We all love at least one dessert. I mean I love to make them. Well, making them I have made many mistakes like greasing the pan. That is a little mistake but can lead to a big problem. So I am going to help you so you hopefully don’t make the same mistakes that I did.
Preheat the oven
Before you do anything make sure to preheat the oven. If you don’t you will have brownies that are ready to go in the oven but the oven is not hot enough.
When the oven is hot enough you will only want to open the oven door twice. Once when you put whatever you are making in the oven. Then the second time when you are pulling it out. Every time you open it, it lets out all the warm air and cold air goes in. So then the oven has to reheat itself. Which should not take very long since the oven has been preheated. If that happens every ten minutes whatever you are baking will never get baked. This brings me to the temperature your ingredients should be.
When Mixing and Measuring
Next, when you are mixing your ingredients all your ingredients need to be around room temperature. Which is about 68 – 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This is important because if you have melted butter and cold milk the butter is going to solidify itself because the butter is becoming cold again. You do not want that to happen because then when you are trying to mix the ingredients it will be really hard because every other thing is liquid but the butter. When everything is around the same temperature your milk can’t help the butter solidify.
Another thing is always to be careful when measuring your ingredients. Make sure that when you are measuring that your ingredients are full but not packed down. The only time that you should pack down the thing you are measuring is if the recipe says you should. When a recipe says about one cup that means that they did not fully pack down whatever they are measuring.
When you are getting ready to make something you should always pick out a dish or pan as one of the first things, here’s why. When picking out a dish or pan you want to make sure that it is the right size. You don’t want a pan or dish that is too small so the batter is overflowing, but you don’t want a pan or dish too big so the batter doesn’t cover it. This brings me to what color your pan or dish should be.
You also want to see if the pan or dish is light or dark. If the pan is dark you probably want to cook it for a little less. The dark pan will absorb the heat more than light will. So if your pan is light you will want to turn up the temperature or cook it for longer. So if I have a white pan full of brownie batter and a navy blue pan full of brownie batter. I will probably put the navy blue one on the bottom shelf and the white one on the top shelf. I can now cook both of them at the same time. You will want to take out the navy pan before the white pan though.
Always follow the recipe
Next when you are baking do not try to double a recipe. What you want to do is measure and stir separately then cook in different pans. Here’s why you don’t want to. It would suck if you had started to make this great cake and when you decide to double it and then you add too much flour. Well, when you are mixing them in different bowls you won’t have this problem because you can just scoop up the flour. Also if you are pouring the recipe which you doubled into a pan you have to guess how much to put in the pan but if you just make them separately you won’t have to do that.
Another thing that I have learned the hard way is to make sure to read your recipe many times before making anything. One time my brother and I decided to make a cake and we started to read the recipe but did not finish. It said to add salt but to mix in a teaspoon in with the glaze. Instead, my brother and I mixed a tablespoon in with the cake. I think we put more than a tablespoon in by accident. So the cake was very bitter but at the same time, it was sweet.
Also, make sure you are using measuring cups. The one time my sister and I didn’t, we messed up the shortcake super badly. My sister switched around the cake flour and the powdered sugar so we had more cake flour than we did sugar so make sure to measure your ingredients and read the recipe.
Now that you have learned all about my mistake and what happens if you do make them. I hope that you don’t end up making them. So the next time that you decide to make something you should try these tips and tricks out.
