Post by MarieAlice on Jun 9, 2003 5:21:18 GMT -6
Helpful Baking Tips
Always read through a recipe a few times before preparing the dish.
When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead, no flour mess on the outside of the cake.
For perfect shaped cakes or jelly rolls, first grease the pan, then line it with greased waxed paper. After baking, invert pan and peel off the waxed paper. No more broken corners or edges! Great for fudges and bars!
To keep a cake from sliding on its plate during transit, drizzle a bit of frosting in a circle on the plate where the cake will rest before removing the cake from the pan. The frosting will hold the cake in place deliciously and your dessert will arrive in perfect shape.
To prevent icing from running off your cake, try dusting the surface lightly with cornstarch before icing.
Foil-line pans for baking bars. Once bars have cooled, you can lift the foil right out and cut the bars cleanly. There's an added bonus: The pans will need only a quick rinse and dry.
If you run out of cookie sheets while baking, spoon the remaining cookie dough on large sheets of lightly greased aluminum foil. When a cookie sheet becomes free, rinse it with cold water to cool, shake off excess water and lay the foil with the cookie dough right on the sheet.
Always bake bars on the middle rack in the oven and cookies on the top rack. If baking more than one pan at a time, place them at different angles on different racks to allow maximum circulation of heat. Alternate their placement on the racks halfway through the baking time.
Yeast will last longer than the specified date printed on the packet if kept in the refrigerator, or even longer in the freezer
If you add a pinch of baking powder to powdered sugar when making frosting, it will stay creamy and not harden or crack.
If you need eggs at room temperature, but have forgotten to take them out of the refrigerator, put them in slightly warm water for 10 minutes.
Substituting applesauce for half of the amount of vegetable oil called for in your baking recipes will reduce the fat content. (Or use all applesauce, which produces a low-cal, moist product!)
If you're out of brown sugar, try substituting an equal amount of granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup molasses (light or dark) for every cup of white sugar.
No time to roll and cut biscuits? Just drop the dough from a tablespoon onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Always read through a recipe a few times before preparing the dish.
When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead, no flour mess on the outside of the cake.
For perfect shaped cakes or jelly rolls, first grease the pan, then line it with greased waxed paper. After baking, invert pan and peel off the waxed paper. No more broken corners or edges! Great for fudges and bars!
To keep a cake from sliding on its plate during transit, drizzle a bit of frosting in a circle on the plate where the cake will rest before removing the cake from the pan. The frosting will hold the cake in place deliciously and your dessert will arrive in perfect shape.
To prevent icing from running off your cake, try dusting the surface lightly with cornstarch before icing.
Foil-line pans for baking bars. Once bars have cooled, you can lift the foil right out and cut the bars cleanly. There's an added bonus: The pans will need only a quick rinse and dry.
If you run out of cookie sheets while baking, spoon the remaining cookie dough on large sheets of lightly greased aluminum foil. When a cookie sheet becomes free, rinse it with cold water to cool, shake off excess water and lay the foil with the cookie dough right on the sheet.
Always bake bars on the middle rack in the oven and cookies on the top rack. If baking more than one pan at a time, place them at different angles on different racks to allow maximum circulation of heat. Alternate their placement on the racks halfway through the baking time.
Yeast will last longer than the specified date printed on the packet if kept in the refrigerator, or even longer in the freezer
If you add a pinch of baking powder to powdered sugar when making frosting, it will stay creamy and not harden or crack.
If you need eggs at room temperature, but have forgotten to take them out of the refrigerator, put them in slightly warm water for 10 minutes.
Substituting applesauce for half of the amount of vegetable oil called for in your baking recipes will reduce the fat content. (Or use all applesauce, which produces a low-cal, moist product!)
If you're out of brown sugar, try substituting an equal amount of granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup molasses (light or dark) for every cup of white sugar.
No time to roll and cut biscuits? Just drop the dough from a tablespoon onto lightly greased baking sheets.