5 Ways To Become A Better Baker; a few handy tips on how to prevent kitchen disasters and what to do when they happen!
There’s no two-ways about it, baking can be daunting. Though whipping up a batch of cookies or a simple birthday cake might seem like an easy ride, it can quickly become a disaster.
Whether it’s a comment on an Instagram post or an email after I bring some treats into the office, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard, “Oh I’m so bad at baking!” Listen, I empathise so much it’s unreal BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t be better. In the 5+ years that I’ve been serious about my baking, I have had countless kitchen tragedies. From cakes getting stuck in their tins to cookies burning in a matter of seconds to pastry melting all over the oven. I promise, I’ve been there.
In this post I want to inspire you to get back into the kitchen and bake with 5 ways to become a better baker. I want you to have the confidence to make cupcakes, pies and biscuits like any experienced baker. Let’s go.
1. Start simple
Things like Victoria sponge cakes and shortbread might seem very basic and boring, but it’s important to get to grips with them. Simple baking, the kind that your parents or grandparents might have done with you when you were little, is the best way to learn the basics.
If you’ve never creamed together some butter and sugar, then how can you expect to casually knock up some passable choux pastry?
The best thing you can do is master something like a plain cake or biscuit, then experiment with all the ways you can customise it. If you can learn how to make a decent regular buttercream, you’ll be better equipped to make a chocolate, strawberry or salted caramel version!
Jumping in at the deep end might seem like a good idea, especially when you have a detailed recipe in front of you, but it is more likely to end up in the bin than a good quality basic bake.
2. Taste EVERYTHING
This tip might seem extremely obvious, but it’s an area I’ve neglected far too often in the past. You can apply this same advice to any dish you make, sweet or savoury, but it is SO important!
Is the frosting too sweet? Is the cheesecake mixture too bland? Did you add enough salt to the bread dough? The only way to know if you’ve used a good balance of ingredients is to give it a taste test.
With some recipes (such as custards, frostings, and brownie batters) you’ll be able to taste them, and save them from disaster, before they are baked. With others (such as muffin batters and bread dough) you’ll have to wait until they are cooked before you can sample them. Either way, doing so can save you from giving your friends, family or customers a nasty surprise.
Taste your mixtures and creations as much as you can.
3. Question the recipe
This may seem like strange advice from someone who posts recipes but hear me out. While you might not have an experienced baker’s intuition just yet, you know what you like and what you don’t.
Some recipes are tailored to the writer’s tastes, meaning a cake might be more bland than you’d like or that their cookies might come out crispier than you’d like. Much like tasting the product, truly thinking about the addition or omission of an ingredient, or the quantity present, can really refine your baking knowledge.
Aside from personal preference, a recipe can even reflect the taste of that writer’s nation. This might seem irrelevant, but I can assure you that the discrepancy in the penchant for sweetness or fattiness from country to country is surprising. For example, I have made American recipes that I find overwhelmingly sugary, and my Italian boyfriend has tasted some of my British recipes that his palate is not used to.
Obviously I’m not advising that you never follow a recipe (the writer is still likely to have better knowledge than you do) but I would always recommend quietly questioning steps or ingredients before proceeding. Your judgement might be wrong in your first few attempts, but you might also discover a better method of doing something!
4. Take an interest in the science
This is where a lot of novice bakers begin to panic. I must assure you though, as in most areas of life, knowledge is power.
As you may have heard on an episode of The Great British Bake Off or Masterchef, the science of baking is often much more paramount and ultimately fragile than the science of cooking. A few grams too much or too little of an ingredient can kill your dessert. A few minutes too long in the oven can be the difference between crumbly shortcrust pastry and a flour-based discus.
It’s impossible to retain every fact about the intricacies of a product before making it, but it’s important that you learn some things if you want to be a better baker.
If you’re making a batch of muffins, you should know that baking them at a higher temperature for a shorter time will help give them that characteristic height. If making a pie, you should know that keeping pastry as cold as possible when making it will help give it that perfect flaky texture once baked.
Realistically, you’re not going to read reams of articles on how to make the perfect X before baking it. No one has time for that. However, if you want to get something right (or just better) then it’s worth looking into the WHY of the recipe as well as the HOW. It will help massively in the future.
5. If it fails, just try again
This is probably the best advice I can give when it comes to trying to become a better baker.
I truly believe there is no such thing as talent, just sheer hard work.
Practice, practice, and practice again. You can’t expect your first ever attempt at a recipe to be perfect. It will take a few tries to get something just right, and even longer to master it. Don’t let this put you off though! Yes a kitchen failure might feel like a waste of time and/or ingredients but it also usually means you have something vaguely nice to eat. Last month I recipe tested the same pie 3 times and still wasn’t happy with it, but it meant I got to eat three batches of delicious mint chocolate pie, so who’s the real winner here?
Even experienced bakers have the occasional nightmare bake, but it shouldn’t stop anyone from trying it again. Don’t let those sunken cupcakes or burnt loaves smell your fear, you are their creator.
Honestly babe, just try again another day. It’ll be worth it.
Today I’ve dropped 5 ways to become a better baker on you. Hopefully if you’re reading this, you’re now in the mood to bake cookies and kick butt (in whichever order you choose).
