- Use the Right Measuring Method
- Yeast or Baking Powder?
- Don't Kill the Yeast
- Baking Must Do's
- Baking Basics
- Baking Basics #2
- Tips to Help Bake a Better Muffin
- Bake Your Best Cookie
- Chilling Cookie Dough
- Can't Remove the Bars from the Pan?
- Baking a Crisp Pie Crust
- How to Freeze Your Pie
- No Buttermilk? Substitute Sour Milk
- Cooking with Sun Dried Fruit
- Shall We Toast?
- Low Fat Cooking Tips
- Measuring Pasta
- Successful Sauces
- Pastas and Sauces
- Soup Tips #1
- Soup Tips #2
- Soup Tips #3
- How to Store Coffee? Whole Beans or ground
Use the Right Measuring Method
- Dry ingredients: Spoon ingredient into the appropriate measuring cup or measuring spoon. Level off the excess with the straight edge of a knife or spatula.
- Liquid ingredients: Pour liquid into a clear glass or plastic measuring cup set on a level surface. To confirm the measurement, bend down so your eye is level with the markings on the cup. (For an angled measuring cup, view the markings from above.)
- Brown Sugar: Unless noted otherwise, brown sugar should be pressed firmly into a dry measuring cup. The sugar should hold the shape of the measuring cup when it is turned out.
Yeast or Baking Powder?
- Yeast and baking powder raise dough in different ways; yeast is the best leavening for sturdy breads, rolls and coffee cakes.
- Baking powder makes for a faster rise and lighter crumb, so it's ideal for cakes, quick breads and muffins.
Don't Kill the Yeast
- For baking bread, be careful when dissolving the active dry yeast. Check the temperature of the heated mixture with an instant read thermometer. If the mixture is too hot, the yeast will die and the bread won't rise. Yet if it is too cold, the yeast won't activate and the bread won't rise. Follow the temperature guidelines provided in each recipe.
Baking Must Do's
- Always preheat the oven. It helps to ensure even rising and thorough baking.
- Simplify your baking by having all your utensils (measuring spoons, cups, spatulas, etc.) and ingredients prepared and organized before you begin.
- Prepare all ingredients that require slicing or chopping prior to assembling.
- Make sure you have a dish towel or paper towels handy to wipe up spills or clean a measuring utensil.
Baking Basics
- Cushioned baking sheets with air between two metal layers help prevent cookies from oven browning on the bottom. Use a cold baking sheet for each batch of cookies. The cookie dough will start to spread and melt on a warm sheet.
- Cookies are done when they are slightly brown around the edges and an imprint remains when lightly touched in the center.
- Cakes and cookies bake best in medium weight aluminum or stainless steel pans, which allow for very even distribution of heat.
Baking Basics #2
- Cake and muffin batter should fill a pan by no more than two thirds. During baking, the batter will rise just to the top of the pan or slightly above. If your pan is too large your cake will be flat; too small and the batter will overflow.
- Heat rises so the oven temperature varies throughout the oven. For best results, place baking pans in the center of the oven. Do not place one pan on top of another. Stagger pans on the same rack so they do not touch each other or the sides of the oven. When baking two sheets of cookies at the same time reverse the pans top and bottom halfway through the baking time to ensure more even baking and browning.
Tips to Help Bake a Better Muffin
- Spray muffin cups with non stick spray.
- Fill the cup two thirds full with batter.
- Add a few tablespoons of water to any empty cups (this helps to keep them from burning and helps heat the tin evenly).
- For easier removal, let muffins sit a few minutes after baking.
- To reheat muffins, wrap loosely in foil and heat in oven at 450°F for approximately 5 minutes.
Bake Your Best Cookie
- For evenly browned cookies, use light coloured baking sheets with a dull finish. Use shiny baking sheets for cookies that don't require much browning.
- Try to make drop cookies all the same size to ensure even baking. Space cookies evenly, allowing lots of room for spreading.
- Dipping cookie cutters in flour helps to prevent them from sticking to the dough or tearing it.
