5 Best Baking Hacks for Beginners
Baking is one of the most entertaining and fulfilling hobbies, but it’s also an art. And like any form of art, it takes some skills to master the techniques and secrets of the kitchen. If you’re just starting to create delicious treats and you’d like to take your baking game to the next level keep reading and discover our 5 best hacks for beginners.
1. Use an ice cream scoop for more than ice cream
When you’re taking your first steps into cooking, handling dough and cake mixtures can be pretty difficult. Getting the right consistency is a complicated task on its own but getting it to pour effortlessly into your containers and cupcake holders is the next worst thing. A great baking hack for beginners is to take an ice cream scoop and use it to pour the mixture into your cupcake molds - it’ll make your cooking much less messy and you’ll get even amounts of batter to bake even-sized cupcakes.
2. Separate egg yolks easily
As you probably already know, many (if not most) recipes call for you to separate yolks from whites to whip them separately. An expert might be able to perform this task in the blink of an eye, but there’s nothing wrong with getting some extra help when you’re starting. To separate the yolk of an egg from the white, simply take an empty and clean plastic bottle, squeeze it and bring it close to the yolk. Slowly and carefully release the squeeze you had on the bottle and watch how it sucks in only the yolk. To drop the yolk on another container squeeze gently the bottle and watch it come out.
3. Soften butter in a few seconds
Certain recipes call for butter to be at room temperature and to be gently softened (not melted). This presents an issue if you only know butter to be hard and cold or completely melted. What to do? Simply place the butter stick inside a resealable bag, close it tightly and use a rolling pin to smash it and roll it. Create a thin layer of butter and when it’s done, just open the bag and scoop out your soft and creamy butter.
4. Use bread to keep your cakes and cookies fresh
Have you ever baked the perfect cake or batch of cookies, so yummy you can’t wait to eat them, only to discover “something” happened while they were cooling down and now they’re dry? There’s no mystery here, a freshly baked dessert will “suck” the air around it, eventually drying out. If you want to stop this from happening simply place a slice of white bread over your cake or between your cookies. This will make them absorb the moisture from the bread and keep your dessert fresh and fluffy.
5. Slice dough or cakes evenly
When you have a soft dough that’s hard to maneuver, you might be discouraged by the idea to try to slice it into more manageable pieces. Fear no more! An effective way to slice dough without making a mess or having it all stick to your knife is using dental floss. Simply surround the roll of dough with unflavored floss and pull the thread so it closes, cutting the dough in a clean and even manner. The best thing? This works for recently baked cakes too and is great for cinnamon rolls!
Next time you’re baking try our hacks and see how much easier it is to bake the perfect dessert! And don’t forget to check out some of the most useful baking tools here.