10 Beginner Baking Tips You Absolutely Need to Know

Baking is one of my favorite activities. Not only is it satisfying to create something from scratch, mixing, rolling, and kneading dough can be excellent stress relievers. I share my treats with friends, family, and co-workers, who grab my offerings the minute I arrive, saying, “I’ll take this for you.” Most of these people are not bakers, preferring to be gifted treats rather than prepare them. No problem. I’m happy to supply goodies. So why would I write a post on 10 Beginner Baking Tips You Absolutely Need to Know?

Essential Baking Tips You Need to Know:

Since the pandemic began, many of my friends have expressed an interest in baking. I’ve listened to their stories of cooking experiments gone wrong; forgetting ingredients, adding salt instead of sugar, substituting baking powder for baking soda, and ruining baking sheets. I decided to share my 10 best baking tips for beginners to help anyone who has found their baking experience has gone awry.

Baking Tips and Tricks for Beginners

1. Read through the recipe before you begin. There’s a few reasons for this. First, you can see if you like all the ingredients in a recipe. If you don’t like some of the ingredients, chances are you probably won’t like the finished product. Second, you can see if you need to do advance prep work. Does the butter need to be softened? Do the eggs need to be separated? Finally, you’ll find out the time needed to prepare the recipe. If you’re in a hurry, you won’t be happy to find the recipe has a 2-hour preparation and baking time halfway through the baking process.

2. Mise en place – This fancy French phrase simply means to gather all your ingredients into one place before you begin. Doing this will save time-no more stopping to search through the cabinet or pantry for an ingredient, save money- no more stopping because you realize you’re out of an ingredient and need to run to the store, and help ensure that all the ingredients make it into the recipe.

3. Grab all your baking tools before you begin. Baking cups, rolling pins, measuring cups, all of it. Having it in one place and ready to go is a huge time saver. It also makes clean-up easier as you can drop the tools in the dishwasher as you go.

4. Preheat, preheat, preheat. What does preheating the oven mean? Just turn on the oven before baking and allow it to heat to the temperature required by the recipe. I know this sounds like a time-wasting step, but when the oven is at the correct temperature, food bakes evenly and requires less baking time than when the food is placed in a cold oven.

5. Use the right measuring tools and baking pans– It’s easy to grab the first baking dish or cake pan you find on the shelf. Sadly, that can alter the results of the recipe. Because recipes are tested in the pans specified in the recipe, using different pans can cause overcooking, undercooking, and finished products that are too thin or too thick.

6. Prepare the recipe exactly as written. I am the world’s worst about substituting ingredients, changing things up, and not measuring. Instead, I often add ingredients until “it tastes right.” I can usually look at ingredients and say, “Oh, yes! I’ve added about 1 cup.” However, if you add too much or too little of certain ingredients, you’ll have a dish no one will eat. To this day, I still carefully measure out the baking powder, baking soda, and other ingredients before I begin.

7. Don’t overmix. This can cause 2 problems. Either the dough can become aerated, making the end product fragile and prone to fall apart, or the dough will have extra gluten development, resulting in dense, chewy baked goods no one wants to eat.

8. Grease the pans. How do you grease a pan? Simply spray it with nonstick cooking spray or lightly rub butter around the bottom and sides of the baking seat. Greasing the pan helps keep the final product from sticking to the pan when you’ve finished baking. No one wants to leave half of a cake stuck to the pan.

9. Keep it closed. Opening the oven door during baking time causes the hot air to rush out of the oven and cooler air to flow in. The oven is no longer at the correct temperature. This can cause baked goods to fall or to create a heavy, dense baked good instead of the light, fluffy texture you want.

10. Allow for Cooling Time. Cooling helps give the finished product stability, allows for excess moisture to evaporate, and helps keep your treats from becoming gummy in the center. If you are adding frosting, it won’t melt and slide off the tops and sides leaving you with an empty cake.

I hope these 10 baking tips and tricks help you to create the perfect dessert! What is your favorite baking tip you’ve learned? Share it with us in the comments!

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10 Beginner Baking Tips You Absolutely Need to Know

Essential Baking Tips You Need to Know:

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