Tips and Tricks To Improve Your Baking Skills

Do your baking efforts leave you feeling slightly flat, or do your results not resemble the recipe you are trying to recreate? Baking can be tricky if you don't have the basics down, which can be frustrating. Whether you are a novice baker or you want to improve your skills, you need to know how to get better results for enhanced taste, texture, and visual appeal.

Measure properly

Baking is a science, not an art, so you need to pay careful attention to the quantities used in your "experiment." You should be using appropriate measuring tools and ensuring you use the right amounts. All measures should be levelled off in the apparatus, and liquids measured in a clear container for accuracy. Even a few mls or ounces out can throw off your whole recipe and yield undesired results.

Room temperature

The temperature of your ingredients can make all the difference in how easy it is to mix products and the finished result. Use all ingredients at room temperature, and avoid baking with items from the fridge. Get everything together and leave it out on the countertop before you start baking to give yourself the best chance of success.

Oven temperature

How effective is your oven at cooking? Not all ovens are created equally, and you need to be checking the temperature of your oven regularly to ensure it is heating to the temperatures you need or think it is at. Use an external thermometer to help you gauge how your oven is performing, and avoid opening your oven during cooking, as this will let cool air in and disrupt the process. This is, of course, unless you have multiple things that need moving around or your oven has a hot spot you need to adjust. In this case, do it quickly so as not to increase the cold air in the oven.

Don't change anything.

It can be tempting to adjust the recipe quantities or add different things to the mix; however, until you are proficient at baking, it's best to stick to the recipe strictly. As we mentioned above, baking is science, and in a science experiment, if you adjust the quantities or change the chemicals, you will get undesired results. The same goes for baking. Let's say you want to make this lemon slice recipe, then following each step exactly can help you to get the preferred results and avoid any mistakes. Once you have proven consistent, you can make small changes to the flavour, for example.

Don't overmix

Use a light hand when mixing your ingredients to ensure you aren't overmixing. Excessive mixing when you add flour to a recipe can activate the gluten, and while this is what you want when making bread, it isn't when making cakes and muffins. Mix carefully and gently and only until the batter is uniform to help you avoid chewy cakes and muffins. Alternatively, if making scones and bread, you want this to happen to knead as much as possible to help you get the rise and texture you need.

Conclusion

Baking requires attention to detail you might not need in other forms of cooking, and to get the perfect baked goods, you need to be careful and exact so you don't sabotage your efforts and you get enjoyable and tasty foods each and every time.