What Every Baker Needs
Here you’ll find what every baker needs to bake successfully. These tips and tools are beneficial for home bakers.
Every Baker Needs to Pay Attention to Detail
First, attention to detail is a significant part of baking. Missing important steps can negatively impact the texture and taste of baked goods. The quality of what your baking is the first thing that people will notice when you are sharing your desserts. For instance, making whipped cream at home is easy for bakers at all skill levels. However, timing is a key factor in making whipped cream or meringues. Over mixing the whipped cream causes it to curdle. No one enjoys eating chunky whipped cream on top of apple pie! Likewise, if you don’t mix the whipped cream long enough it won’t have that smooth, fluffy texture that makes everything taste better. Instead, you will have watery whipped cream.
How to Avoid Common Baking Issues
To avoid these issues, make sure that your mixer is set to the correct speed. Also, remember to use a timer! Some timers have low sound, which means that when the timer goes off the mixer can drown out the noise. For that reason, your cell phone is the perfect baking timer because you can control how loud you want the volume to be.
To be sure, that a recipe is successful make sure that you use a timer. Naturally, your nose is the first indicator of when something is ready to come out of the oven. Also, keeping an eye on how the texture is developing is another way of knowing if the mixture is fully incorporated. On the other hand, sometimes you get distracted and then you lose track of how much time has passed since you put your pie in the oven. This is not a fun situation to be in because now you must guess how long the pie has been baking. In this situation the pie might burn, or it may be undercooked.
Always use a timer when baking! It makes life so much easier. I use the oven timer or the microwave timer. In addition, if you’re making two different dishes use two timers. I like to do this when I cook dinner and dessert at the same time. It is truly beneficial.
Every Baker Needs Patience
Next, is an important aspect of baking. Specifically, understanding when to cut corners or take shortcuts is extremely important. For example, if you make brownies and add twice the amount of sugar the brownies are going to be hard as a rock. Throwing away all your hard work takes all the fun out of baking. For best results, take the ingredients into consideration. Moreover, if a recipe is too bitter try substituting the chocolate with a slightly sweeter baking chocolate.
Personally, I dislike the taste of 60% baking chocolate in certain recipes. However, some people love the way it compliments other flavors. Avoid compensating for the bitter taste by adding extra sugar. I don’t recommend it because it ruins the texture. Instead use semi-sweet baking chocolate.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to find different kinds of baking chocolate at the grocery store. Without a doubt you’ll find more options of chocolate online. In fact, Guittard and Ghirardelli chocolate are popular brands for baking. In addition, the Pound Plus has dark, 72% dark, and milk chocolate. If you do your grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, try their Pound Plus chocolate. It’s great for baking and makes for a great snack!
Plus, you can always store it in the freezer and save it for later.
The Right Bakeware
Additionally, every baker needs quality bakeware to make their favorite desserts. It’s important to consider the recipes you make the most. For instance, if you enjoy baking bread and muffins on a regular basis it would be ideal to invest in the best bakeware for baking different type of bread as well as, standard and “jumbo” muffin pans. Moreover, there are some details that you should explore before buying baking pans.
Check which temperatures are considered oven safe for the baking pan that you’re interested in. If you plan on baking at high temperatures this is super important!
Learn all about the best baking pans to help you find quality baking pans to store in your kitchen! Also, if you plan to bake a variety of dishes, a bakeware set is a great place to start. Usually these are 10-piece sets with versatile baking pans. Bakeware sets typically include a cookie sheet, muffin pan, loaf pan, cooling rack, and more! These sets are perfect for beginners. Best yet, you don’t have to worry about buying individual baking pans when you buy a bakeware set.
Mixing Bowls
Primarily, every baker needs a set of mixing bowls. Mixing bowls are easy to find at the store. In addition, you can choose from glass, stainless steel, or ceramic mixing bowls. Also, you can buy mixing bowls in a set of three or five. Best yet, some brands sell mixing bowl sets that come with lids. This is helpful if you need to chill dough in the refrigerator. Overall, my favorite mixing bowls are ceramic batter bowls and glass mixing bowls.
Batter bowls are great because of the handle and pouring spout. Plus, using a batter bowl makes it easy to add dry ingredients into the wet ingredient mixture. In addition, glass mixing bowls are easy to clean and last for many years.
Prepare Ingredients
Before you start baking put all the ingredients that you need to use on the counter. This ensures that you won’t forget to add ingredients to the recipe. Furthermore, forgetting to add ingredients to the recipe affects the taste and texture of baked goods. For example, forgetting eggs in a cookie recipe that requires them ruins the texture. Likewise, the cookies will crumble as soon as you pick them up.
In the same way, a baking cart is another great place to store ingredients when you’re baking. Utilizing a baking cart gives you more space for mixing, measuring, and everything in between! Plus, baking carts have wheels so you can easily move it around the kitchen!
There are a variety of colors for baking carts including blue, pink, and painted wooden carts. You can find baking carts at The Container Store or Amazon. Best yet, have some fun and decorate your baking cart with signs and store cookbooks on the shelves. Indeed, there are many ways to customize a baking cart to be more functional.
In the end, these baking basics are what every baker needs to bake efficiently and with confidence.
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