Baking!

Baking is probably one of the most rewarding and satisfying kitchen activities. I like to make things from scratch, I believe that it is not really baking unless you started from scratch. Using boxed cake and batter mixes takes the magic out of your time in the kitchen, leaving you with something overly sweetened and usually containing one or more artificial ingredients that you probably don't want floating around your system. It truly is more rewarding and magical to turn a handful of raw ingredients into something delicious. 

Don't get me wrong, I am all for crappy food and ingredients if you're buying from a bakery counter or eating out at a restaurant. If you're making something at home, you get the luxury of knowing and picking what goes into your baked goods. I've got a few great tips, tricks, and blatant product placement you can use while baking that will help you achieve success and make baking easier. 

Crisco Baking Sticks instead of real butter.

Most baking recipes call for two sticks(one cup) of unsalted butter; which is great, but from extensive experience, I can honestly say that my baked goods came out better when I used Crisco Baking Sticks instead of butter. There are several advantages to using Crisco in place of real butter. When baking with butter, it is imperative that it be room temperature. Normally, what happens when you get home from the store is you take the sticks of butter you bought and you put them in your fridge or freezer. Frozen or cold butter is very hard to work with and doesn't mix well with the other ingredients. Crisco Baking Sticks do not require refrigeration and are ready to use right out of the package! All you need to do is add 2 Tbsp. of water for every 1 Crisco Baking Stick.

Another advantage to using Crisco Baking Sticks instead of butter is greasing and flouring pans. Butter wrappers have some residual butter left of the wrapper, but not enough to coat a pan. Crisco wrappers have tons of left over sticky bits to rub into every knock and cranny of the pan saving you a step and preventing wasted ingredients! 

There are some things, like crumb topping for example, that I recommend using real butter for. Anything where butter is you're main wet ingredient or provider of moisture should be made old school using real, unsalted, room temperature butter.

For those of you who aren't super into using Crisco to coat your pans, I suggest using PAM for Baking. This product combines all the amazing non-stick magic of regular PAM and flour to reach every last inch of even the most intricate bake ware like the infamous Bundt pan. PAM+flour=perfectly dislodged baked goods!

Let's talk about eggs. Eggs are required for most baked recipes to help bind all the ingredients together during the baking process. Earlier, I mentioned that if you're using butter, that the butter be room temperature, the same rules apply for eggs. Working with cold eggs slows down the baking process because it chills whatever you put it in and then it takes longer for the batter to come to room temperature and for the ovens magical ability to transform gooey batter into cake. You'll find that your finished product will be lighter and fluffier if the eggs you're working with are room temperature. It's best to take the eggs out of the fridge a few hours before you begin mixing all of your ingredients, but if you don't have that kind of time or simply forgot, have no fear, there's a fix for that. Take a bowl of slightly warm water, bordering on hot, but not hot enough to cook the eggs, and place the eggs in the bowl and wait for the water to come back to room temperature. 

I hope this post helps you achieve more success in baking and satisfies your sweet tooth. 

HAPPY EATING!

-M.E.B.