Thursday, October 29, 2015

THE GOSPEL OF BAKING: FEAR NOT!

Are you new at baking?  Or have you been baking but have fear of failing sometimes? Here's a little motivation  for you...

Keep it simple. Start with a recipe that makes sense to you the first time you read it through, and always read through the recipe before you set to work.

Here's another important one: Have fun. Take pleasure in each step along the way, from measuring out ingredients to the ta-da moment when you offer up what you've made. Remember that baking is, as much as I wish it were otherwise, an extracurricular activity, so it should be as much fun for you, the baker, as it is for the eaters.

You'll have more success with anything you bake (and this applies to cooking as well) when you follow a few basic rules:

- Measure all your ingredients beforehand and set them out on the counter; butter your pan. This is your mise-en-place, or mise - pronounced "meez" - for short.-

- Preheat the oven. Make sure it hits the right temperature before you slide in the baking pan. An oven-repair guy once advised me to preheat the oven and then wait another 15 minutes before baking to be sure the oven is solidly hot. Oh, and keep an oven thermometer in there.

- Be patient. Just about everything you bake tastes better when it's gotten a little color.

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