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Baking Tips & Common Baking Solutions

Preparing Your Kitchen and Safety First! Using the Right Baking Pans Preparing Baking Pans Using your Oven for Baking Allowing Your Baking Project to Cool Umolding Your Baking Project Making your Baking Project Kitchen Hints and Tips Cake Problems and Cures Bread Baking Tips and Solutions Baking with Yeast

 

Preparing Your Kitchen and Safety First!

1. Wash hands thoroughly before starting your baking project and when returning to food.
2. Use clean dishtowels.
3. Clean your work surface and sink before, after, and as needed throughout your project.
4. Store eggs in cartons (not refrigerator door) at 40° F. (Clean any raw egg drips up immediately.)
5. Do not eat raw dough or batter. Refrigerate unused dough or batter if not baked right away.
6. Place the oven rack where it is needed before preheating the oven.
7. Use an oven thermometer to check the temperature inside the oven.
8. Remember to use oven mitts for each hand when baking. Use dry, heavy-duty oven mitts that cover your wrist and part of your forearm.
9. Have ample counter space and a cooling rack ready for hot-baked goods when they are removed from the oven.
10. Use clean containers or new plastic bags to store baked products (after they are cooled.)
11. Check the expiration dates on all recipe ingredients, and discard any which have expired.

Note:
To test the freshness of an egg, place the whole egg in its unbroken shell in enough water to cover it well. If it:

• Sinks and lies on its side - Fresh
• Sinks and stands on end - Questionable
• Floats - Don’t use it
  

Using the Right Baking Pans

Baking pans must be appropriately-sized and properly prepared for your baking projects to bake as intended. Here are some tips:

1. Use the size and kind of pan specified in the recipe for the best results.
2. Firenza recipes for cakes, breads and cookies have been tested in metal pans.
3. Dark pans tend to bake items faster than shiny aluminum pans since dark pans absorb heat faster.
4. Items baked using insulated pans may take a few minutes longer to bake.
5. Do not use the disposable aluminum pans for baking. They absorb the oven’s heat unevenly and are prone to "hot spots’ in the oven.
6. Food bakes more quickly in glass pans than in metal ones. If you want to use oven-proof glass baking dishes instead, decrease the oven temperature by 25° F (10°C).
   

Preparing Baking Pans

1. Most recipes specify how to prepare the baking pan. In general, spray pans with your favorite canola or vegetable oil spray. These are great for cake, brownie and loaf pans. Some people like to dust their pans with flour. Optionally, you can line the bottom of a pan with a piece of parchment paper.  
2. Spray loaf pans only on the bottom of the pan.
3. If you choose to use muffin liners, lightly spray the insides of the liners. Less of the muffin or cupcake will stick to the paper or foil muffin liners after baking.
4. For cookies, if your baking sheets don't have a non-stick coating, generously spray them or use parchment paper. Silpat® Liners can also be used, but never use them on insulated cookie sheets.
5. When baking multiple batches of cookies, use a metal spatula to scrape any loose or stuck crumbs off of the cookie sheet (unless the sheet has a special non-stick coating that is not to be used with metal utensils) and re-spray or re-line with fresh parchment paper.
6. When baking multiple sheets of cookies at a time, put 1 sheet on the upper rack and 1 on the lower rack (not the middle rack). Then switch positions of the sheets in the oven half-way through the baking time. Stagger their positions in the oven so one sheet is not directly on top of the other. Take care not to have the sheets touching the edges of the oven.
   

Using your Oven for Baking

1. You may use an electric, gas or a convection oven when baking. When using convection ovens, reduce the temperature by about 25˚-50˚.
2. Before you turn the oven on…
   - Adjust the oven racks according to the recipe directions.
   - Hang or place an oven thermometer in the oven.
3. Assume that you should use the middle rack unless specifically told to do differently in your baking instructions, or if baking multiple pans at a time.
4. Ovens usually have "hot spots" meaning they don’t bake at an even temperature throughout the oven. For example, the front or back may be hotter than the middle.
5. Once you pre-heat the oven, check the thermometer inside to see if the temperature is correct for your baking project. Pre-heating can take as long as 20 minutes. Adjust the temperature until the correct oven temperature is attained.
6. When placing pans or bake ware into the oven for baking…
   - Don’t crowd them. Baking sheets should never be touching each other.
   - Keep at least 1" between the sides of any baking pans or sheets and the sides of the oven. Even circulation around the pan is required for perfect baking.
7. Don’t stack the pans directly over pans on other shelves. Pans should be staggered on the different shelves. (The less pans you bake at one time, the better your project will bake.)
8. Avoid opening the oven door during baking. This allows cool air into the oven and can cause uneven baking or cause cakes to fall. If you have to open the door, do so after the texture has set which is close to finishing time.
9. Avoid over-baking! For example, If you are baking for 40 minutes, check after 35 minutes to see if baking is complete. Over-baking is a common cause of failure for many baking projects.
   

Allowing Your Baking Project to Cool

For cake and loaf recipes that require unmolding, place the pan on a wire cake rack and let it stand for 5 - 10 minutes. If a baked good is unmolded right from the oven, chances are it will fall apart or stick to the pan if unmolded too soon.

 

Some baked goods are meant to be eaten right out of the pan, but they should be cooled in the pan on a wire cake rack.

 

Unmolding Your Baking Project

After cooling for about 10 minutes, run a dull knife around the inside of the pan to release the cake, bread or quick-bread from the sides and then invert it onto the wire cake rack to unmold. If the loaf pan has been lined with parchment or waxed paper, carefully peel it off the loaf. Turn the loaf right side up and cool completely on the rack.

 

A few cakes and quick breads may sink slightly in the center when cooled. When they are sliced, the indentation won't be noticeable.

 

Hint: To easily remove a cake from the pan, place a double thickness paper towel over the wire rack. The towel prevents the wire bars from breaking the crust or leaving imprints on the top of the cake

 

You should always cool cookies on a wire cake rack. Once cookies come out of the oven, wait approximately 2-3 minutes before transferring them from the sheet to the rack.

 

Preparing The Mix for the Oven

1. Follow the directions precisely. Do not over or under-mix. Use a timer to track mixing times.
2. Over-beating:
   • Butter diminishes its ability to trap air for proper and even rising
   • Flour promotes the formation of gluten and toughens the texture
   • Eggs whips too much air into the mixture and causes tunnels in the texture
3. Each step has a purpose so don’t skip any.
4. Move from step to step quickly. For example, once baking powder or baking soda becomes wet, the leavening action starts. If you allow the wet mixture to sit for too long before baking, your project may end up flat!
5. Place the mixture or batter into the prepared pan as soon as possible. Make sure you scrape all the batter from the mixing bowl with a rubber or soft plastic spatula. Don’t leave the batter behind! Baking times assume you’ve put it all into the pan.

Kitchen Hints and Tips

1. Bread Baking - Brush melted butter over the tops of breads and biscuits as soon as they are removed from the oven. This will make the crust soft and full of flavor.
2. Use an ice cream scoop to drop cookie dough. Your cookies will be uniform size and will bake evenly. If the dough is sticky, dip the scoop into water between scoops.
3. When spreading focaccia dough into a focaccia pan, wet your hands or a spatula to easily and evenly spread the dough.
4. Remove baked brownies from the pan and frost them upside down.