We talk a lot about doughnuts and waffles. We talk about my cat a bit too much. We talk about New Orleans and beignets and parades, and beads. We could, if you’re at all interested, talk about how many peanut butter cups I just shoved in my mouth. That conversation would be short and barely interesting. 6. That’s the number.
Today let’s talk about 7 ways to be a better baker. A few small tweaks and little nuggets of advice to build confidence in the kitchen. Read through and leave a comment below if any questions come up for you! I want us to be the best bakers we can be.
Cookie dough above: Vanilla Bean Confetti Cookies.
1. You’re only as good as your relationship with your oven.
Well, unless you’re a raw pastry chef, in which case, cheers to you. No need to have the fanciest, latest and greatest oven. It’s more about your relationships, how well you know each other, and how readily you accept all the quirks.
Some ovens have hot spots, little zones in that hotbox that are hotter than others. Get familiar the hot spots by seeing how a cake browns in the oven. Is one side more golden or burnt than another? Take note and rotate the your cakes and breads during baking.
Stop what you’re doing right now and invest in an oven thermometer. A gauge inside the oven is the only way to know how hot the hot is. Sometimes the dial doesn’t reflect the actual heat correctly.
2. Yes you have to follow the directions, mostly.
Baking is a delicate balance of flours, moisture, leavening, and heat. A recipe is there to hold your hand, lead the way, and give you a high-five at the end. You’ve got to trust the recipe to be good. Sometimes they’re not, but you have to trust the process, cold butter, buttermilk and all.
Here’s how to read a recipe. It’s nice to know how to read a map.
3. If you’re not using a scale, here’s we measure flour. It’s important.
4. Waste Not, Want Not
So often I end up with a container full of egg whites after making ice cream, a small handful of pecans, and leftover fresh herbs from various baking projects. Don’t throw these things away or let them languish to death in the refrigerator. Delicious treats come from leftovers! Don’t let em go!
• Turn egg whites into crisp Vanilla Bean and Cocoa Nib Meringues!
• Toss pecans, and whatever other nuts you have on hand into a batch of Oatmeal Cookie Granola!
• Smash leftover herbs into butter with lots of salt and call it Super Herb Butter. Delicious done!
5. Cakes can fall in the oven.
That’s not just something your grandmother said to get you from jumping up and down indoors. Cakes need a bit of care even when they’re in the oven. There’s a critical stage about 12 to 18 minutes of cake baking where the leavening and eggs are doing their best to support the rise of the cake, if you jostle the cake by rotating it in the oven during this period, the cake could sink in the center. No good.
6. Underbake or Overbake?
Underbake: skillet cakes, fudge brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Soft, doughy centers are sometimes just the way to go.
Overbake: charred things, toast, hot dogs, and really nothing else.
7. Even the best bakers HATE a springform pan.
They always leak and make for really infuriating and soggy cheesecake crusts. It’s not right to blame yourself. They’re just the worst. And don’t even get me started about wrapping the springform pan in tin foil. That worked for one person once and then never again.
What’s the work around? A pie dish. See: Salted Caramel Cheesecake Pie
7. It is my mission in life to get you to make great pie crust from scratch.
Not an exaggeration. Pie crust is the perfect balance of fat and flour that combines, chills, and bakes into the perfect vessel for sliced fruit and hot oven temperatures.
Perfectly flakey pie crust requires a few things: gumption, guts, love, tenderness, confidence, and patience. Luckily you have all of those things. And butter. Don’t forget the butter!
Here are five tips for the best all-butter pie crust from scratch!
And don’t even think about buying one of those freezer-section pie doughs. I’ll know and I’ll come squint my eyes at you.
Happy Baking! With love and butter.
Cheryl
Great tips! I’m the worst about neglecting the leftover bits of egg white. So frustrating!
Your buttermilk pie crust is so good, and so very easy that there should be a requirement to make it one time before some buys a poor imitation of pie crust rolled up and sad in the refrigerator section of the store. That dough boy would be out if business in no time!
Ania
I’m a teen baker, I started baking at 11 y.o. And I’ve started doing this as a business at 16, 3 months ago. I am confident in the kitchen and stuff but its always good to look for more knowledge from people with more experience! Thank you for the post!
