Baking Hints

[kirra]

Baking Hints

You need to get all your ingredients at room temperature before you start. If you haven’t got time, milk can be warmed and butter can be softened –cautiously – in the microwave. Fridge-cold eggs can have the chill taken off them by being placed in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.

To create self-raising flour from plain flour - for 150g/1 cup plain flour use half-teaspoon baking powder and half-teaspoon of bicarbonate soda (also known as baking soda).

There's no such thing as too much baking spray.

Some cakes are supposed to have a "rip" running over the top. If you like this to be nice and straight, run your finger along the middle of the cake batter once you've poured into the mould. Another solution for the braver ones amongst you: After a couple of minutes, just as the cake starts to rise, open the oven door and make a straight cut over the middle of your cake (lengthways). The rip will follow this cut.

When baking bread do not use tepid water use cold, it works better because heat kills yeast and this way takes a little longer to prove but worth it.

Also on breadmaking, add the salt when you start to knead the dough as salt kills the yeast but you need the salt to preserve the bread and give it flavour.

When baking and using cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda or baking powder bake the item straight away for best raising results (as soon as liquid is mixed into these raising agents they start to work and therefore lose their raising prowess.

When beating egg whites, always add a tiny bit of baking powder of some acid, it helps to make them fluffier. Either rub the bowl with a wedge of lemon or add a couple of lemon juice if you don’t want to use baking powder.

Add a pinch of salt when beating whole eggs: The salt will make the whites runnier and easier to mix with the yolks. Especially useful when using very fresh eggs.

Add a bit of acid (a couple of drops of lemon juice or a pinch of cream of Tartar) when melting sugar. This prevents the formation of crystals.

When making cake batter or soufflé, either use icing sugar or very fine sugar. Failing that, beat the sugar in with the eggs so the sugar dissolves. This prevents the cake (or soufflé) from collapsing.

When making shortcrust pastry, a bit of lemon juice or a tiny amount of vinegar can prevent the pastry from shrinking. It also helps to make the crust crispier somehow.

My mother always uses water that is around (or at) room temperature when she is baking something that uses yeast. In fact, her advice in regard to baking is : ALWAYS use ingredients at room temperature. The only exception being butter for short crust or flaky pastry. Use that as cold as possible. Her advice for short crust and flaky pastry is: If you don't feel entirely confident, chill all your ingredients. Even the flour. This way you are sure everything stays cool longer. If the weather is chilly or very humid, Mum has a trick to 'dry out' the flour she uses for bread and warm it up a little: Zap it in the microwave for a couple of seconds (30 at most), then whisk thoroughly. This will cool down the flour a little, test it with your finger to make sure it doesn't actually feel hot or it will kill the yeast. If it's too hot, whisk a bit more. If it feels more or less the same temp as your finger when you push it in the flour, you know you should be fine. This slight heating will help the yeast along and is safer than using tepid water.

If you don't have a cake stand, or need an extra one or two for special occasions, place blue-tac on an upturned handle-less cup and press a large matching plate firmly on top. For a more permanent solution hot glue the cup to the plate. Three plates in various sizes can be stacked with cups blue-tac'ed inbetween to present smaller cakes, petit fours and sweets.

Because of its volume, sea salt seems to be less salty than table salt when used in cooking. If replacing sea salt with table salt, use half the amount.