Kitchen Hints - Baking

Baking

Metal Cooks Pie Crust Best
It’s no wonder that Marie Callender’s (etc.) uses metal pie plates. The use of a metal pan or plate is the best choice for cooking pie. Metal conducts heat better than ceramic or glass alternatives and therefore helps to crisp and cook the pie dough, and if you’ve ever had soggy crust pie, you know that this is important!

When Rolling Out Pie Crust…Tips
I like to roll out pastry crust on top of a piece of wax paper. To hold the wax paper in place wipe counter or table with a wet dishcloth to dampen surface before you place the wax paper down. Also, turning wax paper a quarter turn a few times, makes it easier to roll out an even, more round crust. Flour the rolling pin rather than the dough for the crust. Roll out dough at room temperature, not cold.

Keep Chocolate Cake Dark and Pie Crust White
Many will tell you that cooking is an art, not a science. If you’re into the “looks” of your masterpieces here a couple things to consider. You can use cocoa or carob powder to dust the baking pan, instead of white flour, when cooking dark cakes, in order to avoid the white marks the flour can leave. To keep pie crust white, brush crust with a little egg white before adding filling. This keeps fruit juices from soaking into the crust as fruit cooks in the shell.

Cut the Cake and Keep the Frosting With it!
Cutting cheesecake or any cake with sticky frosting, often leaves more cheesecake or frosting on the knife than the plate. At a women’s gathering I found the solution. A woman stood at the dessert table with a long piece of dental floss. She held it stretched tight over the cake, and pressed it down through the cake every few inches—lengthwise and then crosswise across the cake. Then she simply lifted the pieces off the sheet with a spatula. No more messy servings!

Toasting Seeds and Almonds for That Recipe
When a recipe calls for toasted nuts or seeds simply lay them out in a single layer on a baking dish. I like to use a dark metal pan such as a cake round, but anything will do. I often do slivered almonds and sesame seeds together in the same pan even. Put the pan in the oven and turn it on (to anything). Check nuts/seeds after a few minutes; stir and return to oven, repeating a few times until done to your liking. Almonds can be roasted in a 350 degree oven for about 7 minutes but why bother with the preheating? The only tricky part is not letting them burn, so after the first few minutes, just watch them closely.

Baking Powder Must Work and Brown Sugar Must be Soft
To find success in baking you have to start with ingredients that work. For instance, how do you know that baking powder still works? B.P.’s shelf life is about one year. To test it just add a teaspoon to a cup of hot water. If it fizzes it’s good, if not, throw it out.

Hard brown sugar can cause problems in the outcome of your final product. Something that helps keep brown sugar soft is storing it in the refrigerator. No matter what, it’s best to store in an airtight container. If you leave it in its original bag, close it up tight after using part. If you don’t have room in the refrigerator, adding a slice of bread or small piece of citrus fruit (with peel) to the container that holds your sugar works well. But change the bread often if you don’t use the sugar within a few days, and the sugar can take on some citrus taste if it’s left too long.

Raising Dough and Don’t Wrap it Warm
I raise bread or roll dough in a warmed oven (I turn it on for about 1 minute is all) with a dish of steaming water sitting in the bottom, under my bowl of dough (covered with a dishtowel).The heat from the water will cause the bread to rise and the steaminess keeps the dough from drying out. If it needs to rise for some time I periodically pull the water dish (something like an 8-inch pan) out, reheat the water and put back in the oven.

Ever wonder why the loaves of fresh baked French bread at the store always have one end of the bag open? It’s important to let bread (or rolls) cool completely before wrapping since the steam can cause the loaf to become mushy and create an environment for breeding bacteria, thus decreasing shelf life. Small loaves of bread make a great little remembrance gift for neighbors at Christmas time—just don’t wrap them completely if you deliver them warm!

Good Idea to Have Dry Milk as Back-up
It happens--you’re low on milk, and dread the response to your “rationing” efforts the next morning at breakfast. It’s a great idea to keep some dry milk on hand always because you can use it as a substitute in your baking and you can’t tell the difference. That’s a big help if you’re out of fresh.

As for breakfast “rations,” even though I buy the you-can’t-tell-it’s-dry-milk variety, my kids always can if I give it to them “straight.” But I can get by with mixing dry with fresh (half and half at most) if I mix the two at night. That way it has time to settle and helps the milk be more like the “real thing” (according to the kids).

No More Flat Cookies
Refrigerate cookie dough prior to baking to prevent the cookies from spreading and going flat. I like to do it just until the dough is cool. If you let it get so cold that it’s hard, then the dough becomes a little difficult to work with.