COOKING TIPS

11 Things You Need to Do to Make Your

Baked Goods Better

OCTOBER 21, 2014

BY ROCHELLE BILOW

We'll admit it: Sometimes, we fudge things when we cook. After all, who needs a recipe
for simple weeknight pasta? Off-the-cuff roasted chicken is a snap. We're big fans of
that intuitive, little-bit-of-this, little-bit-of-that kitchen style because it makes our lives and
our dinners easier. But when it comes to baking, we play by the rules. Baking is a
science that requires precision, and often doesn't allow for creative liberties. Senior food
editor Dawn Perry and assistant food editor Claire Saffitz, both seasoned bakers, talk us
through why instructions like setting a timer, weighing flour, and using room-temperature
eggs actually matter. For flakier pie crusts, moister cakes, and chewier cookies, there
are just some rules that can't be broken. Follow these 11 tips to be a way better baker.

1. Use Room-Temperature Ingredients

If you've seen it once, you've seen it a thousand times. How many recipes call for room-
temperature butter, eggs, and milk? It's a step you should not ignore. Many baked goods
start by creaming together butter and sugar, which is made infinitely easier with gently
warmed ingredientsif you've ever tried to stick an electric mixer in a brick of rock-hard
cold butter, you know why. "If you're going to bake, you've got to either plan ahead or be
patient," Saffitz says, adding that she often leaves eggs and butter out on the counter
overnight and then begins the project in the morningthey slowly come to the perfect
temperature while she sleeps. ____
Leave this baby on the counter for better cookies.

Equally important as room-temperature ingredients are same-temperature ingredients:

"Add hot things to hot things, and cold things to cold things," Saffitz says, citing a fussy
chocolate ganache as an example. If you pour piping hot cream over chilly chocolate,
the cocoa fat can separate, making your sauce look oily and unappealing. That's why
many recipes call for tempering a hot ingredient with a cooler oneit ensures that the
emulsion won't seize or separate.
2. Invest in Quality Bakeware

You can bake successfully in a subpar ovenas we discuss in tip number nine, you can
adjust for hot spots and ovens in need of recalibration, Saffitz says. But all bets are off
when it comes to low-quality bakeware. Flimsy, thin pans and sheet trays won't conduct
heat efficiently, causing your cake, pie, cookies, or pastries to bake inefficiently.

This is also important when it comes to mixing bowlsSaffitz insists on glass and metal
ones that work best as makeshift double-boilers. "Never use plastic as a double boiler,"
she says. Another consideration? Nonstick coatings can flake off over time, imparting
foreign matter into your treatsit's best to avoid them. A better way to circumvent
baked-on pastries? A well-greased pan (see tip number three), a Silpat liner, or a sheet
of parchment paper.

3. Butter and Flour Your Pans Generously

"I once asked someone to butter and flour a pan, and she just swiped a few streaks in
it," Saffitz says. If this sends chills down your spine, you know the power of a well-
buttered pan. When a recipe calls for a greased and/or floured vessel, it's for a reason:
Your batter or dough has the potential to bake on and adhere to the pan, so butter it
up. Consider every nook and cranny that could get sticky, and be generous and
thorough with your applicationthat means getting into corners and at the seams where
the bottom and sides meet.

If you're also flouring a pan, add in more than enough to cover, tip the pan to coat
completely, then tap out the excess. Be careful where you hold itfinger marks on the
interior leave the pan exposed, and are opportunities for the batter to stick.

4. Weigh Ingredients

Both Perry and Saffitz are strong believers in the power of a digital scale.Successful
baking means eliminating as much potential for error as possible, and that means
making sure your measurements are exact. A cup of flour measured in volume, for
example, can vary as much as five ouncesan amount that can mean the difference
between buttery and flakyand dense and cakey. A good digital scalewhich'll cost
you about $20eliminates all the guesswork and the need to wash measuring cups.
Don't forget to set the tare to adjust for the weight of your mixing bowl!

Less guesswork and fewer dishes to wash? Score.

5. Toss the Old Stuf

You want to bake a loaf of banana bread. The recipe calls for baking soda.
You have baking soda. Sounds great, right? There's just one problem: The soda's been
in your fridge since 2008. Solution? Toss it and buy a new package. The majority of
ingredients used in baked goodslike baking soda, baking powder, yeast, and, yes,
flourhave a relatively short shelf life, so if you don't fire up the oven frequently,
purchase them in small quantities so they don't sit in your cupboard, quietly going
rancid. If you're not sure how fresh an ingredient is, either simply buy a new one or test
it. To check the freshness of baking powder, pour boiling water over a small quantityif
it bubbles, it's still fresh. Flour should smell fresh and feel light, not chalky; and fresh
yeast dissolved in warm (110-115) water will bubble and foam after a few minutes.

