Even though this blog has explored all the tasty bits of life, there is one that I very rarely write about, but is nevertheless very close to my heart- baking.
As a food expert married to a culinary chef, there is one part of the kitchen that I dominate with almost no interference- the oven. While cooking is pretty much a unisex activity in this modern age, in many ways I know way more women who are fine, expert bakers and men who are masters of the grill. As someone who has to share cooking space in my Chef and Steward Test Kitchen at home with my hubby, I don’t mind to have the oven and the baking cupboard to myself.
I have always been fascinated with baking. It was always a dream when my mother would whip up some traditional sweet treats as a child. I always wanted to learn but never got into it until adulthood.
My first foray into baking was somewhat funny. I, who had learnt to cook as an intuitive cook, by developing a strong sense of balance and a sharpe palate, thought I could apply such intuition to baking. Granted, seasoned bakers can do that but as I learnt then, I most certainly was not. I set off to bake a fruitcake and ended up with what was more like a dense Jamaican Easter Bun. It was then I learnt to bake it before you name it.
Since then, I have taken a few baking and professional cake decorating classes and have even baked professionally for paying customers. But it has come with learning the rules and equipping myself with the right tools to do the job.
One thing though, I do prefer to bake for someone else- be in a client or as a gift. Having homemade baked goods from scratch in my kitchen is a recipe for disaster, as I just cannot help myself. The thing is I use the best quality ingredients in my baking and that makes for super scrumptious treats that are hard to resist when you have them lying around.
Here are some useful tips I have learnt along the way…
How to be a better baker
- Always bake on a full stomach. Is it only me?
- Invest in an accurate oven thermometer. I find my WMF Oven Thermometer to be trusty and I have had it for years. I bought it in Dubai.
- Bring ingredients to room temperature except for when a recipe calls for otherwise.
- Read the recipe thoroughly, then read it again.
- The. Recipe. Baking is not cooking, it is a science so to get the best results, follow the recipe. As you bake more, you will begin to be able to make subsitutions effortlessly and create your own recipes. But as my mother used to tell me, “you have to crawl before you walk.”
- Start always by preheating the oven and buttering/greasing the baking pans.
- Gift extras. Drop them off if you have to. Just give them away. You will brighten someone’s day anyway. Who does not love the co-worker who brings freshly home baked delights to work on Mondays? I tell you who- no one!
- Using baking as a stress reliever. It actually really works. Everything about baking makes me really happy- except the intense deep cleaning you will have to give the kitchen if you are a messy baker. So, do not be a messy baker. Clean up as you go along. You will thank me for this. Unless you have someone else coerce to wash the dishes. Baked goodies are a welcome barter for dish duties for many.
- Let the baked treats cool before you cut especially for cakes. Cutting them too early can actually dry them out and you will never get a perfect slice on a hot cake.
- If you plan to ice and decorate the cakes, do your baking and decorating over two days. Bake one day then ice the next. Always ice cake in a cold kitchen. Hot ovens make for hot kitchens so it is best not to do both tasks simultaneously or even on the same day.
- If you have a special diet, experiment with recipes to suit your diet so that you can enjoy a permissible treat every now and then.
- Put on a kettle, make a pot of tea, invite over a few friends and have a casual, no fuss tea party. Give each guest a little extra to take home. Baking is a love that MUST be shared!
- Keep on baking. Never stop. If you mess up a recipe, do it over and over until you perfect it. You will once you become patient and attentive to every detail.
I used to not like baking. I thought that all this precision and perfection is not for me.
But I challenged myself to learn how to bake bread on my own. I read books, watched YouTube videos, asked questions in forums and, most importantly, tried and failed miserably. My first loaf of sourdough bread was as hard as a rock. I sadly threw it away as it was inedible.
But that did not deter me from trying again. I read, watched, asked questions and practiced. Eventually I got better. It took me two years to get to the kind of bread I bake now. It’s not where I want to be, but I hope to get there eventually. The most important thing I learned with baking: practice makes better.
I don’t like making mistakes to a fault and beat myself up bad for mistakes, but baking really helped me realized this life lesson.
