how to bake cakes and pastries

How to Bake Cakes and Pastries.

If you're looking to bake cakes and pastries, here are some ideas to help you get started in what can become a very enthralling and even therapeutic hobby, with the resulting benefit of some very delicious things to eat!

Steps.

1. Decide what you would like to bake. You won't have enough time in the day to bake a lot of items, so be selective. Pastries tend to be more effort and take more skills than making cakes, so if you're a novice, start with cakes and work your way towards making pastries.

2. Read up on making cakes and pastries. To begin with, it's a really good idea to become knowledgeable about the techniques, as well as the things that can go wrong with them. For example, temperature is very important when baking a cake, so that opening the oven mid-cooking can cause it to deflate. And pastries often require cold handling (adding cold fat, keeping your fingers cool by only using the fingertips and only rubbing for a short time, and having a cool room to work in). While these "fiddly" things may seem overwhelming at first, once you have grasped the finer techniques of baking, they make the experience both much more enjoyable and a lot more successful.

3. Try easy baking recipes to begin with. Start with plain cakes and pastries before graduating to fancier, more complicated versions. Some good ones to start with would be:

Cupcakes, Chocolate cake, Banana cake, Pies, Ice cream cake.

4. Once you feel confident making basic cakes, you can proceed to more complex cakes, such as wedding cakes, fruit cakes, layered cakes, birthday cakes with designs etc. Here are some ideas to try:

A cupcake wedding cake, Fruit cake, A chocolate chip birthday cake, Red velvet cake.

5. Avoid making French pastries until you have a good grasp of working with pastry and a fair understanding of its properties. French pastries become easier with practice but they are not a good beginner's pastry because you will be easily deterred by the amount of effort required. Once you do feel more certain, you might like to try:

Croissants, Eclairs, Choux pastry for a croquembouche.

6. Consider attending classes to learn the techniques used in baking. It can be a lot easier learning from a pastry chef who already knows all the tricks and trickiness and you will benefit from both the visual demonstrations and the practice with help.

7. Learn about baking from other places and for special occasions:

Try to experiment with baking from different cultures, from Japan to New Zealand, from the USA to Romania, you will find wide variations on commonly baked goods. It could take a lifetime to discover them all!

Learn about baked food that signify different seasons or celebrations. There are many different baked items associated with harvests, Christmas, Easter, Day of the Dead, and other celebrations around the world. These tend to be more complicated, on the whole, so you might need to be an intermediate to advanced baker to feel comfortable with them. See wikiHow's Holiday Cooking section for some ideas.

Tips.

It's a good idea to purchase an excellent book on Baking (often known by chefs as baking bibles) as these will give you good tips and are also excellent references for troubleshooting baking problems.

It is important to learn gradually. It takes years to become a top pastry chef or baker, so you're bound to have a few mishaps before feeling that you've mastered some of the trickier cakes and pastries!

In addition to knowing how to bake the cakes and pastries, it is also important to familiarize yourself with making frosting, using fondant, and making shapes and designs on cakes and pastries. Knowing how to make sugar toffee and glazes can also come in handy. You'll learn these techniques as you go.

Warnings.

Good cake and pastry pans are essential for good results. Don't skimp; it is better to buy one or two good quality baking items than to by an array of cheap ones that don't hold or distribute heat evenly, or do a number of things needed to ease your baking experience.

Things You'll Need.

Recipe books

Ingredients

Kitchen space

Classes (optional)

Desember 19, 2019

how to make popovers

How to Make Popovers.

Popovers are light and fluffy pastries that almost burst from the pan as they are cooking. Trapped steam inside of them puffs the pastries up while the outside turns a beautiful – and tasty – golden brown. Perfect with butter in jam in the mornings or alongside a good cut of meat for dessert, popovers are a simple and easy dish that anyone can make at home.

The following recipe makes 6 popovers.

Ingredients.
1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 large eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt.
2 tablespoons butter, cut into six pieces, or non-stick cooking spray.
Optional Ingredients.
2 tablespoons melted butter, 1-2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon rosemary, basil, thyme, black pepper.
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate.
5 ounces grated cheese (gruyere, cheddar, manchego, pepper jack), 6 tablespoons crumbled, cooked bacon.
1/4 cup minced chives or roasted shallots.

