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Baking Tips
Our baking tips have been brought to you in order for you to get the best out of cake or loaf baking process. The following tips are simple to follow. So browse them at your leisure. Carefully read the instructions The first baking tip I’m going to share with you is arguably the most important one. Here goes; if you are pretty much a novice in the baking stakes then make sure you read any recipe very carefully. Make sure you use the ingredients specified and in the exact quantities outlined. Baking is really an art form in its self and any deviation away from the recipe could harm the quality of your end product.
With all this in mind make sure you have all the correct ingredients laid out before you before you start baking, there is nothing worse than being half way through the baking process only to realize that you are missing a key ingredient. Fresh is best Whenever you undertake a baking activity it’s important to use as fresher ingredients as possible. The fresher the ingredients the better the taste and texture of the end product will be. You can always taste the difference if you use high quality ingredients. Size does matter Whenever you are baking bread or cakes a good baking tip to follow is in regards to the baking pans you are using. For the best results use the relevant pans as set out in the ‘directions’ or ‘instructions’ section of the recipe. If you use, say, a deeper pan than specified then the cooking time or temperature will have to be adjusted; if you miscalculate the changes then it could affect the quality of the end result. Baking pans come in all shapes, sizes and materials, but how do you choose the right one?
This is pretty simple; most recipes will specify the size of baking pan that should be used. The difficulty mainly comes in identifying whether or not aluminium, steel or glass baking pan should be used, as not all recipes stipulate this. Usually where glass is used the temperature will have to be adjusted with regards to this material. The general rule of thumb is to roughly decrease the temperature by 20 degrees C.
Don’t keep checking the bake This baking tip is an important consideration the bear in mind when baking. Don’t keep opening the oven door every five minutes to check whether the bake is burning or rising, trust the instructions. The only thing that opening the door will achieve is to change the temperature within the oven itself. Some recipes may tell you to rotate the pans half way through; this is the only time the oven door should be opened How do you prepare the pan for baking? Greasing or flouring the inside of a baking pan is key component of making sure the cake or loaf will be easy to remove from the pan when it has finished baking. If you forget to do this then you’ll find that cake or loaf has stuck tightly to the inside of them pan, which means it could fall apart when you remove it. For best results you should always keep to the instructions on greasing or flouring as set out by the recipe itself. If you are instructed to grease the baking pan a good tip -which I have been using for years – is to reach for a paper cupcake container (if you don’t have one of these use at hand, just tear a piece off the butter wrapper and use thus instead), squash it flat, rub it in the butter so you get a good covering of butter on it, and start smearing the butter over the inside of the baking pan. The smoothness of the paper cupcake wrappers means that the butter can be spread smoothly.
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