Holiday Baking Tips

Today's post is a little different.  I had been thinking when I have been doing my holiday baking that there's lot of little things that sometimes get left out of the regular blog post.  There might also be some of you out there that are new to baking so these ideas might help you as well.  Don't be afraid to jump in and try baking.  Everyone loves a home baked goodie for the holidays.  They make good inexpensive gifts if you have several people you need a little something for.  I hope you enjoy these tips and I hope they help you.  I would like some feedback.  If you have tips that are helpful to you please comment with those hints.

1. Butter!  You don't have to be Paula Deen to enjoy cooking with butter.  There are several hints I have about butter, so I thought it would be easier to add them all here.
     a. Use good butter in your baking.  NO IMITATION BUTTER!  I like to use Land of Lakes butter.  This will probably be the most expensive item in your baking, but it is worth it. You can catch it on sale especially during the holidays.  The expiration dates are usually long so buy up and store.
     b. Buy unsalted butter.  Most recipes will not say one way or the other salted or unsalted but buy unsalted.  Most recipes include some salt in the recipe.  You don't want your recipe to be over salted.  If you happen to buy salted don't add all of the salt that the recipe calls for.
     c.  Soften your butter.  Check your recipe but most cookies at least call for softened butter.  I set my butter on the counter a while before I want to start mixing.  There are several test to see how softened the butter gets.  You can press your finger on the stick and if it presses in easy it is ready.

2. Read your recipe before you get started.  I like to pull the recipes I might want to bake weeks or months ahead.  That way you can add any ingredients that you might not have in your pantry to your grocery list.  Nothing worse than getting halfway through your mixing and realize you are missing an ingredient.

3. Lay out all your ingredients before you start mixing.  Double check once you get them all lined up on the counter.  This makes the mixing go so much faster. You have everything right there in reach.  I also get out the measuring cups and measuring spoons before I get started as well.

4. Eggs.  I have read and learned a lot more about mixing eggs.  When you are baking if your egg are room temperature they incorporate much better in your batter.  If you have multiple eggs in a recipe, add them one at a time, mix and then add the next one. Once again the eggs get incorporated much better.

5. Test your baking soda and baking powder to see if they are still active.  I posted a Does it Work a couple of weeks ago how to test this.  Also check the expiration date on your spices.  You want them to still be flavorful.  You could do this when you are pulling your recipes and know what you will need.  Most spices have a long expiration date so you forget that they need to be replaced.

6. Mixing.  I have started doing this this year.  After you have creamed the butter and sugars well, you usually add the eggs.  Well after that add the salt, baking soda/powder, spices, and flavorings.  This will make sure that they get mixed well.  Then add the flour.  I find my batters are mixed much better.

7. Flour.  Most recipes call for plain or all purpose flour.  These flours do not have the leavening agents in them.  That is why you will see either baking soda or baking powder or sometimes both added to the recipe.  Make sure you have the right flour.  If all you have is self rising then don't add the soda or powder to the batter.

8. Line your baking pans.  For cookies add parchment paper to your cookies sheets. This will make clean up easy but it also helps your cookies bake more evenly.  You will not have to grease or butter your pans.

9. Baking time.  Always start with the lowest time given.  Ovens are different and you can always add more baking time but you do anything about over baked cookies.  When I bake cookies I start at the lowest end and if they need longer baking time I start by adding one minute at a time.  You don't want to overtake any of your baked goods.

10. Plan ahead.  If you  can mix and scoop your doughs and put in the freezer.  I know some of you might not have the time or freezer space to do this but it makes the holidays so much more enjoyable.  Someone drops by, you can pop some cookies in the oven and have fresh cookies.  Want to take some cookies to someone special, you can bake them fresh.  I like to have lots of different kinds of cookies so I would wear myself out baking all these cookies in one or two days and then there are containers of cookies sitting around all the time.  One year I had a large rubbermaid container full of baked gingerbread men and I dropped it.  I then had a large rubbermaid container full of crumbs.  I almost cried. That doesn't happen now.

Most of all enjoy the holidays, whether you bake or not.  I hope you have a great holiday season.  Keep on baking.