Steps.

1. Preheat the oven to 450 °F (232 °C). Popovers get their shape because the high heat quickly puffs up the steam inside the pastry, so your oven needs to be hot.

2. Place a small piece of butter at the bottom of each well in a muffin pan. You do not need a popover pan to make them, as a regular muffin dish will work fine. You can also use 6-ounce custard dishes.

Non-stick cooking spray can substituted for butter.

3. Whisk the eggs, milk, and salt together. You can also use a food processor if you prefer.

4. Whisk in the flour until it is completely mixed. You do not want to overmix, as this leads to a coarse and chewy popover. Simply whisk it until there are no more chunks of flour, then stop.

You should see little air bubbles – this is what will cause the popover to rise later.

5. Place the muffin pan in the oven for 2-3 minutes to warm. To make popovers “pop” you need to preheat the pan. This heats up the batter and causes it to grow rapidly in the first 20 minutes in the oven.

6. Divide the batter into each cup. Put an equal amount of batter in each popover pan, muffin dish, or custard cup and put them in the oven.

Some cooks suggest quickly whisking the batter before pouring so that it is frothy and airy as it goes into the pan.

Be careful-- the dish will still be hot from the oven.

7. Bake for 20 minutes at 450 °F (232 °C). Quickly get the batter back into the oven after pouring the batter and cook it for 20 minutes.

8. Do not open the oven. This is the golden rule of popovers! The high heat inside the oven creates steam that shoots the popover sky high, but even quickly opening the oven lets out enough heat to deflate them. Resist the temptation to check your pastries and leave the oven closed.

9. Turn the heat down to 375 °F (191 °C) and bake for an additional 10 minutes. After the first 20 minutes, the popovers will have a crispy shell and will retain their form. Lower the heat and cook them for an additional 10-20 minutes, or until the outsides are golden brown.

It is safe to open the oven door during this second cooking period.

If you have 2 pans of popovers in, rotate them now so that they heat evenly.

10. Remove the popovers and turn them out on a wire rack to cool. The outside will be crispy and the popover won’t collapse or crumble, so quickly pull them out of the oven and set them aside to cool.

11. Use a knife to cut a slit in the bottoms. This allows the steam to quickly escape the pastry and keep it crispy when you serve it.

12. Serve while still warm. Popovers are best right out of the oven, so eat them right away whenever possible.

Method 1 Variations.

1. Add melted butter for a richer pastry. Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter and whisk it into the batter with the milk and eggs for a rich, buttery popover.

Let the butter cool slightly after melting it – otherwise it might cook the eggs slightly.

2. Top your popovers with shredded cheese before cooking. Simply sprinkle shredded cheese, such as gruyere or cheddar, on top of the batter before it goes in the oven, then cook normally. The final popover will by topped with crispy, delicious cheese.

3. Try sweet popover recipes. Simply add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar with the flour and whisk it into the batter, then add whatever other sweet ingredients your heart desires. Some ideas include: ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and 2 teaspoons orange zest, ½ teaspoon vanilla and 1 ounce chopped semisweet chocolate.

Brush the tops of cooked popovers with melted butter, then sprinkle with ground cinnamon and sugar.

4. Try out savory popover recipes. Popovers are a fantastic addition to dinners in place of rolls or bread, and can be customized to fit your meal. Try mixing and matching the following variations, adding them to your batter with the flour:

¼ cup chives, chopped finely, ¼ cup roasted shallots or garlic, chopped finely, 1 teaspoon rosemary, thyme, or basil, minced, 4 pieces cooked bacon, finely chopped.

Question : Is there a way to added pumpkin to the mix for a seasonal taste? If so, how much?
Answer : While beating, add some pumpkin mix in, but not too much at once. My rule of thumb is 4 oz per pound, to give a slightest hint of pumpkin.

Tips : Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for a quick snack.
Warnings : No matter how tempting, do not open that oven!

Januari 17, 2020