Ten Common Baking Mistakes
Interested in learning how to bake? We’ve all been there. Heck, I am still a newbie, but I got you covered. Here are Ten Common Baking Mistakes that can EASILY be corrected.
One: not measuring ingredients accurately:
Mistake: Eyeballing or using the wrong measuring tools can throw off the balance of ingredients.
When eyeballing or using wrong measuring tools (whatever it is, you are baking), inaccurate measurements can throw off the balance of your baked goods. Therefore, it is important to measure ingredients properly.
How to avoid: Use a kitchen scale for precise measurements or spoon ingredients into measuring cups and level them off.
Two: overmixing the batter:
Mistake: Mixing too long can lead to dense or tough baked goods.
When overmixing batter, your baked goods can lead to tough, deflated, or dense baked goods.
This is a tricky one, but it is important to avoid overmixing batter!
How to Avoid: Mix until ingredients are just combined. Stop as soon as you can no longer see dry ingredients.
Tip: Mix for no more than 2-3 minutes.
Three: using cold ingredients:
Mistake: Cold butter, eggs, or dairy can cause batters not to mix properly.
Cold ingredients suck! (Unless you are making a pie crust) always use room temperature ingredients. Allow the ingredients to sit out of the fridge for at least an hour before you start to mix your ingredients together.
How to Avoid: Allow ingredients like butter and eggs to come to room temperature before starting.
Tip for room temperature butter: Gently press on the butter using your finger. If your finger leaves an indent in the butter, you are ready to bake!
Four: opening the oven too often:
Mistake: Opening the oven door frequently causes temperature fluctuations, which can affect how your baked goods rise and cook.
We’ve all done this, constantly looking at the baked goods out of curiosity. I am guilty of this almost always – at least until I learned it was destroying my baked goods.
Constantly opening the oven door will mess with the temperature of the oven and may even affect how your baked goods rise.
Set a timer and walk away.
How to Avoid: Only open the oven when necessary, ideally toward the end of the baking time.
Five: not preheating the oven:
Mistake: Putting your batter into an oven that isn’t fully heated can cause uneven baking.
Always, always, always, remember to preheat the oven before adding the batter to the oven. This will ensure the baked goods are baked evenly.
How to Avoid: Always preheat your oven to the correct temperature before putting anything inside.
Tip: Remove EVERYTHING from the oven before turning it on. Oven mitts, cookie trays, etc.
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Six: incorrect oven rack placement:
Mistake: Placing your pan too high or too low can result in uneven baking.
The middle of the oven rack is where your baked goods should be placed. Placing your batter on the very top of the oven rack burns the top of the batter and does not cook the bottom of the batter, and vise versa.
How to Avoid: Most recipes call for baking in the center of the oven. Use the middle rack unless specified otherwise.
Seven: substituting ingredients improperly:
Mistake: Not all substitutions work equally well in baking.
When substituting ingredients, be sure to understand what substitutions work best. For instance, when replacing granulated sugar with honey, you will need to add more dry ingredients.
If all you have is cake flour and you are trying to bake bread, cake flour is not the best substitution.
How to Avoid: Research proper substitutions for ingredients and understand that altering key elements may change texture and flavor.
Eight: not letting baked goods cool properly:
Mistake: Removing baked goods from their pans too soon or not letting them cool fully can lead to crumbling or misshaping.
Allow baked goods to cool for at least 15-20 minutes before removing them from the baking pan.
When baking a Bundt cake, you need to invert the pan and allow the cake to sit and cool for at least 20 minutes.
After removing cookies from the oven, cookies still need to bake on the tray before removing them.
If you are frosting a hot cake – good luck!!! you will end up with messy and runny frosting.
How to Avoid: Follow cooling instructions and let cakes, cookies, and bread rest before cutting or frosting.
Nine: skipping sifting dry ingredients:
Mistake: Skipping the sifting process can lead to clumps or uneven distribution of ingredients.
Never skip this step. Use a sifter for dry ingredients, or use a whisk and remove lumps.
How to Avoid: Sift flour, baking soda, or powdered sugar to remove lumps and aerate the ingredients.
Ten: overbaking:
Mistake: Leaving baked goods in the oven too long can result in dry, tough textures.
Use a timer and pay attention to your baked goods. Overbaking leads to burnt, dry baked goods. Once that timer goes off. REMOVE the baked goods from the oven.
How to Avoid: Always set a timer and check your goods a few minutes before the recommended time.
Conclusion:
There you have it, Ten Common Baking Mistakes and how you can EASILY fix them.
If you’d like to read more about baking mistakes, have a look at this article by Kunal Kuthari. This article goes into more detail on common baking mistakes.
Thank you for reading my post today!
If you are interested in learning more about baking, have a look at my Ten Baking Tips For New Bakers post or my How To Make Brown Butter post.
Hopefully, baking brings you joy and happiness as it does for me and my family!
From my kitchen to yours,
Jas.
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