Since I have started this recipe blogging journey, I have been picking up lots of tips that have been helpful to improve my baked goods. I still make tons of mistakes. Some days it feels like my kitchen is on strike and nothing wants to turn out right. But, I want to share some of my top tips for baking success with you, especially with the holiday baking season coming upon us once again. I hope you have many successful baking days ahead and that you can find some of these tips useful in your own tasty endeavors!
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Tip #1.
Use Fresh Ingredients:
I have found it is so important to ensure your ingredients are fresh before you get started on a baking project. Nothing can turn a baking day into a dud like expired baking soda or baking powder, rotten eggs or bad dairy products. While you can use sour milk in baked goods like cakes or muffins, you do not want to use it in things like frosting or pudding. Having fresh rising agents (e.g. baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar) is very important for getting a good rise on cakes, muffins, cookies and more. To ensure your rising agents stay fresh, don’t store them for longer than 6 months in your pantry and toss them out once they pass the expiration date.
Tip #2.
Accurately Measure Your Ingredients:
This is a common mistake in many kitchens. If a recipe calls for a cup of flour, it isn’t wise to simply scoop and dump whatever comes with your cupful of flour. To ensure you have the right measurement, take a knife and scrape off the excess flour, sugar etc. from the top of the measuring cup, leaving just enough to level with the top of the measuring cup (unless a recipe calls for a heaping or rounded measurement). If you want to get really technical you can weigh all of your ingredients, but I personally don’t take the time to do this. Using the right measuring cups is also key. I personally prefer to use stainless steel measuring cups because I have found that plastic measuring cups are often off in size.
Tip #3.
Using the right Ingredients:
Using the ingredients a recipe calls for is important to prevent a failure. A top complaint to recipe bloggers is from people who tried to substitute ingredients that don’t work with the original recipe. There certainly are cases where you can substitute certain things such as butterscotch chips for chocolate chips or olive oil instead of vegetable oil, but do keep in mind that if you plan to substitute certain ingredients, it can throw the ratio of the remaining ingredients off. On this note, one substitution that I personally do not recommend is using buttermilk substitutions instead of real buttermilk. Yes, they can work in a pinch, but they often do not produce the same results as actual buttermilk.
Tip #4.
Learning to get a feel for the dough or batter:
While this tip is most important for bread dough, it is also useful for cookie dough, cake batters and more. Getting the right textures in your baked goods takes time and practice but once you can master the basics the kitchen becomes your “oyster.” I prefer my bread dough to be very soft and supple with a light feel. If the bread dough is stiff and heavy it will produce a bread that is dry and dense. With bread or pizza dough I prefer to err on the sticky side to have a well hydrated bread dough. For cookie dough, it depends on whether you are baking a chewy cookie or a cakey cookie with a soft texture. For chewy cookies like chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies, doing the roll test works very well. If you can roll the dough between your palms and it doesn’t stick or crumble it is good to go. For cake-like cookies I prefer a fluffy batter that can be dropped and still hold its shape on the baking sheets. To be honest, I am still working on mastering cake batter. But the basic idea for most cakes is to have a pourable cake batter. This can vary depending on which type of cake you are baking.
Tip #5.
Butter and Fats:
Some recipes will ask for butter and others for shortening, oil, ghee, lard etc. If a recipe asks for shortening (e.g. for cookies, cakes etc.) I usually substitute butter, but as mentioned above this can pose a risk of changing the texture a bit. From my basic understanding of butter vs. oil, butter will add flavor to a baked good while oil will produce a more tender texture. When using butter, it is important to follow the recipe’s instructions on the consistency. If a recipe asks for room temperature or softened butter, it is to trap air when creamed with sugar, which produces a fluffier baked good. Cold butter will not mix properly with the sugar, and melted butter does not trap air. Be sure to check your recipe ahead of time so that you can set out the butter if it calls for room temperature butter. Most oils can be used interchangeably in recipes, but when in doubt use the oil requested.
Tip #6.
Mixing the goods:
Growing up Amish, we didn’t use electricity and so handheld mixers were non-existent in our house. I still prefer to mix most of my batters and cookie dough by hand, because I find it poses less risk of overmixing the batter. When mixing up a batch of cake, muffins or cakey cookies, it is important not to overmix the wet and dry ingredients because overmixing will cause cakes and muffins to sink and can cause the texture to be tough. On the flip side, when you go to cream butter and sugar (or whichever wet ingredients the recipe asks for), then it is important to give it a good whip before you add the dry ingredients.
Tip #7.
Oven temperature:
Oven temperature plays a big part in the success or failure of baked goods. If the oven temperature is too high, the sides of cakes will rise too quickly causing collapsed centers, or cookies and muffins will brown too quickly before the centers are baked through. If the oven temperature is too low the baked goods will also not rise properly. To check your oven temperature, you can order an oven thermometer and then adjust your temperatures according.
Tip #8.
Testing the baked goods for doneness:
I like to keep some toothpicks beside my oven because they are nifty little creations for quickly checking a baked good for doneness. For cakes, a toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the center. For fudgy brownies, toothpicks should have a little wet crumb attached but not gooey batter. To check cookies you can give them a light tap in the center. If the dough shrinks away from your finger, then the cookies are not quite done, but if the cookie can hold up to a light tap, then they are ready to cool. Bread can be a little trickier to test. You can use a thermometer and ensure the bread comes to 190 degrees for sandwich bread or 210 degrees if it is a baguette loaf. I prefer to use a glass baking dish for baking sandwich bread because you can tell the bread is done if the sides are golden and no longer doughy.
Tip #9.
Altitude:
Altitude can be a bit of a trickster for bakers. Things that work for me in my kitchen here in the northeast don’t work for my sister who lives in the south. There are some handy altitude adjustment charts that you can find online if you are struggling with baked goods in a new area or recipes from another altitude.
Tip #10
Be willing to practice and expirement!
What works for my family and my kitchen may not work for yours, so be willing to practice and experiment with recipes until you find a win. I find that when trying a new recipe for a baked good it can often take several tries and multiple tweaking until I find the consistency and taste to be to our liking. If at first you don’t succeed try, try again!
All that is left to do is to get your apron on and bring out the mixing bowls!
Some of my favorite baked goods are: Blueberry muffins, fudgy homemade brownies, browned butter chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies with Reese’s, Mom’s Amish honey bread or Amish coconut cream pie. You can find many more of my favorite baked goods by searching “baked goods” in the search bar or by following along on Pinterest.
Have a great day and happy baking!
