Baking Tips - Part One
Recommended tools for baking amazing cookies, and more!
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Baking Tips - Part One
Recommended tools for baking amazing cookies and more!
As we head into the holidays, this issue and upcoming issues of the Tastefully Sonoma newsletter will feature a lot of baking content to help you up your baking game and make the very best holiday treats. I am starting with baking tools. Now is the time to take an inventory and procure any tools that you may need for your holiday baking.
Here are my go-to, ride-or-die baking tools:
Heavy rimmed baking sheets: If you have not gotten new baking sheets lately, you may want to think about upgrading. I like the heavy ones with the sides on them (often called a jelly roll pan). Having sides on your baking sheets means they are more useful for other projects such as making thin cake layers, sheet pan dinners, etc. and your cookies won’t slide off the pan. Make sure you have enough baking sheets. If you bake often, four is the minimum number you will need. Six or eight is even better. I like these pans. I also have a smaller size baking sheet that is half the size of my regular baking sheets and is good for test cookies (you will learn more about the importance of test cookies in the coming weeks), roasting nuts, etc.
Silpat Mats: I love Silpat mats and recommend that you have enough for all of your baking sheets. When you use them, you don’t need to grease your baking sheets and things don’t stick. I pull cookies out of the oven and let them sit on the Silpat covered baking sheet for a few minutes before I move them to the cooling rack. You will break fewer cookies this way. Bonus – if you need to transport a dish of something and it seems like it might slip around a bit, just plop it onto a Silpat covered baking sheet and you are good to go.
Parchment Paper: Parchment paper is a great substitute for a Silpat mat. I recommend that you have both Silpat mats and parchment paper in your kitchen tool arsenal. Parchment works well for cookies that might lift up from a Silpat mat (stamping cookies for example), you can use it to roll out cookie dough and separate the stacks in the fridge. If you are worried about cross-contamination, being able to toss out a piece of parchment paper between cookie batches is the way to go. Beyond baking, it’s great to line a baking sheet to roast vegetables, fish, etc. I buy pre-cut sheets that exactly fit my half sheet pans. You can get them quantities of 100 or even 1000.
Big cooling racks and lots of them: Make sure you have several cooling racks so that you can make several batches of cookies back-to-back. I like the ones with the grid pattern so small or delicate cookies don’t slip through.
Extra measuring cups and spoons: Measuring cups and spoons are not expensive and it’s great to have extras on hand so you don’t have to continually wash them if you are baking several things at once. And while we are on the topic, there are measuring cups for liquid ingredients and those for dry ingredients. They are different things, and they are not interchangeable, so you need both.
Food scale: Food scales are great for measuring out flour and other dry goods. I use the gram setting for the most accurate measurement.
Oven thermometer: Oven thermometers are helpful so that you understand if your oven runs hot or cold. I have two ovens and my top oven runs 25 degrees hot so I know to turn it down 25 degrees when baking cookies.
Brown Sugar Storage Canister: Keeping brown sugar moist is a challenge. I like these containers with this insert for storing brown sugar. I don’t like to keep brown sugar in its original bag as I think my canisters do a better job of storing the brown sugar and keeping it moist. Also, it makes it really easy to give the brown sugar a stir prior to using it which also helps remove lumps. I normally don’t have strong feelings on ingredient storage vehicles but in this case, I do!
Round cookie cutter set: Even if you don’t make cut out cookies, a set of round cookie cutters like this comes in handy. I use a round cutter to make disks out of drop cookie dough so the cookies are more uniform. This is easy to do and really makes your drop cookies look nice. Start by making a ball of dough or scooping a scoop of dough, then squish it in the middle of a round cookie cutter to make a disk (I typically use a round cutter that is 2.25 inches but you may need to experiment to see what works best for you). I also use the round cutter to smooth out edges on cookies just after baking. See this video for a quick demo.
Dough scoops: A dough scoop can help you easily make uniform sized cookies. I always level off the dough on the top of the scoop to make the scoops more uniform.
Stand mixer: I know, I know, a stand mixer such as a KitchenAid takes up a lot of counter space and buying one is a big investment. That was my argument against it for a lot of years. But, then I got one … and, wow. I could not believe how much better it worked than my old hand-held mixer. The first time I used it with my old faithful chocolate mousse recipe I could not believe how light and fluffy the mousse was. And beating egg whites was so much quicker and better. It allows me to make things like marshmallows which require at least 10 minutes of mixing time. Plus, many of the baking cook books that are on the market today assume you have one and the recipes are written for it. In my opinion It’s a must-have if you bake a lot.
Little plate by the mixer: And, finally, a tool I guarantee you already own. I keep a salad size plate by the mixer for every baking project. It’s a great resting spot for dirty spoons, spatulas, measuring spoons and the mixer head. It will help keep your counter clean.
If you have questions about baking tools, please let me know in the comments. Thank you.
One more thing before I go …
Take an inventory of your aprons and see if you need a refresh. I love color and pattern in my aprons and have ones from here, here and here. You need to love your aprons or you won’t wear them!
Cheers!
Sallie
Note about links: All links in this newsletter are offered for your convenience. I don’t receive any commission if you purchase. If this changes in the future I will disclose it.
Love that video!