Baking
Basics
Business
Tips
Baking
Glossary
Baking Basics
Tips for Baking
Measuring dry and wet ingredients – if you get into the habit of measuring dry ingredients before you measure liquid ingredients, you will not have to wash and dry your measures before you finish measuring.
When adding sultanas, nuts or other fruit to a mix, always drop them in the flour first and shake around. Coating these items in flour will ensure an even spread through the batter instead of clumping or sinking.
When using berries in your muffins, mix them with a few spoonfuls of the mixed dry ingredients before mixing in together. This coats the berries and prevents them from all sinking to the bottom of the muffin.
Tin Sizes
Patty tins are shallow, muffin tins are deep.
Regular sized muffins – the standard muffin size, slightly larger than cupcakes and are much deeper.
Mini muffins – are a little less than half the size of regular-sized muffins. A mixture that makes 12 regular muffins will make 24-30 mini muffins. Mini muffins usually need about 2 minutes shorter baking time than regular muffins.
Texas muffins – are twice the size of regular muffins. These large muffins are made in trays of six. These muffins usually take 2-4 minutes longer than regular muffins.
Biscuits
Always start baking biscuits with trays at room temperature. If your biscuit sheet is warm, your biscuit dough may melt and spread out.
Drop spoonfuls of dough 5cm apart so the biscuits don’t run together. Use a small ice cream scoop or spoon to “drop” your biscuits on the sheet so that the biscuits bake evenly and in the same shape. High-liquid batter spreads more than stiff dough.
If you’re pressed for time, mix ingredients, refrigerate, and bake later when family or friends arrive. There’s no better aroma than freshly baked biscuits!
For softer, chewier biscuits, bake just until they begin to brown.
Increase spread of biscuits with low oven temperature.
Decrease spread of biscuits with high oven temperature.
To bake more than one tray of biscuits at a time, rotate your trays about half way through the bake. Put the top tray on the bottom rack and the bottom tray on top. This will ensure biscuits are all cooked evenly, and similar in colour.
Lining cake tins