THE BASIC OF BAKING

Hello Sweetie,

This Thursday would be dedicated to our kitchen. Where we would be learning the basics of baking Occasionally we want to sit in our houses and makes these sweet things we buy from the groceries.
Take Note of everything you read as Emeka Victoria teaches us🙈

THE BASICS OF BAKING.

By Emeka Victoria.

Baking is a form of art. Baking can be a masterpiece, if done right.Baking and learning how to bake can often be referred to as the chemistry of cooking.My number one tip for baking correctly is knowing your ingredients Flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and flavorings. These are the simple ingredients you need to produce a seemingly endless variety of products from bread,cakes to pastries. To consistently produce quality goods you must pay careful heed to the character and quantity of each ingredient, the method the ingredients are combined, and the various cooking methods used. Unlike a steak where it can be cut, grilled, roasted, sauteed, or braised and still be the same steak, baking depends on your ability to be accurate, careful, and precise. No amount of baking lessons or cooking lessons can make you understand that principle because it’s a fundamental truth. Learning how to bake is a mindset, just like anything else.
 Recipes for baking are not called recipes – they are referred to as formulas. When it comes to baked goods, changing an ingredient produces a large effect on the finished product and can fundamentally change it.  There are many different flours, fats, liquids, and sweeteners that all function in a different manner. Bread flour and cake flour are not the same, nor are shortening and butter.If you have a good understanding of ingredients, how they function and what they do your baking experiences will be much more successful and consistent.

Basics of baking 101

1. Always Have the Correct Butter Consistency

Butter is the starting point for an immense amount of baked goods, so it’s important to have it prepped as the recipe suggests. The temperature of butter can dramatically affect the texture of baked goods. There are three different consistencies of butter that baking recipes typically call for: softened, chilled (or frozen like in scones), and melted. Most recipes calling for butter call for room temperature/softened butter. Room temperature butter is actually cool to touch, not warm. When you press it, your finger will make an indent. Your finger won’t sink down into the butter, nor will your finger slide all around. To get that perfect consistency and temperature, leave butter out on the counter for around 1 hour prior to beginning your recipe.

Photo Credit: Sally's Baking Addiction

2. Room Temperature is KEY

Speaking of temperature, if a recipe calls for room temperature eggs or any dairy ingredients such as milk or yogurt, make sure you follow suit. Recipes don’t just do that for fun– room temperature ingredients emulsify much easier into batter, which creates a uniform texture throughout your baked good. Think of rock hard butter– it’s not so easy to cream that into a soft consistency, is it? Same goes for eggs. They add much more volume to the batter at room temperature. So yes, temperature is imperative!

3. Read the Recipe Before Beginning
This sounds sort of silly to type, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a complete and total disaster in the kitchen because I didn’t realize a certain step was coming up. Reading ahead will help you know the how, why, where, and when of what you are about to do. It will take you 1-5 minutes and could save you from wasting your ingredients (and money!).

4. Always Have Ingredients Prepared
Measure your ingredients before beginning a recipe. Read through the ingredients, get them prepared and ready on your counter, then read the recipe in full. There is very little room for error when you begin recipes this way.

5. Learn How to Measure
Baking is a science. Excellent baking requires precise ratios, proven techniques, and successful recipes that have been tested for taste. Unlike cooking, you can’t just bake something by throwing some ingredients together, mess it up and eat it anyway! One of the most crucial parts of baking is measuring ingredients properly.
Problems are common if measurements are incorrect. Having a firm grasp of measuring techniques is essential. Measure dry ingredients in measuring cups or spoons– these are specially designed for dry ingredients. Spoon and level (aka “spoon and sweep”) your dry ingredients. This means that you should use a spoon to fill the cup and level it off. This is especially important with flour. Scooping flour (or any dry ingredient) packs that ingredient down and you could be left with up to 150% more than what is actually needed. A recipe calling for 1 cup of flour and baked with 2 or more cups instead will surely result in a fail. And a rather dry baked good! And for liquid ingredients, I always use a clear liquid measuring cup.

6. Weigh Your Ingredients
A small kitchen scale is priceless! It is, by far, the most used tool in my kitchen. A gram or ounce is always a gram or an ounce. But a cup isn’t always a cup. This is why I offer gram measurements with my recipes. Again, precision is everything.

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PhotoCredit: Pinterest

8. Keep Your Oven Door Closed
You  know  the oven’s temperature can ruin a recipe when not properly set. But what can completely throw off the oven temperature is constantly opening and closing that oven to peek at your baking cupcakes. I mean, I get it. It’s tempting to keep the oven door ajar to see your cake rising, the cookies baking, and the cupcakes puffing up! But doing so can let cool air in, which greatly interrupts your baked good from cooking. Or worse– affects how your baked good is rising. If you need to test your cakes for doneness with a toothpick, do so quickly. Remove it from the oven, close the oven immediately, test for doneness, put it back in as quickly as you can if more bake time is required.

THANK YOU

Emeka Victoria is a Nigerian, a Christian and French Tutor of Leotoria French Class,where she is the founder along side her best friend. She is also the Project Manager for an NGO "Church on the Street"

She loves helping her community, she enjoys impacting the lives of those around her through her words, friendliness and smile.

 She is the CEO of  Toria Confectioneries Victoria playst the guitar and writes for a hobby.

Contact Emeka Victoria (+234 815 136 7655 )more details on baking and your lovely pastries.

YOURS SINCERELY,

TAMAR