It was clear that I make the same mistakes every time I tried baking. It only remained to figure out which ones. I had to roll up our sleeves, study the art, and try the oven again and again. And I have deduced for myself several "laws of baking. Here are the main rules and secrets of delicious baking and a list of necessary tools.
Baking laws
- You need to follow the recipe strictly. If 220g of flour is written, then you need to put just that much.
- Dry ingredients are mixed separately, wet (unless otherwise indicated in the recipe). Pour the first ones into a large convenient bowl and stir not with a spoon but with a whisk for several minutes.
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- All ingredients and tools must be prepared in advance. You cannot panic and flicker in the kitchen. Even if something goes wrong, you will certainly be reassured by the fact that everything around is neatly laid out and ready to go.
- Preheat the oven to the desired number of degrees before placing the dough in it. If you know that your oven is lying about the temperature, calmly adjust the mode.
Do not put the dough in a cold or insufficiently heated oven.
- The details matter. If it is written that flour must be sieved, it must be sieved. If it is written that you need to mix with a spatula carefully and clockwise, then you need to do just that.
Required tools
- Oven. You can't do without it. Cake cakes, pies, tarts, and eclairs cannot be made in a pan.
- Electronic culinary scales. For a beginner, they are irreplaceable. Do no use recipes in which flour, butter, and everything else is measured in glasses or cups. You need clear information about the ingredients, and the glass is not a standard. Besides, a culinary scale is not that expensive.
- Corolla. Use a whisk to stir the ingredients and whisk. It is quite possible to beat a few whites by hand to the peaks. I checked it on myself.
- Parchment and foil. Many chefs advise purchasing a silicone mat for baking cookies, pies, and other desserts. But it needs to be washed. And he just crumpled the parchment and threw it away. For lazy people like me, this is it.
- Form for baking. If you want to learn how to cook a specific dish, such as cupcakes, you cannot do it without a form. The same goes for the cake. You need a container in which you will make cakes. You can bake cookies, pies, cheesecakes, buns, rolled dough cakes, cakes the size of your oven baking sheet without a form.
- Scapula. Silicone is best, but any will do for a start. With it, you will mix the ingredients that need a particularly gentle attitude.
- Mixer. Sometimes you can do without it. So, I tried to make a biscuit without a mixer, and everything worked out; the strength of my hands was enough to beat the eggs white. But if you cook, for example, a cake or several people at once, you will get damn tired. And it is quite possible that you will not have enough strength and patience to beat eggs until the desired state.
Secrets
- Don't be afraid to add a little salt to your baked goods. This will only emphasize the sweetness and aromas with which you have saturated your dish.
- Before whisking the whites, soak a washcloth in lemon juice, wipe down a metal bowl, and whisk. This will make your proteins whip much faster and better.
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- You do not need to extinguish the baking soda with vinegar and add it to baked goods. There is no sense in this; all the bubbles that could raise your dough to disappear at the moment of reaction.
- Some types of dough like to "rest." So do not neglect this step. Leave the dough for a while, and go for a walk or watch the TV series.
- Take ingredients out of the refrigerator one hour before cooking to be all at the same room temperature. This will make the dough perfect.
- A secret for the impatient. Don't check the oven with the dough every 5 minutes. Each time you open the door, the temperature inside the cabinet drops by 5-10 degrees. Because of this, desserts fall off.
Adapted and translated by The Cop Cart Staff
Sources: Life hacker
