The Beginners Guide To Baking From Scratch
Baking from scratch is a wholesome, old-fashioned hobby that can put a smile on your face.This can seem a little overwhelming at first, but with a bit of time and patience, youll find thepayoff is worth it, especially when you use fresh ingredients that add a whole new dimension oftaste to your goodies!
This post will break down everything you need to know about easy baking from scratch, as wellas some baking tips for beginners to ensure that youre ready to take on any baking challenge.
What Does It Mean to Bake from Scratch?
If youre wondering how to start baking at home, youll need first to understand what it meansto bake from scratch. Baking from scratch is a phrase that encompasses everything in theprocess of making baked goods, right down to the dough.
Bakers will start with raw ingredients and combine them to create delicious cakes, bread, orpastries. Baking can be as complicated or simple as you want it to be, depending on how rawof ingredients you use, and the tools used to assist in the process.
For example, some bakers use complicated recipes and mold cakes into their desired shape,while others prefer just throwing together their favorite flavors and using molds. The best wayto bake from scratch is to use tools and methods that feel the best and most comfortable toyou!
Fill Your Pantry with The Right Ingredients
Sugar Salt Flour Yeast
Choose The Right Equipment
The Right Temperature Is Key
Measurements Are Key
Practice Makes Perfect
Do Not Be Intimidated
I grew up on store bought bread. Often the best store bought bread, but store bought nonetheless. Because of this I was very intimidated for trying to bake my own bread. No one had ever taught me and I was sure there must be some big reason why people do not bake their own bread. Turns out this was just a misconception. At its core, bread is just flour and water and yeast .
This means you only need a few ingredients, a heating element and time to make delicious, right-out-of-the-oven bread that you are free to enjoy. I have a few recipes that are my favorite but it is pretty simple. You can easily bake your own bread.
Another one I was really concerned about was brownies. For some reason, I was sure this would be difficult to make at home. And at the store there were SO MANY different options, varieties and other. Turns out it really isnt much different from a basic cake recipe with an added bit of cocoa powder. Even better you can make your own mix with simple instructions such as add 1 egg, 1/2 cup oil You get the idea.
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How To Switch From Packaged Food To Whole Foods Cooked From Scratch
Its pretty simple. Go into your kitchen right now and gather up the unhealthy packaged foods and throw them out. Now that your kitchen is empty, sit down and cry because theres nothing to eat
Okay, dont actually do that. It may be tempting but trust me, you need this to happen gradually. The real first step is to take your time and be okay with where you are on the journey.
When I first decided to make cooking from scratch a bigger part of my life, I wanted to just jump in. I knew what foods were bad for us and didnt want to have them around anymore. But Im glad I didnt make a huge change all at once.
Theres nothing worse than being hungry because you dont know how to cook anything in your house!
Here are some basic steps you can follow to phase packaged foods out of your diet and begin to cook from scratch more.
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How To Practice Mise En Place For Baking
How To Make Cake Moist
Cakes get moisture from all sorts of ingredients. Some cakes, like our Test Kitchens favorite vanilla cake, rely upon sour cream for moisture. Other recipes may call for buttermilk, yogurt or even applesauce. All these ingredients add moisture to your cake, so be sure not to scrimp on them. If a cake calls for a full cup of sour cream, be sure to add it.
Also, be sure not to overbake your cake! All the moisture-adding ingredients in the world wont do you any good if you leave the cake in the oven for too long.
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What Topics Will You Cover
Beginner baking covers the techniques, skills and baking science that will help you improve your baking.
- Week 1 – How to make the lightest, airiest sponge cake
- Week 2 – Make an easy white bread dough that can be used as a loaf, rolls or pizza bases
- Week 3 – The secrets of crisp, tender shortcrust pastry tarts
- Week 4 – Fail-safe methods for making meringues
- Week 5 – How to use chocolate in recipes and the best ever brownie recipe.
Each class involves a taste or texture investigation, tips on the best equipment to use, and a look at how to choose ingredients. Plus we teach you to evaluate new recipes and anticipate and eliminate potential failure points.
Each class ends with a recipe to make and supplemental recipes to grow your baking repertoire. We will help you every step of the way.
