The Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips are here and reading this one is completely worth it. It is going to help you in every aspect of baking and give you a more detailed view of every baker’s life
I’ve come across times when my dish turns out to be fab and sometimes the same one a big disaster. This is something that happened initially when I got into baking. I never knew what ingredients really meant or how to play with the oven temperatures or what perfect baking was all about. But NOW… with years and years of practice, I proudly present to you THE PERFECT BAKER that I have turned into. I love playing with ingredients, coming up with my own recipes, sharing them with all my baker buddies and getting more and more into learning the industry and all it has to offer.
In this post, I have brought together 11 baking tips that are very essential in your baking journey. With loads of hard work and dedication to baking here’s my list of tips that would help you create some lovely bakes, basically, it would help you learn and know your mistakes better.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips…
Let get started …
#Oven Temperatures
I’m sure you’ve come across time’s when you feel you’ve done everything right but yet it feels wrong. Sometimes, it’s your oven screwing it all up. Oven temperatures are very, very, very essential when it comes to baking. Each oven is different and so it’s important you learn your oven well and see what suits you best.
It’s best to invest in an OVEN THERMOMETER
Not always does your oven show the right temperature. Some ovens take time to heat up and some heat up too fast. An oven thermometer will show you the right temperature whats present in the oven. This makes sure your bakes are baked to perfection.
It’s essential to CLOSE YOUR OVEN DOOR WELL
When you curious to know whether your bakes are doing well in the oven you tend to open it every time. That is a big problem. Make sure to not open the oven door in the first 20-25 mins of baking a cake cos that’s when the real baking is happening. If you want to check if your bake is baked well. Open the oven door remove the dish from the oven, close the oven door, check the dish outside, if required re put the dish in the oven.
You do not want to check your bakes while the oven door is kept open for a while, this drops the oven temperature. To avoid this scenario you just bring the dish out of the oven and get it checked.
TURN/ROTATE YOUR BAKING TRAY/DISH HALFWAY THROUGH WHILE BAKING
Every oven tends to heat up faster at the back as compared to the front parts of the oven. Have you noticed cookies placed at the behind portion of the tray are darker than the cookies placed in the front of the tray after baking?? Well, that is because the heat at the back of the oven is more as compared to the front.
Here’s why its compulsory to turn or rotate the tray for even baking on both sides. Many recipes ask you to do so, do not ignore it especially if the recipe mentions this step. While turning the oven dish/ tray for even baking do not want to waste time but do it fast as this will affect the oven temperature if you’ve kept the oven open for a long time.
PREHEATING AN OVEN
Temperature and time always affect the taste and texture of your bakes. It is always good to keep the temperature constant while baking. Constant changes in the temperature will change everything about what your baking. Therefore, starting in a cold oven and then temperatures increasing slowly affects your cakes, cupcakes or any bakes.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Weigh your Ingredients
These are one of the most essential things to keep in mind. Some of us like to do things fast and tend to avoid wasting time with weighing ingredients. But guess what, weighing ingredients is not a waste of time but very essential while baking. You will always notice a change in texture and taste if you do not weigh your ingredients. If a recipe calls for cup measurements or gram measurements, go on and do so.
I personally like to have my ingredients weighed in grams since they tend to be very precise. When using cup measurements for weighing flour, powdered sugar or any ingredient in its powdered form make sure to weigh it by spooning it in the cup measurements. Do not push the cup into any powdered ingredient directly as this will let inn more than needed to be weighed that is why we stress on spooning the flour or powdered sugar into the cups
#Baking powder vs Baking Soda
The next tip in the Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
Baking powder and baking soda are leaveners. I’ve come across some people who substitute baking powder with baking soda and vice versa. That is a big big MISTAKE… You cannot substitute baking powder with baking soda or vice versa. They both have different chemical properties. Baking soda also known as sodium bicarbonate is a base. You will normally notice that your recipes which consist of baking soda will also consist of an acid ingredient. Eg: Buttermilk, vinegar, cream of tartar, lemon juice, yogurt, etc.
