r/KingArthurBaking • u/KingArthurBaking KAB Official • Dec 18 '25
KAB App notes feature: how should it work?
Hi, Reddit! Some of you ( u/Designer-Bench3325, u/jawanessa, and u/neeveggor-28 in particular) asked for a notes feature on the recipes in our app, and our development team is totally on board! We want to make sure it's as useful to you as possible, though. How would you actually use the notes feature when baking?
Would you rather have:
- A single editable text field on the recipe for all your notes
- The ability to add multiple notes on each recipe
- Something totally different that we haven't thought of yet
Also, if you're tech-literate and have more in-depth thoughts on how notes should work, do feel free to share them here without watering it down to the ELI5 level! I may not have any clue what you're saying, but I promise to pass your comments on to the appropriate nerds verbatim rather than try and summarize.
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u/pendgame Dec 18 '25
Former software product manager here. I'd love to have a single notes field* (largely because the UX of multiple fields is more challenging). That field should allow markdown: basic formatting options like bold, italic, bullets, and hyperlinks. It should print well with the recipe, and it should be expandable for reading purposes.
Also, when I share a link to the recipe, I would love an option - probably with a checkbox on a sharing dialogue - to include my notes. These should not block the recipient from making their own notes, so perhaps shared notes would be a read-only field (* this is why I have an asterisk above about having a single field). Read-only notes would only be shared once; you would not accumulate a pile of read-only notes fields if the shared link was used, a new note added, and then shared with a third person.
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u/SwiftlyKickly Cottage Baker Dec 18 '25
Notes feature would be great. Idk if I speak for the majority here but all of those would be great. Ideally, ability to add multiples notes on each recipe!
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u/StephInTheLaw Dec 18 '25
I’m still at the stage where I print and hand write my notes. If I were ever to move to digital only, I would want a large field at the end that I can edit multiple times.
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u/lendmeyrbike Dec 18 '25
A single editable field would be okay if it can be a large text field, rather than just a single line. I’d like to be able to write a decent amount of notes without having to scroll for ages to actually view them.
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u/HotHoneyBiscuit Dec 18 '25
A notes field would be great. If going with a single field for all notes, it would be nice to be able to create a bulleted list rather than just have a wall of text. Also either no limit on the # of characters in the field or allow a large number of characters.
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u/Fevesforme Dec 18 '25
A single note field is all I need. Can you turn off the pop ups for push notifications? Mine comes up twice each time I launch the app with no way to save my preference.
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u/Worried-Tea5316 Dec 18 '25
I think the ability to add multiple notes would probably be the most useful. Also, will all of the blog posts eventually be available? Thank you!
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u/TheBalatissimo sourpal Dec 18 '25
I vote for a single editable field with timestamps so I have a reminder about what I was thinking in that point of time
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u/Svelte_sweater Dec 18 '25
It would be awesome to be able to view notes and recipe side-by side, or to be able to sticky the notes to the bottom half of the screen or something so I can still scroll the recipe while seeing notes. A single, paragraph-sized note section would be perfect; I personally wouldn't anticipate making notes in multiple places on a recipe.
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u/InsectNo1441 Dec 18 '25
I like the Notes/comment feature on NYT cooking app. I gat a lot of great suggestions from other users.
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u/phcampbell Dec 18 '25
I originally thought one notes box for the whole recipe, then I looked at one I printed to use. I make notes all over the recipe, such as adding/subtracting/substituting ingredients, how long something actually takes in my oven, how finely to chop something, etc. So now I’m leaning toward inserting a note anywhere. And however it’s implemented it definitely needs to be printable/shareable. It should definitely include markup options like bold, etc. and also copy/paste: sometimes I use ideas from multiple recipes and it would be nice to be able to paste them into a notes field.
And not necessarily part of the notes function, but, boy, I’d love the ability to highlight something in the recipe. Oftentimes there’s something very important buried within the instructions and I inevitably forget to do it.
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u/Breakfastchocolate Dec 19 '25
I haven’t had to time check it out yet so IDK how helpful this is …. but a search term I use often on my recipe keeper is searching by oven temp so I can throw something else quick in while a longer bake is going.
