Baking 101: Tips for getting started

These days, I find it so calming to mash butter and sugar together into a creamy, sparkly glop.  There’s something kind of nice about turning the kitchen into a cloud of flour, or trying to figure out the difference between soft peaks and stiff peaks.

And then there’s that delicious moment of satisfaction when I get to lick the spoon (or whisk or spatula) and wait as batter becomes cake inside the mysterious cave of the oven.

It wasn’t always this way, though.  Teenage me wasn’t allowed within ten feet of the oven.  I was notorious for setting off the fire alarm (actually, I still do that) and for making a spectacular disaster of perfectly innocent ingredients.

Besides equipping this absent-minded baker with a really loud kitchen timer, there are a few simple tips that helped make baking seem a lot less intimidating when I finally decided to give the whole butter/sugar/flour thing a real chance.

1. Follow the recipe exactly—at least the first time around.

This one probably seems pretty obvious, but a lot of my baking disasters have had something to do with misreading recipes or tweaking them without realizing which parts were necessary and which were optional.

There can be a lot of weird instructions when it comes to baking, but sometimes you really will get better results when you sift the flour, soften the butter, or combine things in a particular order.

2. Look for patterns.

What makes a cake a cake?  Master recipes can be really helpful for understanding the foundations of and differences between cake, quick bread, yeast bread, etc.  

You can bake so many different things with just a few simple ingredients like flour, sugar, and butter.  Noticing patterns makes it easier to move beyond recipes and create your own variations.

The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook by Christopher Kimball is my favorite source for master recipes and comfort foods.  The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters is also a great resource for getting started with cooking in general, and Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is a great encyclopedia of foods and what to do with them.

3. Don’t worry too much about having fancy tools.

A spoon, a whisk, a bowl, and a pan can take you pretty far.  Plus, the fewer utensils you use, the fewer dishes you’ll have to wash later.

4. Be careful about substitutions.

I once tried to make shortbread cookies with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.  Um, don’t do that.  

Seriously, though, massive amounts of butter and sugar are often essential in baking. So if your recipe calls for an entire pound of butter, don’t freak out.  It’s probably for real.

5. Keep it simple.

Intricate and complicated desserts can seem so glamourous, but they can also be a little daunting—not to mention discouraging if they don’t turn out on the first try. Fortunately, some of the most delicious and comforting baked goods are also the simplest and most familiar.

Speaking of simplicity, below are some of my absolute favorite sweet and simple recipes.  Happy Baking!

• Jess’s Whole Wheat Cinnamon Snacking Cake
• Joy’s Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake
• Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Tollhouse package. (I leave out the nuts.  And yes, this recipe calls for the entire package of chocolate chips.  Don’t skimp on the chocolate.  I promise, you will not regret it.)

This post is part of a series called The Simple Life. Check back soon for more simple living tips.