I know you want to start delving into these top 25 baking tips, but before you do, I want you to keep in mind that baking is an art form and science melded together. So have fun, keep the basics in mind, and keep in light in the kitchen!
25 Baking Tips you need to Know NOW!
1. Coat Mix-In’s with Flour
Coat your fruit or chocolate chips (or both) in flour or add it directly to the flour mixture. This prevents these mix ins from sinking to the bottom of cupcake, muffins or cakes. Ensuring you have even distribution of all of that chocolate or jammy blueberries. Best baking tips ever!
2. Grease your Measuring Spoons (Best Baking Tip)
This has got to my favorite. If you have ever struggled to get out honey or molasses from the measuring utensil, grease it with cooking spray or measure out the oil in the recipe with the same utensil. This will help that honey or molasses slip right out! It’s like pure magic! Favorite baking tip of mine for sure.
3. Portion your Muffins Properly
If you struggle with portioning your muffins, cupcakes or really any sort of batter, try a cookie scoop. This is the best to get perfectly divided muffins or cupcakes. This is also super important for bake time, as muffins with too much batter will be underdone, and muffins with too little batter will be overdone and dry.
4. Get Out Air Bubbles
Often times, when you bake cakes or cupcakes or any quick bread, there can be large air pockets, which is not great. To ensure this doesn’t happen, bang your pans on the counter a few times before baking them. This will help pop any air bubbles out of the batter.
5. Boost that Chocolate Flavor
Adding coffee is a great way to boost the flavor in any chocolate based recipe, such as brownies or chocolate cake. you won’t taste the coffee flavor, but it helps make the chocolate taste richer. You can add instant coffee to brownies, cookies, or use hot coffee instead of water in cakes or quick breads! Thank me for this baking tip later!
6. Chill your Cookie Dough
Want perfectly round cookies? Want more flavorful cookies? Want lighter cookies? Chilling the cookie dough overnight helps with all of this. Baking cookie dough that has been chilled beforehand will help slow the spread of the dough when it bakes, giving you rounder cookies. Additionally, chilling the dough will let the dough rest overnight. This helps to relax the gluten in the flour that has been developed when mixing the dough!
7. Use Parchment Paper
Parchment paper is basically a bakers best friend. It’s so much more reliable than greasing cake pans and transferring cookies, breads and cakes without them falling apart. Cutting the parchment paper to fit the size of the pan, with enough edge to easily lift the bread or cake out makes it so convenient. Additionally, Silpat or silicone liners are also great alternatives.
8. Use Fresh Leaveners
I get it! It’s hard to throw out a GIANT container of baking soda. But, these leaveners expire quickly, and can lead to flat cakes, hard cookies and tough loaves of bread! So ditch those expired baking soda cans and old yeast in your fridge and buy fresh leavening agents. You will see such a difference in your baked goods! Trust me, this baking tip may seem silly, but is is crucial…keep it fresh!
9. Use the Right Pans
Using the right pan it so important to getting even browning and avoiding soggy crusts. Metal pans are usually your best bet. This is because metal conducts heat better than glass or ceramic. Try to opt for metal brownie pans and pie plates. Using ceramic or glass pans can lead to soggy pie crusts and undercooked breads! This might seem like a silly baking tip, but it really is super important.
10. Bake for Less Time
This might seem strange, why would you take out bread or cookies before the time is up? The main reason is oven temperatures. Most ovens vary in temperate, and you never know if your treats will bake faster. I highly recording setting your timer to 5-10 less than the time called for. Additionally, many baked goods, like quick bread (think banana bread), brownies and cookies continue to cook even after they are taken out of the oven.
11. Cool those Treats Down
I know, it’s so tempting to dig into a hot pan of fudgy brownies. But let those treats cool down. This is super important as baked goods continue to cook even after they come out of the oven. Additionally, for treats like brownies and cookies, it helps them hold their shape and have the perfect texture – crispy and chewy – if you let them cool down. Lastly, it’s important to let quick breads cool completely, as they will collapse if you cut them as soon as they come out of the oven.
12. No More Thick Chocolate
This baking tip will help you out if you have ever had super thick and sludgy chocolate. If you’re melting chocolate to coat a baked good with, melt it with a small bit of coconut oil. This will help thin the chocolate out and make it easier to work with. I recommend using coconut oil, but most flavorless vegetable oils will work well too.
13. Center racks only
Typically, for anything you’re baking, it’s best to use the center rack of the oven. This will help the heat distribute evenly and prevent any burnt cookie bottoms! However this baking tip doesn’t apply if you are baking multiple trays of cookies at once. In which case you’ll want to rotate and turn the trays half-way through the bake time to ensure even baking.