- Using finely chopped nuts and fruit makes it easier to cut cookie dough with those ingredients. It also helps to chill the dough and cut with a sharp knife.
- Cool the cookie sheets before baking another batch. The dough will melt and spread on a warm cookie sheet and baking time may also be affected.
Chilling Cookie Dough
- Cookie dough that will be used for shapes often needs to be chilled first for easier handling. The firmness of the cookie dough after chilling will depend on whether it is made with butter or margarine. Chilled for the exact same length of time, dough made with butter will be firmer.
- To chill cookie dough, place it in the refrigerator for the time recommended in the recipe or quick chill it (place it in the freezer) for about one third of the refrigerator chilling time. Dough made with butter should not be quick chilled, it will get too hard.
- Keep in mind that it is best to use stick margarine for baking. Spreads with less than 60 percent vegetable oil have high water content. Also, avoid spreads labeled diet, whipped, liquid or soft as they are generally intended for table use as opposed to baking.
Can't Remove the Bars from the Pan?
- Lining the pan with foil is the easy way to remove bars from pans. Baked goods will lift out cleanly, the pan doesn't get scratched from cutting the bars, and cleanup is easy - throw away the foil.
- Flip the pan over and shape foil around the outside, bringing about 1 inch past the edges - for easy gripping and lining.
- Place the foil lining in the pan, grease the foil if the recipe calls for a greased pan.
- Spread batter or dough in lined pan. Bake and cool as recipe directs.
- To remove, grab the foil overhang and lift out the baked treat in a block. Place on a cutting board and cut into bars.
Baking a Crisp Pie Crust
- Use a glass pie pan or a metal pie pan with a dull finish. If you use a shiny pie pan, bake the crust a little longer for increased crispness.
- Refrigerate an unbaked crust for 15 minutes before baking.
- If your pie has a top and a bottom crust, cut slits in the top to let steam escape. This helps to prevent a soggy crust.
- To help keep the bottom crust crisp, yet prevent the top crust from burning, bake a double crust in the lower third of the oven.
- To prevent moisture from the pie filling from seeping into the crust, pour the filling into the unbaked shell just before baking.
How to Freeze Your Pie
- To freeze a baked fruit pie: Let it cool completely. Once cool, put it in a freezer bag. Seal, label and freeze it for up to four months. To serve, thaw pie at room temperature.
- To freeze an unbaked fruit pie: Before assembling the pie, treat light coloured fruit with ascorbic acid. Assemble pie in a metal pie pan. Place in freezer bag, seal, label and freeze for up to four months. To bake, unwrap frozen pie and cover it with foil. Bake in a 450°F oven for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 55 to 60 minutes or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden.
No Buttermilk? Substitute Sour Milk
- If you don't have buttermilk on hand, substitute sour milk in the same amount. For each cup of sour milk needed, place 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar in a glass measuring cup. Add enough milk to make 1 cup total liquid and stir. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes before using it in a recipe.
Cooking with Sun-dried Fruit
- For sauces, condiments, grain dishes and baked goods, re-hydrate the pieces of dried fruit by covering it in hot water for 15 minutes before adding to recipe or dish. Expect the dried fruit to soak up some of the liquid from sauces, soups and grain dishes.
- Before adding re-hydrated sun-dried fruit to yeast and fruit breads, pat dry the sun-dried fruit using paper towels.
- Under-bake cookies by a few minutes to keep dried fruit pieces moist and plump.
- For another taste experience, re-hydrate dried fruit in chicken stock, wine, liqueurs, earl grey tea, fruit juice, balsamic vinegar or rum. Adding a drop or two of almond or vanilla when hydrating fruit in hot water also increases the flavour. A few drops of orange extract used when hydrating dried cranberries or dried cherries is a fresh, flavourful addition.
Shall We Toast?
- Nuts, seeds and coconut get an intense flavour boost when toasted in the oven.
- Spread the nuts, seeds or shredded coconut in a single layer in a shallow baking pan.
- Bake in a 350°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until the pieces are golden brown.
