something that I doubt I'll do again soon since we have 2 very good Italian bakeries nearby) and homemade pasta (which I certainly will do again because it is high-yield and low-difficulty).

I tried sushi once but wasn't impressed with my results-- but the comments on here have inspired me to try again. This is a fun thread!

I made chimichangas last week. Homade tortillas, slow cooked beef, very yummy!

I make yogurt once or twice a week, too. I also recently started making cultured butter with sea salt to tide me over until I can get to France and try some real beurre au sel de mur.

Uh... I meant to say beurre au sel de mer. I don't actually use wall salt...

Chocolate showpiece. As for things I make more often, panettone and fresh pasta. I'm pretty happy with how my naan turns out.

I get the 'you made that?!' reaction from guests when we make homemade bagels (from Smitten Kitchen). It takes some time but is quite easy to achieve amazing results.

homemade reese cups. i've never been prouder.. and i've never eaten so many reese cups in such a short period of time!

Pavlovas!!! I struggled for a good long while to get the meringue right... also icecream and breads :)

Oh! and homemade pasta... which takes me forever to turn out but is worth every second

I've had a few of those over the years. As a kid, it was from baking a soufflé for my mom's birthday -- I didn't realize it's supposed to be tricky. I haven't tried it since.

As a teen, it was making pizza from scratch.

As a grown-up, there was: pasta, the kind you need a machine to make; a Danish braid pastry for Christmas; and a roast chicken dinner for my boyfriend, because I'm vegetarian and couldn't taste any of it to make sure it was good.

I've been perfecting french macarons lately. They are so finicky!

Cream cheese banana cinammon rolls. Gets a wow every time. I want every single recipe everyone has bragged about! My goal this year is to collect and perfect a collection of organic sauces.

Like Rachael above, my proudest moment came when perfecting a recipe for salted caramels, using raw honey instead of corn syrup. I brought them to work and a co-worker commented, while her mouth was full, that "this shit's gonna get you married." :0)

I've been making my own kefir for the last 8 months or so from raw goat milk. Now i can never go back to the commercial stuff again! I also make fromage blanc, and just made my second batch of sauerkraut :)

katibop!! love your co-workers comment!!!!

and... i still want everyone's recipes!! they all sound so gooooddd!

Homemade marshmallows in 4 flavors: vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin and rootbeer (my fave) and last week I made the homemade Pop Tarts featured here. Rave reviews!

yum! My favorites are foccacia bread, homemade pasta and maple granola. I love to bake in the kitchen!

Brioche ! Homemade pierogies, including the dough. King Cake. Cheese souffles. Ice cream. Madeleines. Caneles !

Next up....macarons and bagels.

Tofu.

Hmm, I think my first DIY moment where I was really proud of myself were some delicious homemade flour tortillas.

I am also very proud of my homemade mac and cheese, which I finally managed to make as good as my mom's. I love the reaction of my friends who have never had real mac and cheese!

Hmm, it seems I am not a very adventurous cook... the most exciting thing I've made is probably sweet potato rolls for Thanksgiving last year. Also, lemon curd which subsequently went into homemade lemon curd shortbread sandwiches. Although not a difficult thing to cook, I was particularly proud of our Thanksgiving turkey - first one and it came out PERFECT: golden skin, juicy meat, nothing underdone.

From scratch chocolate cake with caramelized pears and apples on top. It was my first attempt ever at baking anything that wasn't from a box and my family RAVED about that cake and still ask for it even though it was years ago

Sushi for sure. Looks way harder than it is.

I'm also proud of my salsa that tastes better than any Mexican restaurant I've been to in my town (though maybe not as good as the real stuff down south).

I made my own soda's recently, I'm pretty proud of that. Especially since I was a little afraid they might explode on the first go round!

The one that gets the biggest reaction though is when I make tiramisu. It's actually pretty simple to make but it always makes my friends impressed. :)

Real Italian tagliatelle al ragu! I made the pasta and everything.

Biscuits!

http://ironorchids.blogspot.com/2011/01/cheddar-biscuits.html

They are so easy to make and so delicious when they're home-cooked!

oddly enough? A loaf of bread.

Maybe there was something more significant I'm forgetting, but I was really damn proud of that plain loaf of bread. I'd tried it a few times before and failed (problem yeast, bad recipe) and was actually afraid of trying again!

I went to baking school and baked tons of bread and bread products but I was still afraid. But when that one loaf of bread turned out nearly perfect, with no help of proofers or fancy ovens or mixers, I was pretty happy.

Blackberry booze! And jam, pickles, or basically anything that needs to be canned. I felt like a superwoman the first summer I preserved things!

My homemade salsa is awesome. Also anything I bake comes out great and gets gobbled up immediately.

I've made marshmallows and great candy, but my biggest achievement was making the best chocolate cake I've ever had. The icing was amazing. It was 100% scratch. I can cook like there is no tomorrow, but baking is another story, so it was big for me.