Check Cake For Doneness
Overbaked cake equals dry cake, and no one wants that. Start checking the cake for doneness after the recipe’s stated minimum baking time, but avoid opening the oven door before then, so that the heat doesn’t escape. For creamed cakes, insert a wooden toothpick near the center of the cake. If the pick comes out clean , the cake is done. If there is any wet batter on it, bake the cake for a few minutes more and test in a new spot with a new toothpick.
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Cooking From Scratch For Beginners: Why We Do It
Believe it or not, I dont love cooking. Its funny because friends and family often mentioned that I must love cooking because I cook almost every meal from scratch.
The truth is I dont really like it that much. Cooking can be enjoyable, but I would just rather be doing something else. I dont cook from scratch because its something I really enjoy doing. I cook from scratch for the following reasons:
How To Bake From Scratch Tip #5 Ingredients Need To Be Room Temperature Or Slightly Warm
Some things do not like to mix. Oil and water or ingredients that are warm/cold. Things like butter that are oil based will not mix with eggs if the butter is warm and soft and the eggs are cold. Same thing with milk, cream cheese, sour cream etc. This is the second most common mistake people make when making a recipe from scratch.
This is how I warm various ingredients before baking so they are all the same temp.
- Eggs While still in the shell, place into a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes
- Milk Warm in the microwave until it feels body temperature
- Butter I microwave mine in 10 second increments until soft enough to impress my finger into the surface but it still holds its shape.
- Cream cheese Cut into small chunks and place onto a plate. Place a hot glass bowl over the top of the cream cheese for 5 minutes. I warm my bowl by heating it with hot tap water.
- Sour cream or mayonnaise Microwave for 10 seconds and stir
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Cream Your Butter And Sugar
Bring the butter to room temperature before you begin baking. When it has reached the proper temperature, beat it until it’s creamy. Slowly add the sugar as you cream your butter if using a stand mixer. If you’re using an electric beater or mixing by hand, add a little of the sugar at a time and then mix until you have incorporated the full amount.
Fun Projects For Families
If theres one thing weve learned over the years, its that baking is an affordable and fun activity that everyone in the family can enjoy. From pulling the ingredients out and to learning how to measure and stir to putting a pan into the oven and eating a delicious homemade meal, there is a role for everyone to help with! Each of these baking for beginners activities will bring your family together to make a simple and easy to follow recipe. There are additional activities for older children as well to help them learn more about the history and traditions of baking at home. When you complete a baking activity with your family, download our free baking certificate and affix a picture!
The Home Baking Association has a number of additional resources for families that are great for getting started in the home kitchen.
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Cooking Tips For Beginners: How Can I Learn To Cook Quickly And Easily
To make sure that your first dishes turn out well, follow a few cooking tips that can help you hit the ground running in your new hobby:
In addition to these tips, you may need to buy some basic cooking equipment. This includes good knives and different cutting boards . You should also have a selection of different sized pots and pans. Once you have the equipment, nothing will get in the way of your cooking.
These Are My Top 7 Tips On How To Bake From Scratch Successfully
There seems to be a lot of confusion out there on how to bake from scratch. Some seem to think that they dont have the talent for it or that scratch recipes never work for them. Im here to tell you that anyone can bake from scratch. If you follow my 7 simple tips on how to bake from scratch, you too can have a baking win!
Nothing compares to a vanilla cake or chocolate cake baked from scratch. I love to bake from scratch but even with all my experience in baking, I can easily have a fail if I dont prepare properly.
I recently got a copy of Baking Basics from one of my favorite authors Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of the Baking Bible. One of my most trusted sources of cake recipes. I wanted to try out her brownie recipe and thought this would be a great time to share my process for testing out new recipes.
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What Will You Achieve
- Describe the techniques used in cooking, and in particular baking.
- Investigate the behaviours that they will create around them as they cook, the cultural role that baking plays in life and how to become better cooks.
- Research and compare recipes that they want to try, they will learn to evaluate what makes a good set of instructions.
- Interpret or “read” a recipe to see if it is workable, and to annotate it to improve it
- Explore new flavours and experiment with different ingredients and be brave when cooking
- Reflect on failure if it happens, assess possible causes and modify techniques.