- Check the pieces frequently to make sure they aren't getting too brown. Be careful - if they start to burn, they burn quickly and often can't be saved. Stir once or twice.
Low Fat Cooking Tips
- Many recipes can be prepared using low fat or no fat dairy products. Lower fat sour cream, yogurt, and cheese can be substituted at a substantial fat and calorie savings. Reduced - fat or fat free cream cheese can be used as a substitute in any recipe (dips, cheesecake, sauces), although you may notice a difference in flavour or texture.
- Use small amounts of strong flavoured cheese as opposed to a lot of mild cheese.
- To duplicate the flavour and creaminess of sour cream, use buttermilk instead. It's as low in calories and fat as 1 percent milk.
- Use evaporated skim milk in place of light or heavy cream in soups and sauces.
- Remove the skin from poultry. Easy to do after cooking as the meat doesn't absorb much of the fat.
- For the leanest ground meat for recipes, ask your butcher to grind skinned, boneless turkey or chicken breast.
- Try to use little fat in cooking. Instead use non stick pans, spray coating, or a small amount of broth or water to sauté or "fry" vegetables or meat.
Measuring Pasta
- Naturally it's impossible to measure long uncooked spaghetti in a measuring cup. To make 2 cups of cooked spaghetti, use 113 grams (4 ounces) of dried spaghetti. If you don't have a scale, hold dried spaghetti together in a bunch. A 113 grams (4 ounces) portion of 10" long spaghetti generally has a diameter of about 1 inch.
- To measure medium noodles that will fit in a glass measuring cup, to make 2 cups of cooked noodles measure 2 cups of dried noodles.
Successful Sauces
- Prevent lumps in sauces thickened with cornstarch or flour by stirring constantly. If lumps do form, beat the sauce briskly with a wire whisk or rotary beater.
- Cook sauces over low to medium heat unless the recipe directs otherwise. Cook your sauces no longer than the time specified. A combination of high heat and lengthy cooking times often causes sauces to curdle and spoil.
- If you must leave the sauces during cooking, remove the pan from the heat.
Pastas and Sauces
- String or ribbon pasta, such as spaghetti and linguine, work best with smooth or oil based sauces. Meat sauces tend to fall off the string unless it is finely ground. Seafood and finely chopped vegetable sauces also work well with these pastas.
- Angel - hair pasta is fine so it is great in soups or very smooth sauces.
- Short pasta shapes, such as bow ties, elbows and fusilli, are best with thick creamy sauces that can coat and adhere to them.
- Tubular shapes, like penne, are great with sauces including meats and beans as they are able to fill the tube area.
Soup Tips #1
- Simmer, never boil, soups and stews.
- Soups with starchy veggies, like potatoes, and beans, usually require more cooking liquid or stock than soups with veggies that have a high water content, like leafy greens for example.
- For overly salty soups, add sliced peeled raw potatoes, which will absorb excess salt. Remove the potatoes before serving.
Soup Tips #2
- If soup is too thin, add rice or mashed potatoes to thicken. Or remove some of the cooked vegetables from the soup and puree in the blender. Then return to the pot.
- When recipe calls for a variety of whole dried herbs and spices (bay leaf, peppercorns, cloves, etc.) place the herbs in a tea ball and hang over the edge of the pot so you can easily remove the herbs after cooking.
Soup Tips #3
- Both soups and stews usually taste better if made a day ahead of time, refrigerated and reheated before serving.
- Do a last minute taste test of chilled soups just before serving (cold foods can dull the taste buds) to see if any additional seasoning is needed.
- To maintain the desired serving temperature as long as possible, serve hot soup in warmed bowls and cold soup in chilled dishes.
How to Store Coffee? Whole Beans or ground
- While coffee will never go "bad" in the way other perishable foods will, coffee's flavours and aromas will fade as it ages. The best way to store coffee is in an airtight container in a cool place, not in the fridge or freezer, as cold temperatures will dry out the flavour oils and the coffee may pick up unwanted odours.