Baked Goods! Kitchen Tips, Tricks & Hacks

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Baking is it’s own realm in the Culinary world. It is based largely on science and the actual chemical reactions different ingredients have with one another to turn solid things into gooey chewy things and liquid things into jiggly solid things. Some of the greatest chefs and cooks in the world will admit to not being the best bakers or pastry makes – just like many pastry chefs and bakers say they are not very good at cooking whole meals. All that said – there are a few basic lessons that can help you up your baking game with very little effort.

1. Whenever possible, measure by weight not volume. Use a simple Kitchen Scale to measure out the ingredients of the recipe. This will help you get the most accurate ratios. I like to make good use of the Tare function (the button that lets you put your mixing bowl right on the scale, hit tare, add the appropriate weight of sugar, hit tare, add the appropriate amount of butter, hit tare, add the flour, etc.)
2. Unless it is a dietary need (like an allergy or restriction), try not to use substitutions. For example, while honey and maple syrup both add sweetness and have a similar consistency – they are not interchangeable. Maple syrup has a much lower smoke point and will burn much faster than honey. On this same topic – flours are not 1 for 1 interchangeable. If a recipe calls for AP flour, you will not get the same result if you make just a straight across change to Rice or Almond flour. You will likely need to either adjust the amount of add another ingredient to help with leavening.
3. For a lot of baking – parchment paper is your friend! I use parchment paper for all of my cookies and brownies and breads. It doesn’t just make clean up easier or make the stuff come off the cooking vessel easier. It reduces the need to add extra oil (or butter or cooking spray) to things. Granted – some baking vessels are part of the process (like beautiful patterned bundt pans) or cast iron pots that are helping to flavor the baked good, and parchment should not be used for those.
4. Bread products are totally freezeable. Bagels, muffins, sandwich bread, whole sourdough boule, rolls, cookies, cakes, and more. For the most part, you just thaw them on the counter. When it come to whole (uncut) loaves like a sourdough boule – you want to run the boule under cool water and place in a 450degF oven for 10 minutes. It will be as crisp on the outside and soft in the middle as the day it went into the freezer. Most other baked goods just need a few minutes to thaw on the counter and then pop in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350degF.
5. Like I say often – READ THE WHOLE RECIPE BEFORE YOU START! There is nothing worse than getting halfway into a recipe and realizing that an ingredient was supposed to split and added at two separate steps or that you don’t actually have the ingredient or utensil the recipe calls for. This is especially true with baking, as like I said above – baking is a science!
6. While most ovens can handle a steady 350degF temperature for an extended period of time, not all can handle maintaining a higher or lower temp with the same ease. And when the baking temperature is crucial for things like breads and cheesecakes, you want to keep an eye on it. I suggest using a separate Oven Thermometer, and not just relying on what the oven says. You can use a simple analog one or go for a more fancy digital one – either way, just use one.

A lot of the process of cooking a meal is in the techniques used to do different things. Sometimes it is about having the right tools and gadgets to achieving different things. But other times it is simply about having the knowledge of how to do different things – like how to roll a burrito up, or how peel, seed and dice a cucumber. Obviously there are some things that are purely logical and other things you would never have thought of if someone else didn’t show you. So I wanted to create a series of Kitchen Tips, Tricks & Hacks that I have picked up along the way to make my cooking experience more efficient, easier and even sometimes more fun! Obviously as the old adage goes – “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” – which is 10000% true – so if you have another way to do one of these things – please tell us in the comments.

Do you have any kitchen tips, tricks or hacks that you want to share? Do you have any ideas on other tips, ticks or hack you want to see?

I love to link up my posts to lots of blogs around the internet – check out this Ultimate Handy Linky Party List to find some of the places I share to!

Estelle Forrest self-published this cookbook after a lot of playing around in the kitchen. You can purchase your own copy here:

AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR KINDLE eBOOK VERSIONS

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