Baking can be defined as a process where a chef cooks food by dry heating without exposing foods to burning flames inside an oven. In fact, eversince the art of bakery was introduced to this wonderful world, not generally people will acknowledge the techniques used to produce any pastries & bakeries. Hence today, we will be revealing the secrets to you of the 5 most effective ways you could use to bake and the proper steps of using each of the methods.
For illustration purposes only. Photo credits to https://www.errenskitchen.com/victoria-sponge/
Starting from the very common technique, the All-In-One method. Quick and easy method used commonly by most of the home bakers or beginners. The outcome of using this method to bake arent’s as light as airy. Moreover, this method requires soft butter and ingredients must be at room temperature. Food processors and handheld electric whisks will come in handy to make the job even speedier.
Steps:
- Add butter, sugar, eggs and flour into the mixing bowl & mix it evenly on a medium speed.
- Scrape the side of the bowl with spatula to make sure all ingredients are incorporated well.
- If the mixture is too thick, you can consider adding either water or milk into the batter to loosen it.
- Mix until it is well combined then is done!
For illustration purposes only. Photo credits to https://www.completelydelicious.com/baking-essentials-the-creaming-method/
Next, the creaming method, also a common method that is used to bake cookies, cakes, muffins and other baked goods. For this method, a stand mixer is required. Once you have mastered this method, you will be able to add your own “special ingredients” into the baking process without referring to the recipe. The texture of a creamed cake is a little lighter and softer than an All-In-One baked cake.
Steps:
- Butter and Sugar will first be added to the mixture.
- Mix on a medium speed, the texture that you must derive from the mixture should be in wet sand quality, contains no sugar granules and it must be light or fluffy. The time spent for the mixture is roughly 10-15 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time to incorporate well. (PS: make sure not to add all eggs together.)
- Sift dry ingredients required and mix with wet ingredients later on. Add in dry and wet ingredients alternatively to obtain a soft texture.
- After it is all mixed, the process is then complete.
For illustration purposes only. Photo credits to https://whatsarahbakes.com/baking-secrets/mixing-methods/the-rubbing-in-method/
The third method we are going to share will be the rubbing in method. It is utilized mainly in pastries or for crumbles. It is also used for some traditional Irish cake recipes. Ingredients should be in cool temperature or take it from the fridge if possible.
- FIrst, put flour into a mixing bowl.
- Among choices, you can add in either cold temperature of butter or margarine based on your own will.
- Use your tip fingers to rub the margarine or butter while lifting the mixture. This is to introduce some air into the ingredients as a raising agent.
- Pastries are required to have everything on low temperature as possible. The reason why we are using the tip of our fingers instead of our hand(palm) is because we might heat up the mixture using our hand and the texture of pastries will be tough in the end.
For illustration purposes only. Photo credits to https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/how-to-melt-chocolate-5-easy-ways/
Last but not least, another simple and quick melting method gives the texture of our bakeries more dense and moist than other cakes made by other methods. Butter or fats used in cake are often melted in a pot before eggs and other dry ingredients are added into the mixture as there is no beating and whisking action needed throughout the process. Take Chocolate Brownie as an example, butter will first melted beforehand and dry ingredients will add in later.
It is compulsory to add in baking powder as a raising agent in order to help the cake to rise. Basically all you have to do is just MELT & MIX!
So these are the most effective methods that are shared to you from our Green House Ingredient Pastry Chef. We hope from this passage, you could find your own suitable method to bake and to produce versatile pastries & bakeries!
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