I’m not a professional baker, but I think I’ve picked up a few practical things you can mull on about and apply to your baking:
– It is about controlling various things involved to achieve success and consistency. From your ingredients, tools (as simple as your bowls to the big items like your oven), temperatures of the ingredients, tools and room (this makes a HUGE difference when you get this consciousness. In bread baking, room / ambient temperature is an ingredient in the recipe), techniques, etc.
– Again, be aware of room temperature. Temperature is a key ingredient in baking. A hot room can wonk up fermentation when baking bread. Your fermentation times can be shorter. Oh, and butter / fat will melt. Making a flaky pie crust is a challenge in a hot room.
– Like cooking, baking is a sensory process. There are recommended time for baking, but you also have to take cues from what you see, smell, touch, hear and taste
– Plan, plan, plan your schedule. If you’re a little OC about scheduling, use this to your advantage.
– Get a freaking scale! It will help a lot if you want to scale up (make more) or scale down (make less) a recipe. It is a valuable investment to help control your recipe.
That’s it so far. Again guys, don’t be afraid to fail. Dust off your apron, take note of lessons learned (I actually have a notebook where I jot down notes) and just give it another go. #practicemakesbetter
Goodluck and happy baking
I used to not like baking. I thought that all this precision and perfection is not for me.
But I challenged myself to learn how to bake bread on my own. I read books, watched YouTube videos, asked questions in forums and, most importantly, tried and failed miserably. My first loaf of sourdough bread was as hard as a rock. I sadly threw it away as it was inedible.
But that did not deter me from trying again. I read, watched, asked questions and practiced. Eventually I got better. It took me two years to get to the kind of bread I bake now. It’s not where I want to be, but I hope to get there eventually. The most important thing I learned with baking: practice makes better.
I don’t like making mistakes to a fault and beat myself up bad for mistakes, but baking really helped me realized this life lesson
I’m not a professional baker, but I think I’ve picked up a few practical things you can mull on about and apply to your baking:
– It is about controlling various things involved to achieve success and consistency. From your ingredients, tools (as simple as your bowls to the big items like your oven), temperatures of the ingredients, tools and room (this makes a HUGE difference when you get this consciousness. In bread baking, room / ambient temperature is an ingredient in the recipe), techniques, etc.
– Again, be aware of room temperature. Temperature is a key ingredient in baking. A hot room can wonk up fermentation when baking bread. Your fermentation times can be shorter. Oh, and butter / fat will melt. Making a flaky pie crust is a challenge in a hot room.
– Like cooking, baking is a sensory process. There are recommended time for baking, but you also have to take cues from what you see, smell, touch, hear and tast
– Plan, plan, plan your schedule. If you’re a little OC about scheduling, use this to your advantage.
– Get a freaking scale! It will help a lot if you want to scale up (make more) or scale down (make less) a recipe. It is a valuable investment to help control your recipe.
That’s it so far. Again guys, don’t be afraid to fail. Dust off your apron, take note of lessons learned (I actually have a notebook where I jot down notes) and just give it another go. #practicemakesbetter
Goodluck and happy baking
Ugh the second part didn’t publish. Anyways, not a pro baker but here are practical things you could pick up:
– It is about controlling all the ingredients of the recipe to achieve success and consistency. From the ingredients to tools to temperature to technique.
– Temperature is a key ingredients. It can make or break a recipe, especially in bread baking that involves fermentation, or in working with laminated (buttery, flaky) pastries. A hot room will mess up fermentation and melt butter quick.
– Yes, you should be afraid to substitute ingredients drastically. Let’s say gluten filled flour vs gluten free flours. Ingredients act differently with each other during the prep process prior to the baking. when it is in the oven, there is pretty much no turning back
I have a steam oven which is said to be the best type of oven to bake breads and pastries. Thoughts?
Steam oven is good when you’re making crusty bread. That’s as far as I know. You can read more about it in the more recent bread books like Tartine. Instead of using the Dutch Oven / Clay Oven, you can bake on a baking sheet then give the bread a kiss of steam once you place it in the oven.