5 Tips About Baking: Make these Baking Recipes and Learn
If you like baked goods, we are sure you’re intrigued to start baking yourself. But let’s admit it, trying your hand at baking the first few times is almost always a disaster. Baking seems fun and exciting, which it really is, but it is more challenging than most believe. Baking requires a lot of skill, understanding and knowledge of the science that goes behind it.
The different ingredients we use, the temperature we need to maintain, and the various techniques specific to the product you are creating. There is a whole big world of baking, and there is so much to learn there!
Have you heard the phrase that cooking is an art, but baking is a science? Well, it is quite true, even though you will need some technical knowledge for cooking and some artistry when baking. But in true essence, baking is a science that requires precision and accuracy to give your final product the perfect consistency, texture and taste.
If you do not follow the right baking techniques, you might end up with your pie crusts getting tough or your cookies not spreading enough and that’s just not what we want.
Also, we must admit that even talking about all of this is making us crave something warm and sweet – but our taste buds will have to wait a little bit because this whole article will make you crave something. But once you have read this article, you can treat yourself to the best version of your favorite baked item because after reading this article, you turn into somewhat of a baking expert!
Yes, that’s right! Because today we are discussing some exciting baking tips that can help us understand the science behind baking and learn some new and fun baking recipes to build and polish our skills. So without waiting any further, let’s dive right in.
5 Important Baking Tips
1. Be Careful With Measuring
As we told you, precision and accuracy are everything when it comes to baking. You cannot be careless with measuring because the finished product depends significantly on the ratio of the ingredients being used in baking. For example, adding more flour than needed can affect the consistency or adding more sugar than required can completely change the taste. Hence, be careful with measuring.
In the US, we usually use spoons and cups for measurement, which can be helpful but sometimes not very accurate. From the dryness of the measuring cup to the level or sweep on top of the spoon is not always very precise. That is why the rest of the world relies on weighing their ingredients, which we also believe is the more accurate method. Hence, if you can, it’s best to invest in a weighing scale and measure your ingredients with that.
2. Use Room Temperature for Ingredients
In most households, ingredients like eggs and butter are always found in the refrigerator, so it’s very common to take these ingredients right out of the dish and add them to your recipe. While this may seem common and normal to do, it might be the one little thing messing up your entire recipe. This is why most recipes specifically ask for room temperature ingredients – but even if they don’t, unless a recipe particularly mentions cold or warm ingredients, it is always the right thing to do.
As we said, baking is a science, and the science behind using room temperature ingredients is that they emulsify easier than cold ingredients, creating a uniform texture throughout the baked item. For example, it’s impossible to cream cold hard butter to a soft consistency, and similarly, eggs at room temperature always add more volume to the batter.
3. Use a Light Hand When Mixing
If you have been going over arioso baking recipes so far, you must have come across the phrase “do not over-mix the batter”. Well, this is a common instruction for most baking recipes because the mixing method can truly change the entire product’s consistency and overall appearance. Mixing with a hard hand or over-mixing a batter is generally not recommended – and there are two reasons behind it.
One is that mixing a lot encourages gluten development – like it does when we knead bread dough. It activates gluten, which eventually raises the bread and gives it a good chew factor. But that’s not what we need for tender cakes. Secondly, it also affects the texture. For something like brownies, overmixing the batter will incorporate too much air in the brownies, which will affect the final product’s texture. This is why for baking, the best policy is to mix the batter only until all ingredients are uniform – do not over-mix. Didn’t we say baking is a science?
4. Be Vigilant With Substituting Ingredients
For most beginner bakers, most dry ingredients just look the same, but a pro baker knows that even all the different types of flour have specific qualities and cannot replace one another. This is why when a recipe calls for a specific ingredient, and you think it’s unavailable, you cannot substitute it with something you think looks just the same because it won’t perform the same.
For example, if the recipe calls for self-rising flour, it means that it wants the cake to rise in size. But if you substitute it with plain flour, your cake will not rise the same and actually mess up your entire recipe. Similarly, different types of sugar have their own purpose, and salted and unsalted butter is not a good alternative to each other. Therefore, remember if a recipe has mentioned something specifically, there will probably be a good reason for it. So don’t question it, and try to follow the recipe to a T.
