Baking Secrets

You don’t have to start out skilled; simply be mindful of performing the steps.

To bake is akin to being a craftsman: someone who makes home baked foods skillfully, one building block at a time. While a craftsman is usually one “who does something with great skill and expertise,” a home baker needs only to pay attention to each stage of the process and the expertise will come.

Our grandmothers had a repertoire of biscuits, cookies, pies, and cakes they baked by adding a pinch of this and a teacup of that. They could tell by the consistency of the batter when there was too much flour or they’d forgotten the sugar or poured in extra milk. You will get to that point, too, if you bake daily. But for novices and intermediate bakers, choosing ingredients and measuring properly, mixing ingredients well at the proper temperature without overbeating, and baking at the correct oven temperature, all contribute to the symphony of a luscious chocolate torte, fluffy coconut cake, or a batch of tender, moist muffins or chewy chocolate chip cookies.

Most importantly, a home baker must thoroughly read the recipe and know the game plan before the ingredients are assembled.

Gathering and Prepping Basic Ingredients

Your sense of smell and taste is key to ascertaining freshness; smell the spices and sample the nuts and chocolate. If you are toasting nuts, they will be done when you barely smell the aroma from the oven.

Unbleached all-purpose or unbleached bread flour are naturally aged without bleaching agents and can be used interchangeably with all-purpose or bread flours, which are milled and treated traditionally. Flour measurements in most recipes are written with the expectation that you will spoon flour into a dry measuring cup and level the top with the straight edge of a knife. While weighing flour on a kitchen scale is the most accurate way to measure, many recipes do not specify weight measurements.

Baking powder, baking soda, and yeast are measured in the same way, and accuracy is key. If you add too much, the lifting bubbles produced by the baking powder or soda get too big, bump and push each other to the surface and pop, producing heavy, fallen baked goods. Too little leavening won’t make the batter budge. The leaveners are perishable, so check expiration dates before you use them.

To measure sugar, use a dry measuring cup and level it off; it is fine to scoop granulated sugar directly from the canister. After scooping brown sugar, pat it down, firmly packing it, and level the top. Do not use a glass or liquid measuring cup with a pouring spout for dry ingredients because it never measures accurately. Measure confectioners’ sugar as you do flour, spooning it into the dry measuring cup.

Dairy products such as milk, buttermilk, sour cream, and eggs have expiration dates, too, and should be used at room temperature. Using cold ingredients reduces the volume of the batter or dough and will affect the texture.

When recipes call for butter, use unsalted. Salted butter adds more salt to the recipe, and you end up with less control over the taste of the baked product. It should be softened to incorporate and hold the fine air bubbles from mixing; so if your kitchen is hot, the butter needs to be slightly cooler and soft, but not melted.

Mixing and Baking

Start by preheating the oven before you mix the batter or dough. The slap of a hot oven activates the leavening and sets the structure of the baked food.

Mix dry ingredients well before incorporating them. You don’t want lumps of baking soda in your cake; stirring the dry ingredients before you measure them helps to prevent clumps. When you have the flour, leavening, and spices measured together, whisk them well to distribute them evenly.

When you initially cream the butter and sugar together, you are beating in fine air bubbles and making it ready to accept the eggs, flour mixture, and liquids. When you are finished, the butter/sugar mixture should be fluffy and several shades lighter in color. Hand mixers can take longer to do the job than stand mixers; it is important for any mixer to reach around the sides of the bowl and for you to scrape down the sides several times.

If you can trust the source of the recipe, have all your ingredients ready, follow clear instructions in the method, and your oven is calibrated, you are all set to bake successfully.