My ultimate goal with this blog might sound obvious, but it is to share my love of baking. I hope that with every recipe I write I can give you the confidence to be able to bake your own delicious creations. It doesn’t have to be difficult or intimidating.
I have made so many mistakes during my years of baking! So many! Here are my top tips for success…
- Fake it until you make it
This has been and always will be my number one baking tip. Confidence. Serve your baking with a smile.
A baking mistake seems so obvious to you, but I promise you, most people won’t notice.
So you think you’ve over baked your blondie. Shhh… Tell no one. All the ingredients you’ve used are delicious, the final product will also be delicious, even if it’s not 100% perfect. Don’t point out your mistakes. Learn from them. Your friends will be delighted with the baked goods you’re presenting to them. Don’t ruin it for them!
- Weigh your ingredients carefully
In my opinion cup measures should be banned in baking! You need to be precise. A gram will always be a gram. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. A cupful, however, can be different every time, depending on how tightly you pack it. Precision is important!
Invest in a set of digital scales. They do not need to be expensive, but will make your life so much easier. You can weigh several ingredients in one bowl using the reset to zero button. These are the ones that I have.
- Oven temperature
It’s much more common than you realise, but the temperature inside your oven often does not match what it says on the dial.
You should invest in an oven thermometer. It doesn’t need to be expensive, I use this one. Oven temperature will make such a difference to your bakes.
- Don’t open your oven
Leave that oven door closed. There are multiple reasons. Firstly, if you open the oven during the first half of the bake you risk your cake collapsing. Secondly, opening the oven door lets out the hot air that you built up preheating your oven. So as tempting as it is, leave it closed until the final few minutes specified in the recipe.
- Read your recipe… Fully!
Sounds so obvious, right? But I have fallen foul of this so many times. Read your recipe all the way through before starting. Maybe you don’t add all the sugar at once. Maybe you need to rest your dough for two hours. Don’t let there be any surprises later on.
Take the stress out of your baking and be prepared.
- Room temperature ingredients
Try to always use room temperature ingredients. Now this isn’t always the case, but the majority of the time it is. Add cold eggs to softened butter and they might cause the butter to harden. Add cold cream to hot sugar and your sugar will seize up. Room temperature egg whites whip up so much better.
Exception to this is pastry! COLD. COLD. COLD.
- Rest your cookie dough
This will give your cookies a better, more complex flavour and texture.
Rested cookie dough will lead to more browning and caramelisation and so a more complex flavour when baked. This is because resting the dough gives the flour time to fully hydrate, which means it soaks up the moisture from the eggs.
Further, when you chill your cookie dough, the fat solidifies. Then when you bake the chilled cookie dough, the fat takes longer to melt and therefore the cookies spread less.
- Don’t rush it
Tips 2-7 basically all come down to taking your time. If you don’t have time, don’t attempt the bake. You’ll only be stressed and baking is supposed to be enjoyable.
- Weigh your water
Use your digital scales to weigh your water. 10ml of water weighs 10g, 100ml of water weighs 100g, etc. This works for milk too.
- Spread the baking love
It’s 2020. Everyone could do with a little extra joy in their life, so don’t forget to share your delicious creations with friends and family.
Hope this helps someone, R x
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