5 Must-Have Baking Essentials for Beginners and How They Help
You could live at your local bakery. But let’s be honest, your favorite bakery goodies are burning a serious hole in your wallet.
Why not learn how to bake the treats you love?
You don’t have to be an experienced baker to whip up delicious cookies, cakes, and bars. All you need is a recipe and the right baking essentials for beginners.
Let’s start with classic measuring cups and spoons.
Baking is different than sauteing, frying, raw cooking, and other types of kitchen techniques. While measuring is undoubtedly important for these methods, baking requires absolute precision.
Too much salt (or even sugar) can ruin a recipe. If you add too much salt to a savory sauce, you can add more ingredients to balance it out. However, if you add more flour to balance out the salt, you’ll ruin the consistency of your cookie dough.
Measuring cups and spoons save money, ingredients, and headaches in the kitchen, but these tools are just the beginning.
Keep reading to discover more kitchen essentials for first-time bakers!
Whip Up Culinary Magic
All recipes start with ingredients. Classic baking ingredients include the following:
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar (brown and refined)
- Baking soda and baking powder
- Salt
- Vegetable oil
- Water
- Milk
- Butter
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs
These ingredients are the foundation for many baked goods, like cakes, muffins, cupcakes, cookies, scones, and crumbles.
If you want to make pastries, you can use phyllo dough. Pre-packaged dough is also available for fast dinner roles, sliced cookies, and pizza.
Baking Bowls and Mixers
Next, buy a reliable set of mixing bowls. You need separate bowls for your wet and dry ingredients. Save money with a mixing bowl set, complete with large to small balls.
Stainless steel mixing bowls are best for baking. They’re easier to clean and sterilize, making them the safest option for home cooks.
Pair your mixing bowls with sturdy spatulas and whisks. Whisks are best for mixing wet ingredients, like eggs and milk. Spatulas are good for whipping up batters.
Many baked good recipes call for mixers, as well. Since consistency is so important for particular recipes, you can’t have any lumps in your batter. These lumps create air bubbles, which ruin certain recipes, like cakes and souffle desserts.
Find a reliable mixer, complete with a large stainless steel bowl. Make sure the mixer has multiple settings and easily detachable features. You can wash the attachments separately, as well.
While not always necessary, you may want to buy a food processor. Food processors are great for finely chopping nuts, fruit, and graham crackers for your treats.
Regular blenders are also helpful in the kitchen. Use your blender to puree creamy dessert sauces for flan, bread pudding, and coffee cakes.
Muffin Tins, Cake Molds, and Parchment Paper
Arguably, the easiest treats to bake are cookies. All you need is a non-stick cookie sheet, and your cookies are done in a matter of minutes.
You can also use parchment paper for added convenience.
What is parchment paper? It’s a special heat and stick- resistant paper.
All professional bakers swear by parchment paper. It’s perfect for that old baking sheet handed down from Grandma. You can also line cake molds and baking tins for easy cake removal.
Muffin tins are another baking essential. You can’t make your favorite cupcakes or muffins without a reliable muffin tin.
Muffin tins come in sets of four, six, eight, nine, ten, and even twelve. Mini muffin tins also come in sets of twenty-four.
Types of Cake Molds
Muffin tins are a type of cake mold. Baking molds come in several shapes and sizes.
Here are a few standard molds to add to your kitchen:
- Classic 8X8 square and circular cake pans
- 9X9 and 9X12 square and circular cake pans
- Bundt cake and ring cake molds
- Angel food cake molds
- Sheet cake molds
- Heart-shaped cake molds
- Christmas Tree shaped molds
- Tart pans
Line the bottom of your cake molds for easy cake release. Add a little cooking spray on the bottom before applying your parchment paper; this trick will help your parchment paper stick to the surface.
Speaking of paper, don’t forget your paper cupcake cups! Non-stick muffin tins are no match for burnt batter. These cups make cupcake and muffin baking so much easier, especially when those little burnt bits stick to the surface.
Paper cupcake cups come in different sizes, like deep dish cups for deep-set muffin tins. You can also line your muffin tins with parchment paper.
Miscellaneous Baking Essentials for Beginners
Not that you have your main essentials out of the way, let’s stock up on those add-ons!
While you can make cookies without a rolling pin, it’s a necessity for your favorite Christmas cookies. Pair your brand new rolling pin with fun cookie cutter shapes, like trees, Easter eggs, Santas, stars, candy canes, and more.
Next, add a pastry brush to your collection. Pastry brushes are great for applying egg and butter washes to baked treats. You can also use your brush to create textured dough for cookies and fondant shapes.
Buy a mesh sifter, or sieve, for your dry ingredients. A mesh pasta strainer also works. Add dry ingredients through a sifter mixes them better, which improves consistency and texture. You can also use your sifter to apply decorative powered sugar to cakes!
Every baker needs a pantry full of their favorite toppings! Buy a set of glass jars, or mason jars, and fill them with the following baking essentials:
- Chocolate chips
- Coconut flakes
- Graham crackers
- Rainbow sprinkles
- Decorative crystals
- Marzipan decorations
- M&Ms and Reese’s Pieces
- Crushed cookies
- Dried fruit
- Mixed nuts
Store baking items that you can preserve long-term. These pantry essentials are ideal for ice cream toppings, cake decorations, and holiday treats.
Start Baking Your Favorite Treats
Your kitchen is waiting for the aromas of freshly baked goods. Whip up your childhood favorites with these simple baking essentials for beginners!
Do you need even more inspiration for your culinary endeavors? Check out the blog for more recipes and foodie hacks.
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