Ido Fishman Highlights Baking Blunders to Avoid
Do you enjoy baking? There is no doubt that baking is an art and gives you the opportunity to make some delicious things, but there is also plenty of room for blunders especially when you are just getting started. If you don’t want to be bogged down by these errors, it is best to know what they are beforehand in order to do so. Ido Fishman has highlighted some of the baking blunders people are known to make in order to help you avoid them. What are they? You can read them below:
- Not reading or following the recipe
Unless you are a professional baker who has been doing this for years, you shouldn’t mess with the recipe. Always go through it to know exactly what and when you will need. Even slight changes in the recipe, such as reducing the amount of sugar or using a different type of flour, can have a big impact on the finished product. Therefore, Ido Fishman recommends that you follow the recipe exactly as it says.
- Don’t forget to preheat the oven
A common mistake made by bakers is that they consider preheating the oven a suggestion rather than a requirement. Experts like Ido Fishman will tell you that it can affect the appearance, texture and also the timings. If you don’t preheat, you will end up with unevenly cooked and dense cakes or hard and flat cookies.
- Not weighing the ingredients
Weighing out every single ingredient ahead of time is of the utmost importance and Ido Fishman recommends that you use a digital scale for it. As long as you do so, your baked goods will turn out to be consistent and better.
- Don’t dunk the measuring cup into the flour
Rather than dunking the measuring cup into the flour, you should use a spoon for putting the flour in the cup and then level off. Otherwise, it will result in a greater volume of flour, which throws off your recipe.
- Not cooling the cookie dough
It is a big mistake to not refrigerate the cookie dough after mixing it. You want the fat to harden and not to melt, which it will if it is baked at room temperature or warm.
- Don’t crack the eggs on the side of the bowl
The Ido Fishman blog stresses that eggs shouldn’t be cracked on the side of the bowl. This will result in egg shells in your batter. It is better to crack them on a flat surface like the countertop and then open them up over a bowl. If you still think you will get shells in the bowl, then you can crack them in a different bowl and then add them to the batter.
- Not using an electric mixer
There are various cakes that require sugar and butter to be beaten together until fluffy and pale. Using a wooden spatula or spoon will never give you the right consistency. There are numerous mixers out there, both hand and stand mixers, and they can be used for various things. You will notice how different your cakes turn out to be when you use a mixer rather than your arm.
- Don’t forget to sift the dry ingredients
Sifting your dry ingredients should be a priority, as per experts like Ido Fishman. This is particularly important where powdered sugar is concerned for making buttercream because you want the powdered sugar and butter to mix easily.
- Not using ingredients at room temperature
If the recipe indicates that an ingredient needs to be at room temperature, you need to follow the instruction. As per Ido Fishman, this is especially important for eggs because their yolk will break easily and can be incorporated in a better way. Cold eggs will harden up and make the whole mixture lumpy, thereby ruining your entire cake, which you certainly don’t want to happen.