5. Read the Recipe Beforehand
And lastly, always read the recipe beforehand and prepare it before stepping into the kitchen. This will allow you ample time to find out if you have all the ingredients and if everything else, such as your baking or mixing devices, are functional or not. Prepare all the ingredients before you begin baking because once you get your hands dirty with the mixture, it becomes a huge trouble to go back and forth with the pantry.
Moreover, a batter half done should not be left aside – it can go bad very quickly and affect your entire recipe. If you release it in the middle of making your batter that you are out of a certain ingredient, all the batter you prepared until now will have to go to waste. Sure, you can refrigerate it, but this technique doesn’t work every time and sometimes may affect how your final product turns out to be.
2 Easy Baking Recipes to Learn
Now that we know some basic tips that can help us go from a beginner baker to a pro, it is time to test our skills and make some easy yet fun baking recipes! So let’s begin baking.
1. Fudgy Brownies
Who doesn’t love brownies? They are sweet, soft and also a quick fix for your sweet cravings.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 100g mixture of milk chocolate chunks, nuts and pretzels
- 150g chopped dark chocolate
- 225g caster sugar
- 170g unsalted butter (and some extra for the tin)
- 30g cocoa powder
- 95g plain flour
Method:
- Step 1: Leave the oven to preheat at 400 Fahrenheit, and in the meantime, take an 8×8 square tin and butter it up. Then, line it with some baking butter paper.
- Step 2: Take a large heatproof bowl and melt the chocolate and butter in it using the microwave at 30 seconds bursts until you can see the mixture is smooth and glossy. Or, if you don’t want to use the microwave, you can also set your bowl on a hot, simmering water pan. Just make sure the water at the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water, so there is no risk of it breaking. Once smoothened out, leave this mixture to cool.
- Step 3: Take another bowl ad to whisk your sugar and eggs together using an electric whisk until you can see the mixture has doubled in volume and you can see a ribbon that holds out for at least 3 seconds when you lift up the beater.
- Step 4: Now take the chocolate mixture and the egg mixture and fold them gently together until they are well combined.
- Step 5: Sift the cocoa powder, a pinch of salt and the flour together. Combine them together and then fold some milk chocolate nuts and pretzels into this mixture – reserve some for the topping. Next, scrape this whole batter into the tin you prepared earlier and scatter it evenly. Lastly, top the mixture with the remaining milk chocolate, nuts and pretzels and place it in the oven.
- Step 6: Make sure to set the tin on the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes. Once you can see a shiny top and a gentle wobble in the middle, leave it all to cool. After which, it’s ready to slice and serve warm!
2. Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Surely baking is not only limited to milk and eggs. If you’re a pro at baking, you know how to work your way with the right alternatives of dairy. And that’s what we are teaching you today. Let’s learn to make vegan peanut butter cookies – perfect for someone with a peanut butter liking and in search of easy vegan recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup creamy and natural peanut butter
- 1/2 soft (not melted)cup of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons water
Method
- Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit and, in the meantime, like a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Step 2: Take a small bowl and combine the flaxseeds with water and put them aside to thicken for at least 5 minutes.
- Step 3: In the meantime, take a separate bowl and combine the dry ingredients: baking soda, baking powder, flour and salt.
- Step 4: Then take a large bowl and combine cane sugar, coconut oil, brown sugar and peanut butter with a few drops of vanilla extract. Then add the flaxseed mixture to this and stir it in well.
- Step 5: Now combine all the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and stir them until they are mixed well. Once done, let the dough chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Step 6: Your cookie dough is now ready. All you need to do no it to take the dough and scoop it out using a 2-inch cookie scoop. Take the scooped dough in your hands to roll into small balls and place each ball on the baking sheet one by one and press them down a little, flattening them slightly. Leave enough space between each flattened cookie ball to allow the cookies to grow in size.
- Step 7: When you take the dough in your hands to roll it into a ball, if you feel the dough is too dry, you can add some water – however, don’t forget the dough is always on the drier side.
- Step 8: Now place the baking tray into the oven and let it bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Once the cookies have grown in size and changed their color, you can take the tray out and let it cook. Wait for 10 minutes, and your cookies are ready to serve warm.
Final Word
Today, we have learned why baking is called a science. Everything from preparing the ingredients to combining them to placing the batter into the oven to timing the oven – everything has a technical logic behind why it is done a certain way. And to be a successful baker, you need to know and understand that logic so you can make the perfect baked products you love to eat. However, you can still add your own touch and taste to your food, so feel free to experiment and you will learn something new!