• Box grater or shredder with both wide and thin shredding widths. Alternatively, you can use a wide shredder and a zester.
• Cake testers to test the doneness of cakes. You can buy an actual cake tester tool, or just use a toothpick or thin skewer. I find that any of these options provides what you need!
• Double boiler for slowly cooking egg whites and sugar for buttercreams, and gently heating chocolate. You could also use a heatproof bowl set over a pot of hot water; just make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water in the pot.
• Electric hand mixer, even if it’s just a super cheap one you found at a garage sale. Honestly, it’s so hard to achieve the right textures without it, plus who wants to spend thirty minutes whipping cream by hand?
• Instant-read thermometer to measure the temperature of water and milk before adding yeast, and to make sure everything is just right. Working with yeast can be tricky, and thermometers take the guesswork out.
• Measuring spoons and cups to make sure everything is properly measured, of course! Dry measuring cups for dry ingredients and liquid measuring cups—the glass ones with a spout—for liquids. Trust me, guys—it makes a difference!
• Mixing bowls in several sizes, at least some of them microwave- and heat-safe. You’ll use
these to mix batters and doughs.
• Offset spatula to spread and frost. Simply put, this is the kitchen tool that you never knew you needed. I use the small 5- or 6-inch ones the most, even on big cakes.
• Parchment paper or nonstick baking mats to keep things from sticking, and to limit the number of times you have to wash those big pans.
• Pastry blender for when you don’t have a food processor, or maybe just don’t feel like pulling it out or cleaning it. You’ll use this tool to make pie crusts and biscuits and scones—any recipe that involves cutting butter or shortening into flour.
• Pastry brush for applying flavorings to cake layers beforefilling and frosting.
• Rolling pin to roll out all those pretty pie crusts or cookie doughs just right. I have a whole collection, but my favorite is just a plain old, simple wood one. Go with whatever kind you are comfortable with!
• Rubber spatulas to scrape out all the good stuff from the mixing bowls when you’re ready to bake.
• Whisks to stir ingredients, both dry and wet alike, and to marry them together in the end.
Now, what’s nice to have:• Biscuit cutters or just a mason jar lid—that’ll work too. Or a knife and a steady hand. Or an old cookie cutter. I’m flexible.
• Food processor to help you easily make that pie crust and crush graham crackers for crusts and toppings.
• Piping bags and tips to make cupcakes pretty, and to make frosting cakes much more easy. Spatulas will work too, though!
• Stand mixer to help you multitask in the kitchen, and to do all the hard work for you along the way.
TOOLS
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TOOLS
It’s not always easy to get great ingredients—maybe yourgrocery store just isn’t equipped for it, or it’s more money than you’d like to spend. Whatever the reason, I understand. And it’s not always necessary. As I write this, we’re going through a vanilla shortage, making it insanely expensive, so I constantly hunt for deals or just opt for imitation. It’s fine, really.
One of the areas where you can’t skip the right ingredient, however, is with flour. Most of the recipes could be made with all-purpose flour, but when a recipe calls for cake flour or bread flour, it really does matter. I’ve done my best to keep these to only the completely necessary ingredients in this book. If you can’t find cake flour, you can take a 1 cup measure, scoop 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into the bottom, and fill the rest with all-purpose flour. Whisk, and you’ve got 1 cup of cake flour. Self-rising flour is also something you can create at home—simply measure 1½ teaspoons of baking powder into the bottom of a 1-cup measure, and fill the rest with all-purpose flour. Whisk, and that makes 1 cup of self-rising flour!
I use several types of sugarthroughout these recipes. Granulated white sugar is your basic sugar blended into batters and doughs alike, and it should be the easiest to find at any grocery store. For brown sugar, I usually prefer dark brown sugar, as it’s got a nice flavor punch. However, I’ve never had an issue swapping out dark and light in recipes, so use what you have! Powdered sugar, a.k.a. confectioners’ sugar, is something I often use in frostings, but it’s also great in shortbread cookies and pie crusts to achieve just the right texture. Last, there’s coarse sugar, which I use to top baked goods like muffins and loaf cakes. I find mine in the sprinkles section of the grocery store or online. You can also use organic raw sugar, sometimes called turbinado sugar, for this purpose.
When I’m baking with chocolate, I’m not
picky. I usually use whatever chocolate I prefer to eat, including chocolate chips. To melt any type or amount of chocolate, I start by first chopping it into small, even pieces, then reserving about one-fourth of the chocolate. Iputthe rest in a clean, dry, microwave-safe bowl and microwave it full power for 30 seconds. Then, I stir the chocolate and return it to the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until it’scompletelymelted. I then immediately stir in the reserved chocolate until it is also melted, and I’m good to go! (Reserving some of the chocolate to stir in afterwards helps prevent an overheated result, and it keeps things smooth.)
Another item to note is cocoa powder. I simply cannot get that deep chocolate flavor from plain cocoa powder, so I always, always use dark cocoa powder. It’s worth it, and at least in my neck of the woods, it’s the same price as the regular stuff anyways.
Let’s talk about salt. There are so many different kinds of salt out there, but for simplicity, I have always used simple table salt in baking. I think the finer grain melds and mixes just right into batters and doughs, and I always have it on hand.
Last, all the eggs I ever use in life are large. Substituting with medium or extra-large will have a big effect, especially at altitude, and large are the ones that are most widely available. When it comes to separating your eggs, I usually just use the shells, tossing the yolk from shell to shell to separate the parts. Another method that might be easier for you would be to use your hands, letting the white slip between your fingers into a separate bowl. Whichever you choose, just remember that whites can’t have even a trace of yolk in order to behave the way it should!
Otherwise, guys, just use what you feel comfortable with, what’s available to you, and it’ll work!
INGREDIENTS
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INGREDIENTS
BISCUITS,SCONES, MUFFINS & QUICK BREADS
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BISCUITS, SCONES, MUFFINS