If you are baking for the first time and are not familiar with tips and tricks for baking, chances are you are messing up a lot. We have enlisted some common mistakes to avoid so that the baking never stops and is done right. This is not the situation for you to be wasteful by mistakes while trying to feed that sweet tooth and savoury craving.
Not Procuring the Right Stuff
It’s like a red alert for all the circuit bakers to procure the right amount of ingredients. There have been reports of shortage in the baking supplies everywhere. All the braking frenzy is leading to baking good being wiped off the shelves within few hours.
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While all this will make you panic, buy it whenever you are shopping, but only buy what you actually need. This is a major rule with baking that you need to ingredients to be fresh and far from outdated. Any particular ingredient that is not fresh will lead to your recipe failing badly altogether.
You can find affordable baking supplies with vendors like Bake King or Bake With Yen, and they will home deliver it to you. Moreover, you can place an order directly with a supplier like Redman. Other websites like Amazon and Giant also have a huge range of baking supplies. You can try your luck at your neighbourhood provision shops and the wet market as well.
Following Misleading Recipes
Now that you have all your ingredients set aside, you need to find an easy-to-follow recipe. Any recipe that has long hours of baking and lengthy steps should not be your debut baking recipe. You will only learn as you go from beginner to intermediate level. Pick a recipe that does not has too many technicalities and ingredients that are hard to find.
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You can use a recipe for a cake that can also double up as muffins in case you have leftover batter. Also, see that the recipe is enough for you to understand how the precision addition of ingredients work so that you do not add too much or too little.
Measuring Mistakes
Baking requires you to be precise with the ingredients instead of eyeballing the ingredients and expecting a miracle in your oven. Avoid scooping the flour and sugar straight from the bag, instead use a spoon to fill the cup. Know that there is a difference between a heaping spoon and a levelled spoon of ingredients.
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Also, do not use the same cups and vessels for both wet and dry ingredients. This will lead to major troubles on your baking tray. Use separate cups that are specifically designed to measure liquids and solid ingredients. Always sift the powdered ingredients to avoid lumps in the batter. You can use a cling film to pour liquid ingredients by placing it in the container. Then pour down the ingredients through it.
Temperature Variations
Ever wondered what went wrong while making frosting or why the batter was hard? The answer lies in the temperature difference between the ingredients. It is required that all the ingredients are at room temperature. And you cannot cheat your way through heating cold ingredients in the microwave.
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Baking needs a lot of planning and leaving the ingredients to come to room temperature on their own. If you need to soften the butter quickly, just heat a glass bowl in the microwave and place your butter under it. This will soften the butter to form a homogeneous mixture with the ingredients. Meanwhile, let your eggs and any other liquids attain the room temperature.
Touch of the Mixing Skills
Mixing all the baking ingredients can be tricky and requires adequate skills. There are a few mixing techniques for you to brave so that the batter is ready to go into the oven. If you wish to form a creamy mixture, you will need an electric mixture for it to entrap the air.
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While beating the mixture, you need to add the ingredients slowly little by little. Use a hand whisk or an electric whisk to get it done faster. Make sure that the cake batter does not curdle up after beating. Also, learn how to fold the ingredients if required in the recipe. The air will stay preserved and will prevent over-mixing of the ingredients. Therefore, there will be no gluten formation in the batter.
Being Forceful
Use a light hand to prevent your cakes and muffins from becoming too dense and hard. You can use the motion of number eight with a wooden spatula while folding ingredients. Know when all the ingredients in the bowl are done. Do not over mix anything. This is one of the most common baking mistakes to avoid for circuit breakers.
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Substitution Issues
While we all are in the circuit breaker, there are so many special ingredients that are running out of the pantry shelf. If you are substituting one ingredient with another, you need to be aware of the science of the constituents and how they work. The substitution of eggs with flax seeds only works in muffins and bread but fails for cakes and pastries.
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Being out of pineapples for sour pork, you can substitute with raw mangoes and apples. Furthermore, you can add lemon juice instead of vinegar and vice versa to curdle your milk. You can also make your cream cheese at home with fresh cream, milk, and vinegar.
Innovative but not Scientific
You know you can use a makeshift double boiler in your kitchen to melt chocolate. You just need to be innovative with a glass bowl and a heavy bottom utensil under it. If your oven stops working for some reason, you can try steam cooking your cake over the burner. This will also make your cake softer and spongier.
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In case you are cooking for one, hint midnight cravings, you can opt to make mug cakes with cake premix, an egg, and some chocolate syrup in the microwave. While steam baking, make sure that the batter cooks homogeneously at a gradual rate.
Not Knowing Appliances
At a point of being a circuit baker, you will realize the importance of an electrical whisk if you want your cream to be frothy. Your arms will thank you as well if you use an electric mixer to mix your batter.
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The appliances will help in making baking easier and result in better tasting cake and bread. To measure your ingredients accurately, get a small digital scale. You can also get an IR thermometer to check the temperature while cooking.
Being Impatient
Cooking and baking, in general, need you to be patient and don’t act in haste in any step of the process. You should not open your oven door too often, or your cake won’t bake uniformly. Try to monitor your cake with the oven lights. You can open the door ten minutes before the timer to check if it’s done with a wooden skewer.
We hope these tips are useful in avoiding the common baking mistakes to avoid circuit breakers. Hopefully, your cakes will come out spongier, and your pastries will be airy with smooth frosting.
Related Topic: 10 Best Easy Mug Recipes
Written by: Navkiran
