Top 5 baking secrets for your kitchen!
Professional bakers employ techniques perfected over the years to achieve perfect results every single time. Here are some things that you can do in your own kitchen, to get those perfect results!
1. If you want to make bread at home, use Instant yeast or Fast action yeast. This works better than dry yeast and the bread dough proves and rises much better. Try this once and you'll never want to eat readymade bread again!
2. Many bread recipes include salt for taste. Be very careful that the yeast doesn't come in direct contact with the salt - or the yeast will not work. Sieve the flour with the salt or sprinkle salt on the edges of your flour before mixing the yeast into a well in the centre when making the dough.
3. If a recipe calls for beating the eggs with sugar till 'light' or 'double in volume', then try using granulated sugar instead of using caster sugar and beat eggs until the sugar dissolves. This ensures that the eggs are sufficiently beaten and you incorporate maximum possible air into the batter.
4. Professor Gaikwad, Baking Instructor at MSIHMCT Pune, says that "greasing and dusting" or "greasing and lining" of cake tins or trays is a very important step to create perfect baked goods. This is particularly important when you have to un-mould the cake from the tin for frosting or for display. If the recipe calls for 'greasing and lining' the baking tin or tray with butter paper - line both the bottom and the sides of the tin. Then grease the paper once lined. This prevents the cake/cookies from sticking to the paper. If the recipe calls for 'grease and dust', carefully brush the inside of the tin with butter or oil and sprinkle some flour. Shake the tin so that the flour spreads evenly on the inside. Also be very careful to not touch the greased part once it is dusted.
5. Here is a tip if you plan to make one of those fantastic bakery style pastries at home - like the Black Forest pastries. Bake the cake a day ahead; wrap it in cling film and store in the freezer so that they are easier to cut and handle. For the icing use non-dairy whip toppings available at specialty bakery stores or gourmet stores. They are much easier to handle and give a smoother finish to the cake. Fresh cream on the other hand is difficult to handle and more so during summer, so it may split or curdle.
1. If you want to make bread at home, use Instant yeast or Fast action yeast. This works better than dry yeast and the bread dough proves and rises much better. Try this once and you'll never want to eat readymade bread again!
2. Many bread recipes include salt for taste. Be very careful that the yeast doesn't come in direct contact with the salt - or the yeast will not work. Sieve the flour with the salt or sprinkle salt on the edges of your flour before mixing the yeast into a well in the centre when making the dough.
3. If a recipe calls for beating the eggs with sugar till 'light' or 'double in volume', then try using granulated sugar instead of using caster sugar and beat eggs until the sugar dissolves. This ensures that the eggs are sufficiently beaten and you incorporate maximum possible air into the batter.
4. Professor Gaikwad, Baking Instructor at MSIHMCT Pune, says that "greasing and dusting" or "greasing and lining" of cake tins or trays is a very important step to create perfect baked goods. This is particularly important when you have to un-mould the cake from the tin for frosting or for display. If the recipe calls for 'greasing and lining' the baking tin or tray with butter paper - line both the bottom and the sides of the tin. Then grease the paper once lined. This prevents the cake/cookies from sticking to the paper. If the recipe calls for 'grease and dust', carefully brush the inside of the tin with butter or oil and sprinkle some flour. Shake the tin so that the flour spreads evenly on the inside. Also be very careful to not touch the greased part once it is dusted.
5. Here is a tip if you plan to make one of those fantastic bakery style pastries at home - like the Black Forest pastries. Bake the cake a day ahead; wrap it in cling film and store in the freezer so that they are easier to cut and handle. For the icing use non-dairy whip toppings available at specialty bakery stores or gourmet stores. They are much easier to handle and give a smoother finish to the cake. Fresh cream on the other hand is difficult to handle and more so during summer, so it may split or curdle.
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