6. Take Your Time to Fully Complete Each Step

At one time or another, we've all thought, "Well, all these ingredients are going to end up
in the same bowl eventually, so why not just dump 'em in together and mix it up?"
Unfortunately, this easy way out only burns us in the end. It's imperative to take the time
to follow the instructions in the order they're presentedand to do them completely and
thoroughly. Creaming together butter and sugar with a handheld or stand mixer, for
example, should be done before the addition of wetter ingredients, like eggs. Why? The
fat in butter holds air, and, when whipped, expands. In the creaming process, sharp
sugar granules slice through the butter, creating air pockets that ultimately give the
pastry lift. Skip that step (or do it half-heartedly) and your end result will be dense and
heavy. ____

Pay special attention to key instructions like "cream until light and fluffy," "mix until just
combined," and "fold in gently." Overmixing overdevelops gluten and deflates the air
pockets you worked so hard to create, as does a vigorous or overzealous folding
motion. A note on sifting ingredients: Unless it's ultralight, ultra-delicate cake flour, or
powdered sugar that needs as much aeration as it can get, it's a step you can skip.

7. Use Salt

"If you're looking to cut down on the sodium, baked goods are not the place to do so,"
Perry says. The half teaspoon of salt added to two dozen cookies won't set you over
your daily allotment, but leaving it out will drastically change the taste of the cookie. Salt
isn't necessarily in a recipe to make it taste salty (unless we're talking salted caramel)
it's usually there to keep the baked good from tasting flat, one-note, or overly sweet. Salt
makes other ingredients, like vanilla, almond, lemon, and sugar "pop." One instruction
the test kitchen happily ignores? Recipes that call for fine salt. Perry and Saffitz always
have kosher salt close at hand, and even though iodized salt is "saltier" than coarser
kosher crystals, the amount necessary is usually so small that the substitution doesn't
make a drastic difference. Plus, heating the salt allows it to dissolve into the batter or
dough, making the coarseness a moot point.
8. Rotate Halfway Through

Every oven has a hot spot, and if you don't correct for it, you run the risk of unevenly
cooked pastriesor worse, some that burn or wind up underbaked. When a recipe calls
for turning a baking sheet or pan 180 degrees halfway through the process, don't ignore
it. If the back of your oven is hotter than the front, you need to give every corner and
side of your concoction the same treatment. Don't, however, open the oven constantly to
check on progressit'll lower the temperature and alter the baking time.
This is what we mean when we say "golden brown."

9. Don't Mess with the Oven Temperature and Cooking Time (Unless You Should)
"Don't try to MacGyver your baked goods!" Saffitz pleads. If a recipe for custard calls for
an hour at 300 degrees but you're pressed for time, don't tweak it to 30 minutes at 425:
It won't be as silky or luxuriously creamy. Cakes especially lose moisture when cooked
hard and fast, and you also run the risk of burning more delicate ingredients, like an
almond-meal crust.

First, find out if your oven runs hot or coldif you know that it's consistently 25 degrees
colder than what you set it at, adjust accordingly. A thermometer that lives inside your
oven will eliminate any guessing, so if you don't have one, now's the time to
invest. Equally important is that you set and use a timer. It's easy to get distracted while
your cake bakes, so don't rely on your memory to alert you that time's up.

Now, all that said, there's a caveat: Perry and Saffitz agree that Americans, as a general
rule, underbake their pastries. Delicate cakes have the tendency to dry out quickly and
should adhere to a strictly prescribed time. But pies? Cookies? Breads? "That baby
better be deep golden brown," Perry says. Five more minutes in the oven won't burn an
apple pie to a crisp, but it will take it from pale to handsomely burnished.

10. Let It Cool Completely (Unless You Shouldn't)

This is an admittedly hard rule to adhere toSaffitz cops to preemptively trying to

unmold fresh-out-of-the-oven baked goods. But here's why she tries to wait: A
completely cooled pastry has allowed the steam to totally evaporate, making the cake
(or bread, or whatever) easier to handle. If you've taken the proper stepsnamely,
buttering and flouring that panyou should have no problem unmolding once it's
properly cooled. Also, ever try to frost a still-warm cake? It's a disaster! A melty, goopy
disaster. There's a caveat, though: Some desserts and pastries must be removed from
their pans as soon as they come out of the oven, like a tarte tatin. Others, like a fragile
chiffon cake, need to settle and cool completely before being handled.

11. Use Substitutions at Your Own Risk

Real talk: There is no real substitution for white, granulated sugar. Yes, we love agave.
We adore maple syrup. But these alterna-sweeteners don't have the same chemistry as
those fine crystals, and a recipe that includes white sugar is a recipe that relies on the
science of how it will interact with the other ingredients. Sugar does a whole lot more
than sweetenit adds color, texture, moisture, and aeration. And don't think you can get
away with slashing out half of the sugar in a recipe for a healthier versionassume that
everything in the recipe is there for a reason.