Elizabeth
Great tips! You DID get me to make my first all-butter flaky homemade pie crust! Also, I am so glad I bought a cheap little oven thermometer… that fickle thing was running 15 – 20 degrees over the dial!
Laura
I couldn’t agree with #7 more! Homemade pie crust is the ONLY way to go!
Rene'
I have never made a from-scratch pizza crust that turned out well (taste and texture are always off). I always cheat and buy the Trader Joe’s crust. What am I doing wrong? I have tried numerous recipes.
Amanda D
I have the same problem! I’ve tried different recipes and techniques, but I always come up short.
carrieloveskeith
I felt the same way until I found Jim Lahey’s overnight no-knead pizza crust recipe. You just leave all the ingredients overnight in a bowl, leave it to spread out in a cast-iron skillet, bake it in a super-hot oven and eventually find yourself eating the most exquisite deep-dish pizza that you made, even though you’ve only ever felt like a putz who can’t make pizza crust :)
Jenny
Its called double 00 flour from Italy its the only way to get authentic Italian pizza crust the ap flour just doesn’t do it justice. You’ll probably need to order it online. Might get pricey good luck!
Thea M.
Being a baker requires a healthy combination of generosity – I want to share my creation with other people!! – and greediness – this is so delicious and it’s ALL FOR ME!
I won’t tell you which side of that paradigm I fall on.
Elizabeth O
I so agree with you on pie crust! It’s way too delicious & way too easy to make it yourself to waste a perfectly good pie filling on a mediocre store-bought crust. I’m also on a mission to get my loved ones to stop buying premade pie crust.
megbollenback
I think that all baking requires a bit of gumption! Cooking without a recipe comes easier to me, so I always feel like I have to pull on my big girl pants when I sit down to bake something. That being said, you’re inspiring me to try out my own pie crust. I’m also a big fan of rule #4….I think it’s a responsibility as a home-cook or baker to use up leftover ingredients in creative ways rather than let them go to waste. Thank you for the list and for inspiring our baking dreams!
Marissa @ In My Yellow Cardigan
This is such a great post! I just posted a mini-pies recipe on my site today and am like “I’m going to learn to bake pies from scratch damn it!”; I’ve mastered cookies but pies are next (even though I can admit I’m not much of a pie person).
Lissi
What a great post! My favorite line is, ” I’ll know and I’ll come squint my eyes at you.” You have a great way with words, Joy!
Allysa
I love that you mention under-baking brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Everybody always thinks I’m a nut when I share my cookie recipe that says “7-8 minutes…take them out when they’re still puffy and look under-cooked.” Then they do what they want and come back to me and say their cookies were hard and nothing at all like the ones I shared and, when asked how long they baked it for, the tell me 10 minutes because they didn’t look done yet. I just reprint the recipe for them with a smile and highlight the 7-8 minute comment. Thanks for the great tips!
krysten baxley (@andfocused)
Thanks so much for writing this – It’s just what I needed to stir some motivation. I was just talking to my hubby recently about learning how to really be better in the kitchen! This post is a great starting point. I’ve always been a recipe gal and want to start learning how to put my own creations together.
I can’t wait to try making a pie crust. I stopped at this little pie shop on a trip recently and they used a shortbread crust—it was AH-mazing. I’m obsessing about pie at the moment. Mmmm! Again, Thanks — and I promise to not make you have to squint your eyes at me for buying a freezer-section crust. Pinky promise!
Clementine Buttercup
I’ve never actually tested my oven temperature. Something I’m going to remedy immediately. Explains a lot.
clementinebuttercup.blogspot.co.uk
tinajo
Good advice indeed! :-)
mscate
what a lovely post, I really enjoyed reading it. I can’t wait until I live in an apartment with an oven so I can get baking again!
Tori@Gringalicious.com
Thank you so much for sharing all of these wonderful tips, Joy! I’m in total agreement with you on not being wasteful. I can spend way too much time scraping bowls clean to not waste one drip of batter and dreaming up ways to use extra yolks. Oh, and gooey chocolate chip cookies may be God’s greatest gift to human kind.