14. No Fancy Piping Bags Needed
If you’re trying to pipe a cute frosting design on your cake or cupcake, you actually don’t need any fancy piping bags or tools – although they come in handy. Instead, you can use a plastic bag. Fill up a plastic bag 1/3 of the way with your frosting and then squeeze it into one corner of the bag. Next, cut off the tip of that corner. This will give you a nice round tip piping bag. If you want the pip to be bigger, simply snip off more of the corner. Close up the bag and, squeeze out the frosting and pipe away!
15. Heat your Cake Knife
Ever had trouble with your knife collecting frosting or pie crumbs as your slicing? The best trick is to have your knife at the opposite temperate of whatever dessert you’re cutting. If you’re cutting a cold cheesecake or cake, heat your knife up by running if under hot water. If you’re cutting a warm pie, use a cold knife.
16. DIY Baking Tip…Make Your Own Vegan Buttermilk
If you have every wanted that signature buttermilk flavor in pancakes or cakes, you can easily make it yourself. Simply add 1 tsp of vinegar (apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar work well) into 1 cup of plant milk. Stir, and let it sit aside for 5 minutes. Once the milk has curdled, it is ready to use buttermilk. This is a great way to add in extra flavor to your baked goods!
17. Use the Right Sized Pan
This might sound silly, but using the right sized pan is so important. If you change the pan size you use, you could under-bake or over-bake your baked good.
18. Baking Soda AND Baking Powder
Often, you’ll probably see recipes with both baking soda and baking powder. This is because both are used to neutralize the ph balance of the recipes and make it super light and fluffy. Baking soda helps neutralize any acid, and baking powder creates lift and airiness. This is why most recipes will use them in tandem. If you use just baking powder, you end up with a fluffy but acidic baked good. If you use just baking soda, you’ll end up with a neutral but flat baked good. Usually a combination of both is the best!
19. Baking Tip for Shiny Crusts
For added luster and shine, brush the tops of crusts, scones or bread rolls with cream or milk before baking. For cookies or quick bread, you can add a sprinkled of sugar instead. This will help get that shiny and brown color!
20. Never Store Warm
This is super important. Never store your freshly baked goods warm or hot. Always cool your treats before wrapping them up and storing them. This is because when you wrap them hot, the evaporation and condensation from the warm cookies, muffins or whatever the treat is will create water and make those crispy tops and fluffy muffin become soggy.
21. Add Salt, Everywhere!
Yes, you heard that right! Salt is crucial for boosting the flavor of your baked treats and for balancing out the flavors. Even if you just add a pinch, it is one of the most important ingredients…don’t just put it in cookies, it belongs in cakes, cookies, quick breads and even ice cream!
22. The Press Test
You know when you have a perfectly baked cake, it fluffy and the top looks perfect, and then you poke it with a toothpick to check if its done and it ruins the top. I feel you, it sucks. However, a perfectly baked cake or quick bread will bounce back when pressed gently. Which means you can avoid ruining that perfect crust of your banana bread. Additionally, for quick breads like banana breads and pound cakes, they will usually split and crack down the middle, which is another indicator that they are done!
23. Baking is a Science
In cooking you can throw in some herbs or extra butter (vegan of course) and it’ll make no difference. other than making the dish more flavorful. However, if you were to do that in baking it would be a disaster. One small alteration can make the cake a disaster, and unfortunately you won’t know until you pull it out of the oven. Make sure you follow every step and read the recipe before-hand. Remember that the recipe developer has put thought into each ingredients and measurement and it is there for a reason. Don’t alter the recipe unless you’ve tried making it successfully few times!
24. Mood Matter
This may sound silly, but your mood when your baking can make your break that treat you’re making. This is because you might be too heavy-handed when measuring out ingredients, or rough on the dough, or overtaxing the batter. Physically you’re not in the proper state to turn out perfectly baked treat! So, remember to bake when you’re in a good mood and feeling happy!
25. Have Fun
Don’t forget to have fun! I know that when people see dessert recipes in magazines and the photos look perfect, it is easy to get frustrated when your version doesn’t turn out exactly the same. Don’t let that get you down. Even if you don’t have the exact tools or ingredients in the recipes, just remember it’s supposed to be fun. Enjoy cooking and don’t put so much pressure on yourself in the kitchen.
If you enjoyed these baking tips and tricks, leave a rating below and comment other baking tips you’d like to share with the MWM community! We love your feedback.
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