The Ultimate Baking Guide: 5 Steps to Becoming a Better Baker | Wednesday’s In the Know!
With the holidays quickly approaching, you wouldn’t believe the number of questions I get when it comes to baking. To help answer all your sweet (pun intended) culinary questions, I have turned to The Food Network Kitchens for their complete and thorough rundown! With these simple steps, you will be baking like a champ and the talk of your holiday potluck.
Measure Flour the Right Way:
Flour is tricky – pack it too tightly into a measuring cup, and you might end up with more than a recipe intended. The most-accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it in grams — but not all recipes offer ingredients’ optimal weights (or were even developed with weight in mind).
In our Food Network Kitchen, we aerate the flour a little with a fork, spoon it into a measuring cup, and then level it off — many other pros follow this procedure, too. But other recipe writers might prefer a different method, which could alter how you approach their recipes. In cookbooks and magazines, look for advice in the recipe headers, cook’s notes, or index. But when in doubt, go with our method and adjust the amount next time, if necessary. – The Food Network Kitchens
Make Friends with Parchment:
Parchment helps food lift easily off baking sheets and pans, but it’s handy in other ways, too. For instance, sift dry ingredients onto a piece of parchment, lift up the sides, and use it like a funnel to minimize spills as you’re adding ingredients to a mixing bowl. Or, keep pie dough from sticking to your work surface by rolling it out sandwiched between two pieces of parchment (which also make transporting the dough less cumbersome). – The Food Network Kitchens
Give Eggs Some Space:
It’s frustrating to have to fish eggshells out of a mixing bowl filled with ingredients. Minimize the unwanted crunch by cracking eggs into a separate bowl and then adding them to the mix. This will ensure you never ruin your batter with a bad egg, either. – The Food Network Kitchens
Warm Ingredients to Room Temperature — Fast:
Lots of recipes call for room-temperature eggs or butter, but how many of us always forget to pull them out of the fridge early enough? (Answer: all of us.) A couple of tricks will dispel the problem: Place eggs in a bowl of warm water for about 5 minutes to remove the chill, and cut cold butter into super-thin slices, which will help soften it up much more quickly. – The Food Network Kitchens
Get a Lift with Foil:
Before making brownies or bar cookies, line your baking pan with a piece of foil large enough to hang over at least two sides. Grease the foil, add the batter, and bake as you would normally. When your treat is done and cooled, use the foil overhang as handles to easily lift your goodies out of the pan. – The Food Network Kitchens
For other terrific tips and hundreds of recipes, including tons of baked sweets like my Famous Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Banana Streusel Muffins, Chocolate Pecan Fudge, Brown Sugar Cardamom Cake, and even Espresso Brownies – to name a few – visit my website (thetabletogether.com). While there, consider “subscribing” and I will send a new tip or blog post directly to your inbox every Tuesday and Wednesday morning!
P.S. Make sure you check out my YouTube channel, The Table Together with Tiffany Lewis, solely dedicated to bringing all of these fantastic tips and recipes to life!
Cheers to starting a new tradition around The Table Together!
Sincerely,
Tiffany Lewis
Founder and true believer in the power of bringing people around The Table Together!