Recognizing Common Pastry Mistakes
Baking is a very rewarding hobby that allows you to make delicious cakes, cookies, bread, and other baked goods with simple ingredients.
However, even the simplest recipes can sometimes go wrong. Here are some tips and tricks to avoid common baking problems.
Baking bread requires some basic skills. You don’t have to be a master baker to make great cakes and pies. If you are careful, patient, and understand the basics, there is no reason why you can’t get great results every time.
The first important skill is to read the recipe carefully before you start and make sure you understand all the cooking instructions. Do a little preparation, such as getting the ingredients and utensils ready. Ingredients such as eggs and butter should be brought to room temperature 30 minutes before use. However, for baking recipes, butter should be kept cold.
Baking.
For cakes, preheat the oven to the temperature specified in the recipe before working with the ingredients. For baking bread, however, it is not necessary to preheat the oven until the dough has reached its primary fermentation.
Oven temperature is important for successful baking. Most oven temperature settings are fairly accurate, but it’s a good idea to check the oven temperature with a separate thermometer, available at cookware stores. If you do this regularly, you will get consistent results.
And if possible, use the correct size of bakeware. If a cake recipe calls for a 6-inch pan, but you only have an 8-inch pan, the cake will be thinner and the baking time shorter, so you will need to increase the amount of ingredients or shorten the baking time.
Measure.
You need a really good scale to accurately measure the ingredients. Because baking is more of a science than an art, incorrect or inaccurate measurements often lead to failure. Make sure you have a good scale, a measuring cup, and a spoon. Otherwise, every time you use a new recipe, you’ll need a chart to convert pounds to grams and pints to quarts.
What matters?
Baking is a fairly precise skill. Even experienced bakers who throw ingredients into cups or one-handed know they need to find the right proportions.
Ovens that are too hot or too cold can cause a variety of problems. An oven that is too hot causes the outside of the bread or cake to darken or burn before the inside is cooked through. Ovens that are too hot destroy the yeast before the bread can rise. The result is a dense, brick-like loaf that is neither airy nor soft. Ovens that are too hot can cause the cake to bulge and turn brown instead of rising evenly.
On the other hand, if the oven temperature is too low, the pans will not rise properly, so the cake will be lighter and sag in the middle.
To prevent the cake from sticking to the pan, grease the pan well and protect large cakes with a layer or two of parchment paper so the outside doesn’t overcook.
A domed cake is a sign that either the whisk was not beaten well enough, or the oven temperature was too high, or the cake rose too much in the oven. It can also be a sign that the mixture is not well blended. It may have been a little dry or had too much expander in it.
A cake with a hollow center is due to too little baking time, too low an oven temperature, or a curiosity that causes the oven door to be opened too soon during baking.
Cakes with a wet or hard center are due to too much liquid and too little flour or too high an oven temperature.
Stiff dough indicates that there was not enough yeast. The water was not hot enough to activate the yeast or it was too hot and the yeast died. If a sharp knife is needed to cut the bread, the dough may be too wet, the dough did not have enough time to rise or the kneading was not vigorous enough. A thick loaf may also mean that the oven temperature is not appropriate.
If the bread overflows or the surface cracks and burns. You may have used too much yeast or let the dough rise too long.
If you follow the basics, baking can be a pleasure.
About Author
Sara is a qualified food expert at Main food line, Canada. She had graduated from the University of Cambridge. Sara loves to write about healthy nutrients which help to prevent the human body from various diseases. So people enjoy a healthy lifestyle. She is well experienced in custard apple pie and has an impressive portfolio of serving international clients.