In cooking, it’s so easy to go off the recipe and add in extra ingredients to make to tasty, am I right? Well, when it comes to baking, we need to follow the rules, I know, I know, so boring right? Who needs rules?! However, rules need to be followed when it comes to baking. Especially if you want a successful end product. This post will be lengthy, but please bear with me, it’ll be worth it, I swear!

Here are my top tips:

Read the recipe thoroughly and prep your ingredients before you start

You would be surprised that not a lot of people take the time to do this. Reading your recipe thoroughly will give you an idea of how to prep and cook the dish beforehand, and prepping all your ingredients will just make the process of cooking go by quicker.

Use room temperature ingredients

This is a step that you should not ignore. If you are making something that won’t have flaky texture, then you absolutely want your ingredients to be at room temperature. You will get a much better texture, and it will be absorbed quicker. This will result in a more cohesive mixture. The usual ingredients that would need to be at room temp, would be butter, milk, water, or eggs. (In this case, this is a plant-based blog, so we don’t use eggs or dairy) The best way to bring ingredients to room temperature is to plan ahead.

• Butter – To soften butter, it should left out on the counter for 30 – 60 minutes before you start baking. This will also depend on how warm your kitchen is. You will know your butter is at room temp when you can easily press your finger and make an indent without putting too much pressure.
  
• Milk & Water – To warm milk and water, you can quickly do this by microwaving them for about 20 – 30 seconds. It should be around 90° to 100° degrees Fahrenheit or lukewarm to touch. I highly suggest investing in a digital food thermometer for more accuracy.

Other instances when ingredients temperature matters

For baked goods with a flaky texture, like pie crusts, tart shells, biscuits, scones, puff pastry, croissants and other laminated dough, you want the ingredients really cold. It’s important that fat stays solid before the baked goods go into the oven. Small pieces of butter are spread out throughout the dough. As it bakes, it will melt in the oven creating pockets, which creates flakiness.

Fluffing up your flour

Before measuring out your flour, I suggest fluffing it up before you measure it out from the container/bag. Over time it tends to settle and become densely packed, and most of the time you will be adding more flour than you think. So FLUFF IT UP.

Sifting your dry ingredients

This goes along with fluffing up with your flour, sifting adds air to your flour which helps produce lighter cakes and more uniform pastries. Fluffed & sifted flour generally weighs 20-25 percent less than flour that has settled. It is also a good idea to sift flour along with other dry ingredients, such as salt, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and other powder or flour substances. Nobody wants to bite a clump salt or baking soda, it definitely won’t taste good!

Learn how to measure

If you do not use a food scale to measure out your ingredients, I highly suggest you do, but I do understand that measuring cups and spoons are more accessible.

• For measuring dry ingredients, do not use the actual measuring cup to retrieve the ingredients like flour, as I mentioned above, fluff it up or sift it first. Then take a spoon and use it to fill the cup until it overflows. Next, slide the back of a butter knife and slide it over the top of the rim to level it out. This goes for other dry ingredients, like sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, etc.
  
• For brown sugar, you always want to check the recipe to see if it says “loosely packed,” “lightly packed,” or “firmly packed. You can really stuff in a lot of brown sugar in a measuring cup if you want to. There is a big difference between “loosely packed,” and “firmly packed,” in terms of weight.
  
• For solid ingredients like peanut butter, yogurt, or sour cream. They are measured in the same way, but you do want to pack it in a little bit to make sure there aren’t any air pockets.

Weigh your baking ingredients

If you really want to be accurate with your measurements, the best way to go is to weigh your ingredients. Unlike cooking, where you can be flexible with the amount of ingredients, baking measurements needs to be precise. Even with the tips I have above, it’s still not guaranteed that you are measuring precisely. Another thing, while the US metric system uses volume and ounces, European recipes will always use grams. So if you find a European recipe that you want to try, you would then need to weigh your ingredients. You’ll always get consistent results every time. So I suggest investing a food scale! For my recipes, I will provide both methods of measurements, so do not worry!

Grease your pans generously

I think this is one of the common mistakes that people make when people start baking. When your batter or dough is baking there is a chance that it can stick to the pan. So before you bake, generously grease your pan. Don’t skimp out on it, when I mean generously, I mean it. You can use oil or butter to grease your pan. You can also add either flour or parchment paper to ensure that it absolutely doesn’t stick.

• Parchment paper – Once you’ve fully greased your pan, you can cut out the shape of the bottom of the pan and place it on top so that it sticks. You can then add your dough our batter after.
  
• Flour – If you don’t have parchment paper, you can use flour in addition. To do this, once your pan is greased generously, add in more than enough flour to cover. Tip and turn the pan to have the flour stick and coat completely. Over a sink, turn the pan over and tap out the excess, try not to touch the inside of the pan or else you’ll risk leaving your pan exposed.

Don’t open your oven

I know, it’s tempting to keep opening the oven door to check on how your baked goods is coming along. However, some recipes need consistent heat. Every time you open your oven the temperature can drop to 150° Fahrenheit or more if it is left open for thirty seconds.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t open your oven at all. At least allow your recipe to bake for the amount of time it needs. When the time is up, is when you should check. Unless it starts smelling like it’s burning (but let’s not get it that far). So, in short, don’t open the oven in the middle of baking unless it’s stated in the recipe.

Now there will be a couple of recipes where it suggests you to rotate the pan half way, which is okay because there are hot spots in some ovens. Rotating the oven will just make sure it will get an even bake all around. But overall, let’s just try and be patient and don’t open the oven!

Preheat oven for at least 20 minutes

It really matters that you take 15-20 minutes, depending on your stove, to preheat the temperature that is stated in the recipe. It’s always the first thing you should do when you’re baking, unless the recipe is takes a longer process (ex. 3 days to prep). Preheating the oven ensures that your oven is at the right temp when you are ready to bake.