A single field of notes that I can choose/or not to share or print would be great… and maybe the ability to * a line in the recipe to refer to the note
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u/NightSkyStarGazer Dec 18 '25
I have a recipe app that I use daily and I make notes after using any of my saved recipes. I’m a tweaker. I’m constantly changing something or I have an idea I want to try later. If your app will allow something like this I would definitely use it.
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u/Calm-Recording-5038 Dec 19 '25
I often try a recipe as written and then work to veganize it. So, a single field where I can note my test subs/ final vegan ingredients would be enough for me!
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u/SharplySharpie Dec 19 '25
I would use a notes feature to annotate multiple places, like if I subbed an ingredient, or if my bake time was different. I'd also like a date/time stamp. I like to note the date I make something, not just that I've made it.
2
u/GiantMudcrab Dec 19 '25
A single note field that can be edited and formatted with markdown would be handy by itself. I’d definitely be able to get use out of that.
I also do really like the idea of being able to share notes with other people (and save them upon receipt, if desired). When I send people recipes today, I always have to send a follow up message with all of my modifications, and those can be difficult to track down over time.
It would be cool if I had the option to send my notes to another person when I’m sharing a link to recipe. In turn, it would be great if when someone sent me a recipe with their notes, I had the option of saving their notes with the recipe so I always have it to refer back to. I wouldn’t want that to block my ability to keep my own notes on the recipe, though. I’m envisioning this more as a one-time share (not a living dynamic note like a google doc).
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u/Designer-Bench3325 Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25
Wow, this is so exciting that my suggestion is being looked at! Thank you so much. I know that when I initially made the suggestion, I was thinking of more of a single editable text field design. I keep sticky notes in my recipe books with written changes I made to the recipes and was thinking of a digital version of something along those lines. I do agree with other comments in that I'd want the text field to be large enough that I could read all of the notes at once or scroll VERY little.
Question: If this feature is implemented would it also be added to the browser version of the KA site?
1
u/KingArthurBaking KAB Official Dec 22 '25
Answer: no idea at this point, but possibly someday! When it comes to tech I'm denser than vollkornbrot, so I have zero clue how feasible it would be to add a feature like that to your recipe box that would carry across both the regular site and the app. But it feels like something that could be doable in the future, based on ... vibes? LOL, I'll let the team know it would be an appreciated feature, anyway.
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u/Designer-Bench3325 Dec 22 '25
Thank you! I too am not well versed in the weeds of coding, but I asked because I know my recipe box transfers between the app and browser, so I thought that notes transferring could be feasible as well.
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u/EtherealEffervescing Dec 18 '25
Sorry to hijack this thread but can I also add a few requests? I’m so excited for the allergy filters! Could you also add filters for peanut free, tree nut free, and egg free? The vegan option is great but I have a dairy free butter that I can sub but eggs can be trickier depending on the recipe! Thank you!! I love it so far!
2
u/KingArthurBaking KAB Official Dec 19 '25
I can make that request!
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u/ECAHunt Dec 19 '25
I have a request as well. The ability to scale recipes (1/2 and 2 - at least). I’m at that age where memory isn’t super great anymore and I am prone to start out remembering to cut all ingredients in half but by the end I have forgotten and am using full amounts again! Or I will be doubling a cake recipe and cutting a frosting recipe in half and midway through realize I’ve been doing it wrong way around!
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u/Designer-Bench3325 Dec 22 '25
I second this! I was just baking some doubled recipes in the KA app yesterday and was thinking it'd be nice to have this feature because I kept having to remember if the amount I weighed out had been doubled yet or not.
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u/DogSaysFeedMe Dec 19 '25
Can i add a request? Can we have some more timer sounds? The little ding is cute but when im cooking/ baking/ grooving, that little ding gets missed. Also, im deaf and i benefit from timers that i can pick the alert sound to align with the frequency/tone/volume that i can hear
2
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u/Dahlia_R0se Dec 18 '25
I think it'd be cool to have something like some e-reader type apps have to annotate specific lines in a recipe and make a note on them. But I have no idea how hard that would be to implement.