Three Baking Tips to Level Up Your Baking
As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. In baking terms, this means that if your butter is too soft, your eggs too cold, your cream cheese too hard, your baked good will fall just shy of perfection. And you deserve a perfectly baked baked good!
Here are some tips to take your baked good from good to great:
1. EGGS – If a recipe calls for room temperature, make them room temperature!
If your eggs are too cold, this could curdle the fat in your recipe, which will affect the baked good’s final texture.
Here’s how to bring eggs to room temperature:
a. If you’re a planner, leave your eggs on the counter two hours in advance of baking.
b. If you’re less of a planner (🙋🏽♀️), pour warm water over eggs in a small or medium bowl and let sit for five to ten minutes.
2. BUTTER – Just like eggs, if a recipe calls for room temperature, make it room temperature!
If your butter is too cold you’ll end up with a dense baked good full of air pockets. Too warm and you’ll get a soggy greasy result. Here’s how to tell if your butter is at room temperature: your finger will leave an indent when you press on it.
Here’s how to bring your butter to room temperature:
a. Take your sticks out of the fridge an hour in advance of baking.
b. In a pinch, throw your butter in the microwave and heat up each side for five seconds. You should end up with perfectly softened butter after twenty to twenty-five seconds (my method of choice).
3. FLOUR – Spoon and level instead of scoop and dump.
If you do the old scoop and dump technique, you’ll end up with baked goods that are dense, dry and heavy. To avoid this most unfortunate result, spoon your flour, then level off your measuring cup with the back of a knife. For a more seamless operation, I like to keep a spoon in my flour container at all times. To avoid the inevitable spillage that comes from keeping it in a bag, I highly recommend keeping it in a hard container.
That’s it for now. Happy baking!