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Tag: baking

  • Handling the Heat: Learning to Bake

    Handling the Heat: Learning to Bake

    For many, the kitchen is a foreign environment. The utensils, ingredients, and appliances loom over you in all their complexity. Yet food is a necessity. School teaches formulas and formats, but often does not delve nearly enough into fundamental life skills. Baking is a great way to venture into the kitchen and gain comfort in that strange new world. Whereas cooking is an intricate art, baking is a science.

    Experienced cooks are comfortable improvising, swapping ingredients, and trying new things. Baking can incorporate these ideas as well, but it is very important to follow recipes closely in order to get the right reactions from the right ingredients mixed together in just the right amounts. Do a search for a simple recipe, such as for cookies. Websites typically tell you the length of time it will take and the level of difficulty. Before you even enter the kitchen, take plenty of time to read and reread the list of ingredients and instructions.

    When you locate the ideal simple recipe, look for YouTube videos that take you through the process of making that particular dish. As you watch, take notes and physically gather all the ingredients you are going to need. This might require a trip to the grocery store, but it is also useful to learn the many substitutions you can make for common ingredients. No butter? Try applesauce. Out of sugar? Use some honey.

    Ingredients from the fridge typically need to sit on the counter for a while for a while to warm up. This gives you plenty of time to reread the recipe once again. When you are starting out, you will want to follow the instructions to the letter. It may feel tedious, but adopting this strategy will aid you in learning the ins and outs of working with different ingredients and utensils. For example, after figuring out the perfect touch for cracking an egg, move on to techniques for separating the egg yolk. Some people do this by hand, with a spoon, or by moving the yolk back and forth in a cracked shell.

    Try your hand at a variety of simple variations of different baked goods. There are seemingly limitless varieties of cookies, cakes, muffins, and breads at a many difficulty levels. But make sure to also repeat the ones you have already done. Some will turn out better than others – in fact, some of your attempts will not turn out very good at all. This happens to everyone in the kitchen, and it is especially important to take notes in these instances on what exactly went wrong. Just like essay drafts, it takes multiple attempts to get it right.

    As you gain comfort in the kitchen, consider investing in additional equipment. A sifter is great for removing clumps from the dry ingredients. Having multiple and different-sized bowls makes it much easier to prepare things separately and carefully add items into one large bowl. Separate measuring cups for wet and dry foodstuff allow the recipe to come together better. Tupperware containers and freezer bags are great for storing your creations for sharing, and mean you are always ready to make more.

    The scientific nature of baking, in which specific amounts of wet and dry ingredients come together in the oven for the desired result, make it an ideal way to study and analyze the art of making food. From there, you can try your hand at other meals and cooking styles. School offers many valuable lessons, but as you grow up and head out on your own into the world, you will be extremely grateful for the ability to feed yourself.

    Sources:

    Clift, Cortney. “25 Essential Baking Tips and Tricks for Beginner Bakers.” Brit+Co. http://www.brit.co/new-bakers/

    Roberts, Anna Monette. “Baking Basics: 10 Tips For Beginner Bakers.” Popsugar. http://www.popsugar.com/food/Tips-Beginner-Bakers-24477467#photo-24477467

  • I Want to Be a Baker!

    I Want to Be a Baker!

    Bake Your Cake and Eat it, too!

    Most of you have seen movies like Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, and I’m sure some of you have dreamed of having your own chocolate wonderland. Well guess what, if you put forth passion, dedication, and outstanding creativity- you can! The culinary industry leads to extraordinary career paths and dreams. You can take a simple concept of a cake, and create a whole new culinary business that will have people travelling for miles, just for your creations.

    No one wants a job that they don’t enjoy. Working is soon going to be one of the most important aspects of your life. Why not do something you’re going to love, and get paid for it! Let the joy of creativity flow with the feel of accomplishment and pride when you serve customers your delightful creations. The look of amazement on people’s faces when they check out your products is something that will keep you motivated, positive, and ready for more.

    The culinary arts have such a rewarding career path- you can do anything you dream of. Become a food scientist, a food taster, or a famous TV Chef. Design your own bakery or restaurant that becomes internationally famous. Or let’s live the dream here, and create a candy workshop or chocolate wonderland where you get paid to design, make, experiment with and eat candy! Let your ultimate dreams guide you to be wherever you want, and become whatever you want. With a step into the career path of culinary arts, there are no limitations- just your imagination.

