Creating Generative Value

The Two Most Important Things about Baking: 

https://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/the-two-most-important-things-about-baking 

Deb Wise graduated from  The Culinary Institute of America where she learned everything about baking and pastry Arts.  She is thus very qualified to talk about desserts. Her colleagues however, are more experienced in the preparation of savory food. They often ask her questions such as:

"What’s up with demanding room temperature butter? Put it in the microwave for a minute and get on with it.”

"I’ve had this bag of flour for about a year, but that really doesn’t matter, does it?”

Therefore, she decided to give a few tips for the rest of us who do not have a degree in baking. Here are 2 important factors to consider when you bake according to Deb Wise:

1. Ingredients. 

© Deb Wise

Using fresh ingredients will have a direct impact on the taste and the appearance of your cake. Just like your leftovers in the freezer, ingredients such as  flour, butter, and sugar can loose their flavor, become dull and even absorb off flavors. Additionally, using quality ingredients such as real vanilla extract and premium chocolate will take the flavor of your cake to a whole other level. Therefore, her tip for making memorable cake is to use the best and freshest ingredients that you could find.

2. Temperature.

It is indeed an important factor to consider in most component of baking. 

• Room temperature butter (60°F to 70°F) 

  

  The creaming process
  © Amway 

At this temperature, the butter will incorporate more air in the batter during the creaming process thus allowing the cake to rise. 

• Room temperature eggs (70°F to about 90°F)

When adding the eggs to the butter and the sugar, you want them to incorporate well with the batter. If they are too cold, the butter will firm up and create lumps, which will eventually create holes in your cake.  Who wants that ?

• Flour

If you keep your flour in the freezer, make sure to let it reach room temperature. This will ensure that the flour won’t affect the baking process.

• Oven

Deb Wise emphasizes on the fact that it is crucial to understand the functionality an oven. To ensure that your cake bakes evenly in the oven, it is important to check if there are any hot spot.

These few tips will definitively improve your next baking session! Want to put them in practice ? Here some easy recipes that you can try.