Bake the Perfect Batch With These Baking Tips

Whether you’re new to baking, or a seasoned expert, there are always ways to improve. Follow these baking tips by Great Harvest of Newtonville in Newtonville to ensure you always bake the best batch.

Preheat The Oven

There’s a reason why preheating the oven is the first step in most recipes out there. Preheating the oven ensures that your batter doesn’t have to wait to be put into the oven. It also ensures that the temperature will be perfect once you’re ready to bake.

Set Out Your Ingredients Before Starting

There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a recipe and realizing you’re missing a key ingredient and having to run out to the store. It’s also an excellent way to visualize the steps in your recipe and prevent you from skipping an ingredient from the list.

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Measure and Weigh Your Ingredients

Baking is like chemistry, meaning that a slight change in ingredients can change the whole recipe. Sometimes it works out for the best, but other times it can ruin a perfect baking batch. Here’s where measuring and weighing your ingredients comes in. Usually, more homey recipes come in measuring cups, while others that are more accurate use exact measurements like grams and milliliters. Tip: Having a kitchen scale, a set of measuring cups, and spoons is an excellent way of measuring accurately and ensuring your recipes will come out perfect.

Grease Your Pans

A big mistake many amateur bakers make is not greasing their pans before pouring in their batter. The main reason is to make it easier to unmold your creations, but it also makes it easier to clean up afterward. To grease your pans, use butter and flour, or you can also use non-stick baking sprays.

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Check Your Oven Temperature

Once your oven has been heating up for a while, and it’s almost time to place your batter or dough in the oven, it’s time to check the temperature. This is where having an oven thermometer comes in handy. Many ovens have numbers on the dial that help you set the temperature. Still, sometimes they’re inaccurate, so a thermometer can help you see if the oven is at the correct temperature, if you need to wait a few minutes, or turn down the temperature a bit.

Ensure Your Butter Has the Right Consistency

Butter is a staple of many baking recipes, and it’s so important to have it at the right consistency. This is also where preparing comes in handy as sometimes recipes will ask for it at room temperature, chilled, or melted. Depending on the consistency you need, make sure to plan ahead and take it out of the refrigerator in time if needed. While setting out your butter is the best way to soften it, sometimes you’re in a time crunch and need butter at the right temperature right away. Microwaves come in handy in this case. Melting it in 10-second increments can help you have it at the right temperature and consistency; just be careful not to overdo it, or you’ll have a pool of melted butter inside your microwave.

Chill Your Cookies Before Baking

Chilling cookie dough is a great way of baking an excellent batch. If you’ve ever had the problem of too-flat cookies or cookies that seem to melt on the baking sheet, it’s possible that you needed to chill them before baking. Chilling your cookie dough allows it to retain its shape and consistency inside the oven. Tip: Cookie dough will hold well in the freezer for up to two months.

Set a Timer

Our last baking tip is always to set a timer once you put your soon-to-be-baked goods in the oven. If you’re an experienced baker, there are many other ways you can tell if your baking is done, but even skilled bakers know that ovens can act out or conditions can change, so having a timer running can always help you figure out if your baking is done.

If you’re looking for freshly baked bread made only with the best ingredients, call Great Harvest Bread Co. today at (617) 928-1162 to place an order or check out their delicious lunch menu online.