Tips, Tricks and Techniques, part 1

Tips and Tricks

I realized that I’ve been peppering my blog posts with one or two tips for bakers and I thought it would be a good idea to simply consolidate all of them into one easy to read post.

TIPS

Tip: Don’t keep opening and closing the door of your oven. Not only are you releasing hot air into an already hot and claustrophobic kitchen (assuming your kitchen is tiny), you are wreaking havoc with the internal temperature of your oven. Even baking requires even temperatures. Resist the temptation!

Tip: When making a crumble topping, add the liquid fat (usually melted butter) a little at a time so that the mixture can "clump" and not become a smooth paste. The best utensil to use is your fingers, although a fork will be just fine if you just got a manicure.


TRICKS

Here are some previous posts that have cool tricks (well, I think they are cool) on how to bake specific items. They also can be used in most day-to-day baking (that is if you bake daily):

Baking in the summer

Chocolate Chip Cookies anyone?

I love my lemon bars, I really do.

TECHNIQUES

•Washing dishes is not evil, it’s useful to keeping that tiny counter top free of clutter and also minimizes on the amounts of pans, dishes and bowls you need.

•If pies are your preference, but you don’t have a lot of cool space to roll out dough, think about getting a marble slab to put on your counter top. Not only is it the perfect place to roll out dough, it doubles as a work surface for your everyday needs. Here’s a link to where you can find a counter top to match your counter.

•Start keeping a list of recipes you can make under an hour – the less time you spend in your kitchen baking, the less discouraged or frustrated you’ll be with its size.

•Buy a good multi-purpose food processor. When I was living abroad in a little tropical country, I didn’t have access to all sorts of baking implements. What I did have was a really good Braun^® food processor, which had attachments for folding dough, whipping cream and mixing. I also was able to use it for regular food processor purposes.

•Learn to organize – a clean, well-organized kitchen is perfect in any space.


Stay tuned for more tips, tricks and techniques as I think of them and as always,

Happy Baking!

Me Want Cookie!

Why do I bake? I think the reason is because I like to make people feel better. There is no denying the healing power of a brownie and just bringing baked goods to the office makes everyone a little less disgruntled.

I know everyone has a great recipe that they’ve conquered and made their own – mine is the chocolate chip cookie. It’s a variation on the Tollhouse® classic, but whenever I roll those babies out, they are gone before I can yell “Cookie!”

Seriously.

What makes mine special? I say what my friend’s husband says – that I make it with “lurve” and thus they are extra-good. Actually, it’s all in the technique.

To make a cookie that will stay chewy even after sitting in a container for several days (if they last that long) requires proper preparation.

The sugars and the fats need to be whipped till they nearly double in volume.

The dry ingredients need to be sifted together, separately from the wet ingredients.

Never underestimate the power of that ¼ tsp of salt – salt is a powerful preservative and it provides a balance in the flavor of the cookie.

Never over beat the eggs and butter – you’ll get a curdled mess

And when you mix the wet with the dry – don’t over do it. You want cookie dough, not spackling compound.

The actual baking of the cookie also lends to its texture.

Never over-bake. It’s better to leave off a few minutes and let the residual heat from the oven take care of the rest of the baking than to have burnt cookies.

If you’re like me and don’t have a fabulous convection oven, chances are that your oven has pockets of heat unevenly distributed. Rotate your cookie sheet so that you have a full-batch of evenly cooked cookies and not mush in front and charcoal in the back.

Remember – hot air rises. Don’t put your cookies on the top rack; always the middle rack.

If you follow the above, there’s a chance you’ll get a near-pristine batch. I still miss a few, but practice makes perfect!