6 Tricks for Baking Perfect Pies and Tarts. Mel’s Kitchen Tip: Cocoa Powder 101. Welcome to Cocoa Powder 101!
Confused by recipes that call for Dutch-process cocoa and wonder how on earth it is different from “regular” or natural, unsweetened cocoa powder? Never fear! I’m here to help unravel the mystery behind cocoa powder in plain terms. Let’s get started. I’ve called in (er, quoted) a few experts to help us along since heaven knows, I don’t have a degree in cocoa powder philosophy. There are two main types of cocoa powder called for in baking: 1) Dutch-process cocoa and 2) natural unsweetened cocoa.
What is Dutch-process cocoa and how is it different than natural, unsweetened cocoa powder? Can Dutch-process and natural, unsweetened cocoa be used interchangeably? According to my favorite cooking and baking resource, Cook’s Illustrated, Dutch-process and natural, unsweetened cocoa are mostly interchangeable. 40+ Cake Baking Tips & Tricks. Here is a large assortment of tips I’ve accumulated over the years.
Keep in mind different recipes will provide different results, but overall I’ve found these do noticeably improve most recipes or make things easier. Some recipes success depend on a specific ingredient or action. If one of these tips contradicts your recipe, your best bet is to follow what you have. Enhancers: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of meringue powder to your mix to help it rise a bit higher and make it a bit lighter in texture.Add 1 envelope of unflavored gelatin to the batter, helps prevent the surface from splitting or cracking.First add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the butter and sugar called for before mixing the rest of the ingredients. Moister: Chocolate: Before adding the bicarb required, mix it with a teaspoon of vinegar.Dense or Fruit Cakes: Keep a heatproof dish full of water in the oven while baking (replace water if needed to keep it topped up).Substitute oil for unsweetened applesauce or plain yogurt.
Oven: 50 Tips for Baking Better Cakes. Happy American Thanksgiving! I was sitting here planning a bunch of upcoming baking posts, when I realized that we’ve never really chatted about some of the basic steps that make for consistent baking and caking. I thought that it may be helpful to post these tips now, before we get too hot and heavy into more cake recipes. This collection of tips and tricks is made up of suggestions that happen to work for me, that I have either learned from the pros, read in books, or figured out along the way (and am still learning).
I can say that implementing these steps completely changed my life as a baker, and I thought it would be fun to share. The Ultimate Guide to Healthier Baking [Infographic] Baking 101: The Best Cake Flour Substitute. Let’s talk about cake flour!
You might recognize cake flour as that ever-present box in the back of your parents’ refrigerator. Maybe that’s just me. My mom always had a box of cake flour in the fridge. Cake flour is a finely ground flour used in many (but not all) cake recipes. Cake flour has a lower protein content of about 8%, as compared to a 10-11% protein content in all-purpose flour. You may be fresh out of cake flour when the need for cake arises. How To Make Cake Flour: Measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Sift flour 5 times. By replacing a bit of the all-purpose flour with cornstarch, we’re removing some of the gluten and replacing it with a tenderizing element. King Arthur Flour makes my favorite store-bought cake flour. If you’re like me and want to read majorly nerdy textbooks about food, Understanding Food: Principles and Preparations is a massive reference book about everything from food service to food science.
25 Vintage Baking Tips: Timeless Wisdom. I’ve collected these snippets of baking tips from vintage cookbooks and magazines dating from the 1940′s through the 1950′s…the Timeless Wisdom collection is a regular feature on Tipnut where I organize and share all kinds of tips from the past.
Vintage Rolling Pin, Eggs & Flour Butter and sugar can be creamed easily when butter is hard by warming the sugar slightly.Light-colored molasses can be darkened to make dark gingerbread by adding a teaspoonful of melted chocolate to each cup of molasses.Cream which is hard to whip will whip quickly by adding a few drops of lemon juice.Molasses can be prevented from sticking to the measuring cup if the cup is first greased with butter or lard.Shortening can be measured exactly. Common Ingredient Substitutions. Emergency Ingredient Substitutions for Baking. Ingredient Substitution. Contact Us Privacy Policy Joyofbaking On Twitter Stephanie Jaworski+ Find us on Google+ Use of materials on all pages on the domains Joyofbaking.com, joyofbaking.mobi, the Joyofbaking.com Facebook Page, @joyofbaking on Twitter, the Joyofbaking.com RSS Feed, the Joyofbaking.com email list the Joyofbaking1 YouTube Channel and any emails sent from @joyofbaking.com are entirely at the risk of the user and their owner, iFood Media LLC will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly resulting from the use.
References cited may include a link to purchase the referenced book on Amazon.com. This website and the contents are not endorsed or sponsored by the owner of the "Joy of Cooking" series of books or its publisher Simon & Schuster, Inc. Content in any form may not be copied or used without written permission of Stephanie Jaworski, Joyofbaking.com. A baking resource on the Internet since 1997 Copyright 1997 to 2014 iFood Media LLC.