6 Of My Favorite Baking Tips
It is the start of the messy baking season in our house. Here are six of my favorite baking tips:
Add a bit of pudding mix to your dough for softer, chewier cookies – The best, most loved and award-winning recipes always have a secret ingredient – instant pudding mix. If you like your cookies crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle then don’t forget to add a pudding mix for extra soft and melt-in-your-mouth cookies. These cookies do stay soft for days, this helps when you want to make a batch ahead of time for a church activity.
Add mayo to boxed cake batter to make it even better – I always keep a boxed cake mix in the pantry, so as to always be prepared for surprise guests. Adding two tablespoons of mayo will improve the texture and make the cake taste like homemade. Do try cream cheese with Devil’s Fodd cake mix for a magical combination.
To make extra fluffy whipped cream, chill your mixing bowl first. – Chill your tools, Chill your mixing bowl, whisk, or mixer attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes. The cold temperatures will help the cream to whip properly and quickly. Always ensure your cream is cool before you start whipping.
To prevent cookies from spreading too much in the oven, pop them into the freezer for 15 minutes before baking – The colder the dough the less the cookies will over-spread and you will get thicker, studier cookies. It will also help if you roll the cookies into tall balls and keep them on a plate and then freeze them for 10 minutes. Colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
Always sprinkle chocolate chip cookies with a bit of flaky sea salt before baking – A sprinkle of sea salt takes these cookies from good to gourmet. Sea salt will accentuate the rich chocolate flavor
Don’t hesitate when it comes to cracking eggs – Being hesitant means getting shells in your batter or dough. If you do need to remove shell bits, make sure you wet your finger before trying to remove it. I’m still guilty of this, I always crack the eggs lightly, which ends up with me using my finger to pry the shells apart with a lot of bits ending up in the batter.
If you need something different for this holiday, here is a list of 31 Delicious Things To Bake This Holiday Season.
Here are some handy baking charts:
Smell has a strong influence on the emotions we feel in our daily lives? Baking is something I enjoy the most because baking smells remind me of all the happy times baking in my great aunt’s kitchen.
Turn up the music and enjoy a mess-free holiday baking this year.