It's going to be yet another busy time in the kitchen with the holidays coming. You're probably planning on baking a special holiday recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and even if you've manned the kitchen quite a few times in previous gatherings, some mistakes could still happen.
Avoid the following baking mistakes so that you and your family can enjoy a wonderful, festive feast for the holidays:
MISTAKE: Not reading the recipe properly.
FIX: You should familiarize yourself with the ingredients procedure before doing anything. This is especially recommended if you're planning on baking a recipe for the first time. Even using the right type of baking sheet or pan matters to the outcome of what you've baked. You have to become familiar with the order of the procedures as well, according to Joy The Baker. As with most things, preparation is key.
MISTAKE: Not following exact measurements and not using the right tools to measure.
FIX: Even if you are a seasoned baker, you need to use correct measurements for your ingredients. While this is a tedious process, you're likely to bake a better dish if you follow the measurements accurately instead of simply winging it. Baking isn't like day-to-day cooking, where you can simply throw in the ingredients.
MISTAKE: You use the wrong ingredients and you mix up the order.
FIX: When it says room temperature, use room temperature ingredients. When it says do the dry ingredients first before the wet ingredients, follow the process. There is a science to baking, as the right combination of wet and dry ingredients of your cake or dish is going to determine its flexibility, according to Dispatch.
"If you put in the wrong ingredients first, (the batter) will tend to clump because then they don't have enough water," said Yael Vodovotz, a food-science professor at Ohio State University.
MISTAKE: You don't sieve dry ingredients well and you over mix your batter.
FIX: Mistakes can either make your cake flat, or dense, or tough, or too moist, or too dry. Remember, follow the process to the letter!
"When a recipe calls for sifted flour, there's a reason," said Robin Miller, the host of Food Network's "Quick Fix Meals," according to Woman's Day. "A cup of sifted flour is 4 ounces; a cup of unsifted is 5 ounces. If you're making light and flaky biscuits and you don't sift [before measuring], you're adding more flour than you need, and they're going to be dry. Sift first and then measure...If you want to pack something, do it with your brown sugar. Flour should be light."
MISTAKE: You keep checking the oven.
FIX: If you keep checking what you've baked, opening and closing the oven can tamper with the temperature and affect the outcome. If you're baking a cake, it might not rise correctly because the oven's ideal temperature has been interrupted with your constant checking.
