2 Baking Tricks I've Learned
On the days I cook at Cornerstone, one of my responsibilities has been to make
a dessert of some sort. These desserts usually end up being some kind of bars
or cakes. Occasionally, I’ll make cookies, but not very often.
Anyway...after having this responsibility for several years now, I’m slowly learning a few tricks to help make the job easier.
Here are two that I have used recently:
Trick #1: When pressing stiff cookie-dough type dough into a pan for bars, do two things:
*First, scoop (or crumble) the dough into multiple piles instead of just one big pile in the middle. Having multiple piles of dough on the pan will make it much easier to press the dough into the pan—the dough will only have to spread a couple inches to reach the edges instead of all the way from the middle out to the edges!
*Secondly, use plastic wrap to help press it into the pan. A piece of plastic wrap slightly bigger than the pan should do the job. Just lay it on top of the dough and start pressing away: your hands will stay clean, while sliding easily over the dough, helping the dough to spread out quite nicely because it’s not all sticking to your hands!
What used to take me 5 minutes to do now takes hardly a minute (and causes much less frustration!!)
Trick #2: If you need a dry cake mix, but don’t have one…just use the dry ingredients from a regular cake recipe.
Recipe books like Better Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens have standard recipes for tried-and-true white, yellow, chocolate, etc. cakes that are sure to deliver!
The other day I was needing a gluten free cake mix for a dump-cake style recipe. I didn’t need the whole cake with all the wet ingredients--otherwise I would have just made the whole recipe--I just needed the dry mix to sprinkle on top of some fruit.
But I didn’t have a gluten free cake mix.
So I used the cup-for-cup all-purpose gluten free flour and mixed it with the sugar, baking powder, and salt for a white cake recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.
And ta-DAH! I had my gluten free cake mix!
And it worked great!
This trick would also work to make you own bulk mixes. You would then just make a label noting what wet ingredients would need to be added later.
To figure how much dry mix you would need per recipe, you just need to add the amount of sugar and flour for the total (since everything else is just a teaspoon here and another teaspoon there—not enough to make a difference in the overall amount of dry ingredients.)
So for example: if your recipe calls for 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar, you would then use 2 1/2 cups of mix for a cake. Or, if it is a chocolate cake, you would also need to calculate in the amount of cocoa powder with the flour and sugar.
I think you get the point…
Disclaimer: I know boxed cake mixes are super cheap, yummy, and easy, so this isn’t necessarily a cheaper or easier way to go when it comes to making a cake… This trick is primarily for when you are needing a dry mix now (but you don’t have one) or if you’re wanting to make your own bulk mixes. In that case, this is one way to do it!
I will also add that this trick would work best for recipes that are really straight forward and don’t have fancy ingredients or baking techniques (such as melting or cooking certain ingredients, lots of creaming or beating ingredients in a specific order, etc.) In other words, recipes that are “combine dry ingredients in one bowl; combine wet ingredients in another bowl; combine dry and wet ingredients” would work best, because, essentially, you're just combining the dry ingredients ahead of time for the mix and then adding the wet ingredients later.
More complicated recipes probably would also work—they just might require that you, the cook, be more knowledgeable in how to make it work as a make-ahead mix.
And there you have it! Maybe these are some tricks that you haven't thought of before and will find them to be helpful the next time you bake!
Anyway...after having this responsibility for several years now, I’m slowly learning a few tricks to help make the job easier.
Here are two that I have used recently:
Trick #1: When pressing stiff cookie-dough type dough into a pan for bars, do two things:
*First, scoop (or crumble) the dough into multiple piles instead of just one big pile in the middle. Having multiple piles of dough on the pan will make it much easier to press the dough into the pan—the dough will only have to spread a couple inches to reach the edges instead of all the way from the middle out to the edges!
*Secondly, use plastic wrap to help press it into the pan. A piece of plastic wrap slightly bigger than the pan should do the job. Just lay it on top of the dough and start pressing away: your hands will stay clean, while sliding easily over the dough, helping the dough to spread out quite nicely because it’s not all sticking to your hands!
What used to take me 5 minutes to do now takes hardly a minute (and causes much less frustration!!)
Trick #2: If you need a dry cake mix, but don’t have one…just use the dry ingredients from a regular cake recipe.
Recipe books like Better Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens have standard recipes for tried-and-true white, yellow, chocolate, etc. cakes that are sure to deliver!
The other day I was needing a gluten free cake mix for a dump-cake style recipe. I didn’t need the whole cake with all the wet ingredients--otherwise I would have just made the whole recipe--I just needed the dry mix to sprinkle on top of some fruit.
But I didn’t have a gluten free cake mix.
So I used the cup-for-cup all-purpose gluten free flour and mixed it with the sugar, baking powder, and salt for a white cake recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.
And ta-DAH! I had my gluten free cake mix!
And it worked great!
This trick would also work to make you own bulk mixes. You would then just make a label noting what wet ingredients would need to be added later.
To figure how much dry mix you would need per recipe, you just need to add the amount of sugar and flour for the total (since everything else is just a teaspoon here and another teaspoon there—not enough to make a difference in the overall amount of dry ingredients.)
So for example: if your recipe calls for 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar, you would then use 2 1/2 cups of mix for a cake. Or, if it is a chocolate cake, you would also need to calculate in the amount of cocoa powder with the flour and sugar.
I think you get the point…
Disclaimer: I know boxed cake mixes are super cheap, yummy, and easy, so this isn’t necessarily a cheaper or easier way to go when it comes to making a cake… This trick is primarily for when you are needing a dry mix now (but you don’t have one) or if you’re wanting to make your own bulk mixes. In that case, this is one way to do it!
I will also add that this trick would work best for recipes that are really straight forward and don’t have fancy ingredients or baking techniques (such as melting or cooking certain ingredients, lots of creaming or beating ingredients in a specific order, etc.) In other words, recipes that are “combine dry ingredients in one bowl; combine wet ingredients in another bowl; combine dry and wet ingredients” would work best, because, essentially, you're just combining the dry ingredients ahead of time for the mix and then adding the wet ingredients later.
More complicated recipes probably would also work—they just might require that you, the cook, be more knowledgeable in how to make it work as a make-ahead mix.
And there you have it! Maybe these are some tricks that you haven't thought of before and will find them to be helpful the next time you bake!
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