Tips for moms: Secrets for perfect baking without unpleasant surprises

It has happened to you several times to bake a dessert or food and to your surprise it is not tasty, it has been overcooked or the opposite.

The proper baking has its secrets while preparation and preparation play an equally important role in the final result.

Let’s look at some of them:

• Use a sifter to flour cake pans, cookie sheets and work surfaces.
• To keep a mixing bowl in place when whisking or mixing ingredients, place a damp cloth under the bowl.
• If a recipe calls for sifting the dry ingredients, instead of sifting, add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix with a whisk.
• It is best to let ingredients such as eggs, butter and milk come to room temperature before mixing with other ingredients.
• Make sure the eggs are fresh and cold when you need to separate the whites from the yolks.
• When whipping the cream, both the cream and the bowl should remain cold to give better volume.
• When making a puff pastry, sprinkle a little water on the edge of the bottom crust before placing the second crust on top. The wet edge helps to “seal” the leaves together.
• Prevent the meringue from shrinking by adding it to the pie while the filling is still warm and making sure it goes all the way around the edges.
• Instead of throwing away leftover pie crusts, brush them lightly with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake until golden brown.
• For best results when making baked goods, use whole milk rather than low-fat or fat-free milk.
• For cake-like brownies, increase the amount of eggs used.
• For baking recipes that call for oil, replace half or all of the oil with applesauce to create a low-fat version of the recipe. Reduce the baking time to avoid the recipe becoming too dry.
• When making icing with powdered sugar, add a pinch of baking powder to make the icing creamier.
• Use powdered sugar instead of flour when shaping the cookies. The powdered sugar will add sweetness to the cookies and you won’t have to worry about adding too much flour.

Oven

The temperature as well as the place where you have to bake the food or dessert are decisive factors of a proper baking.

Every time you use the oven remember the following:

• Preheat the oven before each baking to the correct temperature (stated in the dessert recipes)
• Calculate the baking time correctly. It counts from the moment you put the food or dessert in the oven.
• Do not open and close the oven door as the temperature changes.
• Once the food or dessert is baked, do not leave it in the oven because it will dry out (don’t forget that the oven is still hot). Of course there are some exceptions.
• Most sweets are baked with air and not with up-down resistances. However, you know your oven best, so the choice is yours.

With information from recipetips.com