  • Career Profile: Baker

    Career Profile: Baker

    We’ve all been unsure about where we want to go in life, and some of us don’t figure it out for years. The trick is that you can’t sit around, and expect it to come to you. You have to get out there and give things a try, explore all of your options. Let me help you, and introduce you to the world of culinary arts, where you can really Bake Your Cake and Eat it Too.

    The culinary industry is really something different, designed for special individuals with various talents. If you’re saying to yourself “Oh, I know how to cook, I can do this,” that’s simply not enough. However, on the other side of this you don’t have to know how to cook, or bake to be successful. I find that the real keys to be successful in the culinary arts are to have passion, and creativity. The industry is always growing and taking in new restaurant and bakery owners, but there is a trick to becoming successful at it.

    I find that the culinary industry is taking a turn in a new direction. Sure you can run a successful restaurant serving the same old basic dishes that another restaurant has up the street from you, but why not try to achieve something different? If you’re into science, let that combine with the culinary arts- you’ll be whipping up dishes that will be the talk of the town. Or if you’re more into baking, science is already a key role in making successful recipes.

    Most of you have seen movies like Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, and I’m sure some of you have dreamed of having your own chocolate wonderland. Well guess what, if you put forth passion, dedication, and outstanding creativity- you can! The culinary industry leads to extraordinary career paths and dreams. You can take a simple concept of a cake, and create a whole new culinary business that will have people travelling for miles, just for your creations.

    No one wants a job that they don’t enjoy. Working is soon going to be one of the most important aspects of your life. Why not do something you’re going to love, and get paid for it! Let the joy of creativity flow with the feel of accomplishment and pride when you serve customers your delightful creations. The look of amazement on people’s faces when they check out your products is something that will keep you motivated, positive, and ready for more.

    The culinary arts have such a rewarding career path- you can do anything you dream of. Become a food scientist, a food taster, or a famous TV Chef. Design your own bakery or restaurant that becomes internationally famous. Or let’s live the dream here, and create a candy workshop or chocolate wonderland where you get paid to design, make, experiment with and eat candy! Let your ultimate dreams guide you to be wherever you want, and become whatever you want. With a step into the career path of culinary arts, there are no limitations- just your imagination.

  • Learning to Cook!

    Learning to Cook!

    When you’re busy with essays, homework and final projects, sometimes you forget that there are great life skills that most schools do not teach. One of them is cooking. Whether it’s to cut down costs, to impress a date or just for your own amusement, cooking is something you’ll always be glad you learned.

    It’s easy to start – just pick a simple meal that you like. It can be anything: soup, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, eggs… You already know how to make a sandwich, but grilling some of the ingredients can make it extra tasty and once you know how to do it, it won’t take very long. If you’re feeling ambitious, pick your favourite meal and see if you can make it. Ask people for help. Someone in your family will probably love to give you a few tips and walk you through some recipes. If not, pick up a cookbook or find a recipe on the internet. It can be hard at first, but it can also be a lot of fun if you’re willing to learn.

    Whether you’re moving out for college this fall or you’ll be at home for another few years, now is a great time to start cooking. When you get to college, it’s expensive to eat out even if it’s just one meal a day. You can stay home and make Kraft Dinner all the time, but that gets old pretty fast. You’ll save so much money and feel a lot better if you learn to make things yourself. Once you know how to make a few meals, you’ll start to pick up some general techniques and you can start to substitute things and add the spices that you like. Before too long, you’ll start to have your own cooking style and specialties.

    If your cooking style involves more than peanut butter sandwiches, it will be a really great tool for impressing people. If you start dating someone who comes over to your house, think how stunned they’ll be with a casserole or a homemade soup or whatever else you want to make. And it doesn’t just work for dates! Every time you have a party, you can buy a bag of tortilla chips and some canned salsa or you can make your own salsa and guacamole. There’s nothing wrong with canned salsa, but it’s a great feeling to have people eating and complimenting something you’ve prepared yourself.

    The best reason of all to learn to cook is that it can be a lot of fun! You might set off the fire alarm once or twice and that’s always stressful, but it will be worth it. It’s easier to get going now when you have the time to learn than to get thrown into an apartment one day with a pan and no idea what to do with it. So just start making something you like. Offer to barbeque for your family or work on perfecting a batch of cookies. Once you start to cook, you can only get better!