When you combine a base with an acid a chemical reaction takes place and carbon dioxide is produced. This carbon dioxide is what leads to a rise in your baked product. So you only use baking soda when you have an acid in your recipe
Baking powder is made up of baking soda, cornstarch, and cream of tartar which also means that baking soda all by itself is much stronger than baking powder. Most of the baking powders we get today is double-acting which means the first leavening is when the baking powders get combined with the wet ingredients and the second leavening is when the baking powder comes in contact with the heat while baking. So like I said at the beginning both of these have different chemical properties and therefore we cannot substitute them for each other.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Tricks to check if your cake is baked
Everyone rely’s on the toothpick trick where you insert the toothpick in the center of the baked cake to check if done or no. I do not rely on only this. You need to look into all the aspects. Check the color and texture of the cake as well. Touch the top of the cake with your fingers to see if it feels baked or still needs baking.
If the cakes feel slightly bouncy and springs back when pressed lightly on top it is done, if not, it needs more baking. You should get a nice golden light color of top the cakes, not to dark thou. Your oven contains some spots where the heat is more and some spots where the heating is less that is why only checking a cake using the toothpick trick is not advisable. You need to use a combination of tricks to check your bakes.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
# Is all ingredients at room temperature a must??
Majority of the times room temperature ingredients are the best however not always is it important. Some recipes ask you to use cold ingredients. Eg: The use of cold butter while making a pastry dough.
Using room temperature ingredients for a majority of the recipes will allow all the ingredients to combine evenly. Bakes contain some level of fat in it. Cold ingredients like cold eggs can re-harden the fats present in the batter. This will make the batter lumpy or curdled. While beating egg whites for meringues, the whites become more fluffy and light when done with room temperature eggs as compared to cold eggs. This means whatever you do with the egg whites that are beaten well will yield a good rise.
So its just each ingredient that matters and what the recipe tells you to use. It’s a myth that using room temperature ingredients is a must. Check what your recipe has to say to you.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Chill your cookie dough before baking
It’s always good to chill your cookie dough for an hour in the fridge or for 20-25 mins in the freezer. This will always yield perfect cookies each time you bake them
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Line your baking trays before baking
Some bakers like to dust their baking trays & pans with butter & flour before pouring the cake batter for baking. This is done to make sure the cake leaves the pan easily after baking. This method, however, does not work always. The consistency of the cake batters also matter. To avoid all the confusion, its best to line your baking dishes with parchment paper or butter paper before pouring the batter into it.
I like to cut the baking sheets exactly the size of the dish and then pour the batter into it. Following these steps helps to get a perfectly shaped cake that springs out of the dish easily without any hassle.
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Baking pans for cakes
Nowadays, the market has all the possible baking dishes available. Call it silicone, non-stick, etc. But old is gold, nothing can beat the use of traditionally used aluminum pans for baking. They are simply perfect for even baking. They heat up evenly, easy to handle, can be used and stored as required. Make sure to line the baking tray with parchment paper before baking.
Purchase it at: Amazon
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Creaming butter, eggs & sugar together
One of the most common steps in any recipe is beating the butter and sugar together. Some recipes even specify as to how many minutes you should be doing this. Sometimes it’s tempting to stop halfway through and move to the next step but trust me, you want to complete this one to perfection. Beating the butter and sugar together helps you incorporate air into the batter, this is what helps your cakes to get that perfect rise.
When you beat the butter and sugar you will notice that the mixture gets lighter in color and fluffier in feel which means you have incorporated air into the batter. That’s when you can move to the next step. Make sure to use room temperature butter to get this step right
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Folding
Another essential step while baking is to fold the flour and not beat the flour into the batter. Beating it will lead to an over mixed batter. Popularly used is the cut & fold method to fold in the dry ingredients into your cake batter.
In this method, you use a spatula to fold in the flour and keep cutting through and folding again and again till all of it is mixed well. They call it the cut and fold method but all it means is do not stir your mixture vigorously, PUT IN SOME LOVE…
Bakers Top 11 Baking Tips
#Storing
Once you’ve baked your goodies its compulsory you cool them completely before storing them. Its compulsory to wrap baked cakes in some cling wrap to avoid it from turning dry. If you plan to keep the cakes longer its wise to store them in the freezer than fridge as storing them in the fridge would dry the cakes but freezing them would keep it intact. When you want to consume the cake, thaw it for a few hours and then consume it.
So these were a few baking tips that would help you through your baking journey. There many many more but these are some really important one’s
