Whether you ’re an avid bread maker or someone who just enjoy a weekend in the kitchen , these broil query and answers will aid you with all of your oven endeavors .
Check out these how - to baking tips and baking query to get you start on your next sweet - tooth journey :
How to Ice a Cake
How to Bake Using Fiber and Whole Grains
Whole grains are a great room to get more fiber into your diet . Learn how to broil using this fiber - rich food in your breads , cookies and cake .
How to Ship Baked Goods
Baking the cake is one matter , but getting it across the commonwealth is another ! Learn how to ship your noted cooky from Kalamazoo to California on this page .
For more helpful baking tips and hints, see:
Q. What is best way to ice a freshly baked cake?
patty decorating is an artistry that sprain an ordinary bar into an elaborate masterpiece . It ’s not for the inexperienced Captain Cook , but with a few dim-witted guidelines and a brace of tip , you’re able to give your homemade cakes a professional touch .
Always cool down a cake completely before frosting it . Then use a indulgent pastry brush to remove all loose cake crumbs .
Place the bottom patty stratum on a mat home , and place strips of full paper under the patty to watch any dripping . smooch about 1/2 cupful frosting on the top and spread it evenly over the bar with a flat metal spatula .
Top with the 2d bar layer . Spread a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake to seal in crumbs , and let the cake stick out for at least 15 minutes . Then , spread the side with a thicker layer of frosting , working from the bottom toward the top and turn the cake as need .
To ice the top , smooch a mound of frosting in the center and spread it outwards to the edge . apply special tools to give your cake a professional looking . To make swirls in the frosting , use the monotonous , metal spatula or the back of a teaspoonful .
The spatula also is the perfect tool to make ridges on the bar top by sweeping it through the frosting from side to side in evenly spaced strokes . A cake " comb " – a metallic element trigon with teeth on all three edges – can be carefully drag around the side and top of the cake for a professional look .
Add garnish or piping , if trust , and you have a cake that takes the bar .
Q. I’ve heard it’s important to get a lot of fiber in your diet, but is it possible to get whole grains in baked goods and not just in bread?
There ’s no doubt about the research : Most of us need to get more fiber into our diet . Although it ’s not a vitamin or a mineral , fibre play an authoritative part in keeping the body healthy .
The intermediate American squander half the amount of fiber experts recommend , only 10 to 13 grams a day of the 20 to 35 grams jazz to put up protective wellness benefit .
The fiber ground in whole grains help lower cholesterol , reduces the risk of heart disease , and helps stabilize parentage sugar . In addition , it ’s been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer .
How to Add Whole-Grain Fiber
To add more whole - cereal fiber to your dieting , cogitate scratch and baked commodity . blank out the stereotype of whole texture being only forbreads . If you have a variety of whole - food grain flour on hand - and have a go at it a couple of wide-eyed tricks for the good result - you’ll shortly be bake full - flavor breads and scorched goods made with the goodness of whole grains .
To start , stockpile your pantry with some bedrock . These should include bread flour , all - function flour , whole - wheat flour , whole - wheat pastry flour , and oat flour . Barley flour is another good whole - food grain flour that lends a sweet , around the bend flavor to adust goods .
Bread flour , all - purpose flour , whole - wheat flour , and whole - wheat pastry dough flour are available at most supermarket ; oat and barley flour are available at health - intellectual nourishment stores . you may easily make your own oat flour by processing rolled oat in a blender or solid food processor until finely chop .
dough flour and all - purpose flour can be stored in airtight containers in a dismal , cool home such as a console off from the stove or oven . Because whole - grain flours have a higher fiber , vitamin , and fat subject than refined whitened flours , they should be stored in deep freezer storage suitcase in the deep-freeze .
Bring frozen flour to room temperature by congeal it out on the riposte in a mixing bowl for an hour . Forbread baking , heating the flour and bowl slightly in a slow oven before mixing in the dissolve yeast help get the yeastie beasties off to a very happy start .
Tricks of the Baking Trade
There are two simple tricks to know when adding whole - texture good to your sunbaked goods : First , if you ’re baking simoleons leavened with barm , about one-half of the flour you use will want to contain gluten .
2d , whole - wheat flour , whole - pale yellow pastry flour , rye flour , oat flour , and barleycorn flour do not hold back as much gluten as dough flour and some all - purpose flours , and should be used in combination with gluten - hold back flour for best upshot .
What is Gluten?
Gluten , a starch establish in straw , is necessary in yeasted pelf to provide the elasticity and structure that allows bread kale to shape bubbles and rise . Bread flour is made from high up - gluten hard wheat . ( bar and pastry dough flour is made from low - gluten flabby straw . )
Baked commodity such as cakes , cooky , pie impudence , pancakes , quick breads , and muffin that use bake pulverization and baking soda as leaveners do not depend on gluten and yeast for rising and structure .
gentle flours with less gluten , such as cake flour and whole - pale yellow pastry flour , and flour with petty or no gluten , such as Secale cereale , barley , and oat flour , ferment well in these baked goods . Bread flour , with its high gluten content , causescakes , cookie , Proto-Indo European crust , pancakes , immediate breads , and muffins to be less raw .
All-Purpose Flour, Cake Flour or Bread Flour?
All - purpose flour is a blend of flour designed to be a via media between " hard " bread flours and " gentle " patty and pastry dough flours . Generally speaking , all - purpose flour can be used for both bread and cakes , although bread bread maker will say that " surd " bread flour is better for chewy , hick scratch , and pastry chef will prefer to apply cake and pastry dough flours for their baked goodness requiring a tender crumb .
All - purpose flour comes bleach out or unbleached ; each can be used interchangeably . Unbleached flour is age naturally by time ; bleached is aged chemically .
With a fiddling practice , you ’ll presently find the combination of flour that accommodate your baking trend , be it luxuriously - rising bread , tender sunbaked goodness , or whole - grain good . The with child matter about bread warm from the oven is that it tastes good no matter how it turns out , so experience gratuitous to experiment dumbfound whole - metric grain goodness into your loaf and other baked good .
Q. I love baking for my friends, but shipping is always a problem. What’s the best way to send baked goods to my friends and family?
Shipping perishable good is a tricky process . There are several thing to consider such as how to keep the items intact , how to package them so they do n’t get squished , and how long it can withstand being in a small box without going speculative .
But before you give up and mail that Christmas sweater instead , here are some helpful tips to ensure your holiday goodies make it through the shipping process intact :
