How to Level Up Your Baking Game This Year
This is a collaborative post.
The art of baking is one of the greatest gifts to mankind so maybe you want to up your baking game. Baking serves so many wonderful purposes. Through baking, we can create mouth-watering treats for one person or 20 people. Baking can also be a de-stressing experience and function as a creative outlet.
Whether you’re a seasoned baker or are just picking up a whisk for the first time, this year is the perfect year for you to dive deeper into the baking game. Today, we are here to tell you about ways you can improve your baking in 2023.
No more cookies stuck on your baking sheet or recipes turning out less impressive than you had hoped for. With the following tips, you’ll be able to improve your baking skills tremendously this year and have the delicious bakes to prove it. Let’s jump right into it.
Completely Obey the Recipe
There is a saying in the baking world that goes, “the recipe is king.” We couldn’t agree more with this. So many attempts at baking fail not because the recipe is incorrect but because the baker didn’t follow the recipe as closely as they should have.
Most recipes you’ll come across are tried and true; passionate bakers pour out their hearts into crafting the perfect recipe, right down to the half-teaspoon.
Considering this, we are confident that the recipe is (usually) never wrong, and the solution to fix a failed baking attempt is to obey the recipe to a T.
If the recipe says two teaspoons of vanilla extract, you must put in exactly that amount. By throwing in an extra couple of drops on a whim to make the recipe sweeter, you could interfere with the chemistry of the ingredients and ruin your bake.
Always stay on the safe side and obey the recipe exactly using the temperatures the recipe asks for.
Line Your Baking Sheet
Do you know what the worst part of baking is? When the chocolate chip cookies you spent so long preparing and making it stick to the baking sheet! This is a complication that happens to the best of us, even the baking folks who have non-stick baking sheets.
A hack that you need to use this year to improve your baking is to line your baking sheet before you put on the cookie dough. You can line the sheet with aluminium foil or parchment paper; either will be effective in helping your cookies come right off after they’ve cooled.
Once you try this baking trick for the first time, you’ll never forget to line your baking sheet again! That is how much of a difference a simple sheet of parchment paper will have on your baking.
Keep the Oven Shut
One of the biggest lessons you can get out of baking is trusting the process. This is especially true for you baking fanatics out there who don’t have a window on your oven.
If you’re unable to look inside your oven, you might be tempted to open it for a couple of seconds while baking to see how it’s coming along. However, this small action is a huge mistake. When you open the oven while baking, you let out precious hot air that keeps the oven temperature stable, which is necessary for a proper bake.
Cool air will flood into your oven and, even if it might not look like it, ruin your bake. If you follow the recipe correctly and give your oven enough time to fully warm up, then even if you can’t see your bake in the oven, you should trust that it is doing exactly what it needs to do. This is one of the best things you can do to improve your baking this year.
Conclusion to up your baking game
In summary, here are a few ways you can level up your baking game in 2023:
- Completely obey the recipe
- Line your baking sheet
- Keep the oven shut
These three tricks might seem simple and inconsequential, but trust us; they can make or break how your baked goods come out. Baking is a ton of fun, but it wouldn’t be if your baked goods kept coming out inedible or even slightly off.
The beauty of baking comes from following the recipe perfectly through a deep understanding of your ingredients and their interactions with one another to create the picture-perfect, mouth-watering bake that will leave you wanting to recreate that recipe time and time again.
We hope these tips were helpful for you as you improve your baking skills this year. Remember; practice makes perfect. If a recipe fails, all you have to do is try again!