- Produce baked goods throughout the course will therefore test the theory
How To Bake From Scratch Tip #6 Dont Make Any Changes The First Time You Try It
I love to make adjustments to recipes after I have tried them so they are more to my preference but I always follow the recipe as is the first time. You never know if youre totally ruining the recipe by making a slight adjustment.
Sometimes the author will put some notes at the bottom of the recipe for known acceptable substitutions.
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General Rules Of Thumb For Baking Ingredient Temperatures
When making a recipe that starts with creaming butter and sugar together, like in buttercream frosting or most cookie recipes, the ingredients should be at room temperature. This ensures the emulsification of butter and sugar wont break.When making a recipe that starts with cutting fat throughout the flour, for example in butter biscuits or pie crust, the ingredients should be very cold. This creates steam in the oven producing air pockets and flakiness.Heavy cream needs to be cold in order to thicken into whipped cream.Egg whites form stiff peaks for meringue much quicker when at room temperature or slightly warm.Water should be warm when making yeast bread, like this Hearth Bread with Rainbow Sprinkles. This wakes up the yeast from its dormant state.
Temperature Of Ingredients Does Matter
One of the most common baking questions is does the temperature of my ingredients really matter? The answer is a resounding yes! Paying attention to detail, such as the temperature of ingredients, truly elevates from scratch baking.
Recipes, in general, should specify when it is important for an ingredient to be a specific temperature. However, sometimes recipes assume that the baker knows a few general rules about baking ingredient temperatures.
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Learning To Cook: How To Quickly Create Delicious Dishes
The great thing about cooking and baking is that there is always more to learn. Regardless of if you are an absolute beginner or have been making food for many years, you will always find new ways to improve. If you decide to cook or bake regularly, you will quickly see that you get better with each dish as you learn and improve.
You will also be able to choose dishes that suit your lifestyle and keep you healthy. In addition, cooking for yourself can help yousave money, and you can learn a lot about other countries and cultures by recreating their recipes.
The Basic Baking Equipment: What Do You Need To Start Baking
If you simply want to try out some recipes and start baking as a hobby, you dont need too many kitchen tools at first. We recommend this basic equipment, which you can steadily expand over time:
- Mixing bowls in different sizes
- Measuring cups with different scales for flour, sugar, water, etc.
- A kitchen scale
- A baking tray with high sides for sheet cakes
- A round springform pan& a loaf tin
As you move on to more elaborate recipes, you will need to add to this basic equipment. For example, if youre making themed cakes, youll need a cake divider, modelling tool, and piping bag, etc.
As you move on to more elaborate recipes, you will need to add to this basic equipment. For example, if youre making themed cakes, youll need a cake divider, modelling tool, and piping bag, etc.
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Always Test Your Quick Breads Muffins And Cakes With A Toothpick For Doneness
“When you think your baked goods are close to being done, insert a toothpick into the center of it to determine whether it is finished baking or needs more time in the oven. If there is wet batter still on the toothpick, it needs to bake longer,” says Brown. “But if it comes out clean or with a few crumbs on it, it’s done! If the top of your baked good looks finished but the inside needs more time, tint the baked good with foil and let it continue to bake until the center is cooked all the way through.”
Tips For Baking With Kids
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How To Make A Cake From Scratch
Have you graduated from boxed cake mix? Want to step up your cake-making game? Lucky for all of us, baking a cake from scratch is completely doable for the home baker. If you are just starting out, we have some great tips and just the right recipe for you! Classic yellow butter cake straight from your own oven whats better than that? Lets get started!
While there are infinite cake recipes, those that use the creaming method typically start the same way and use the same techniques. The exact directions may vary, but some of these key points are universal for nearly all cakes.
Salt Is One Of The Most Important Ingredients In Baking
You may have noticed that nearly all baking recipes include salt. This is because salt is such a key ingredient when making sweet treats and it should not be left out.
Truly great baked goods utilize salt to balance and enhance the flavors. A baked good lacking salt will taste flat, one-note, and overly sweet. Additionally, salt works to strengthen the gluten structure and control the rate of fermentation in yeast breads.
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