Solving (More of) Your Biggest Baking Frustrations
Part 2
Last September, I asked the easygayoven audience what their biggest baking frustrations are, and I wrote a Q&A post attempting to solve some of them. I promised to do a Part 2 with even more problem-solving and now, nearly a year later… I’m ready to publish the follow-up. Most of these quandaries have easy fixes, and some, you may be disappointed to hear, are just part of life.
“Different baking trays give me different results with the same batch of cookie dough.”
Absolutely they do! Pan material, color and shape affect the finish bake on cookies — and everything else. Dark cookie sheets will cook your dough faster, leading to overdone outsides and underdone insides. Ceramic and stainless steel pans are worse at conducting heat than aluminum (the preference among bakers). Even factors like whether the cookie sheet has a lip or not can make a difference, as completely flat sheets allow hot air to circulate better around the cookies. I like Nordic Ware Naturals aluminum half-sheet pans as well as Fat Daddio’s.
“When I use slightly different pan sizes than the recipe calls for, the results end up very different.”
It is frustrating to not have the right pan size or shape for a recipe you want to make. For some recipes, you can get away with playing fast and loose with pan size (I do it sometimes!) like subbing in an nine-inch round tin for a eight-inch round tin. For two-inch-deep pans, that’s still a pretty big difference in volume — about 26.6% or about two and a half cups. So is the pan you have tall enough to hold all of your batter, or do you need to split it up lest it overflow? Are you willing to let the cake cook longer so that it’s done on the inside, but maybe a little over-baked on the outside?
All that being said, if you’re going to make swaps, try to opt for a slightly larger pan over a slightly smaller pan, and adjust for a shorter bake time. And don’t overfill tins; doing so means overflowing batters or undercooked insides and overcooked outsides. As a good rule of thumb (not law), keep the batter level at or under about two-thirds tin capacity.
“When a cake burns on top but isn’t cooked inside”
Combining both of the above questions, this is probably caused by an oven that’s too hot, a pan that’s too narrow or too shallow, or a tin that is dark-colored. Get an oven thermometer and the right size pan — light-colored aluminum ones are best.
“I struggle with organization.”
This is something I’ve had to learn over the years. If you can’t easily find your tools or ingredients, it’s almost as bad as not having them at all. Here are some tips that have helped me get organized:
The IKEA OMAR shelving unit saved me when I started doing baking full-time. It’s versatile, practically indestructible, easy to put together and take apart, and sends the mess upwards and not sprawling outwards.
I put little bins from The Container Store on the OMAR shelves to separate my cookie cutters, sprinkle collection, camera gear, food colorings and other small stuff I don’t reach for all the time. They’re clear so I can see what’s in them!
I love my knife mag strip and I’m thinking about getting a peg board!
I use little drawer inserts from IKEA and The Container Store to easily find my piping tips, mini offset spatulas and measuring spoons. That way they don’t get lose in the sea of bigger utensils.
I invested in some nice OXO food storage containers for sugar and flours.
Shelf risers and spice risers are your friend.
Watch my kitchen tour part 1 and part 2 for more info on how I organize!
“Portions! I’m cooking for max one to two people.”
Imagine how I feel! Unfortunately, scaling down most baking recipes is easier said than done. For starters, some require just one egg, which is annoying and wasteful to divide. Cooking times will also change drastically depending on how much of a recipe component or batch you’re making. Plus, at a certain point, unless you’re working with miniature kitchen equipment, cooking small batches of some things, like pastry cream for instance, just doesn’t make sense. Now is this to say you can’t scale down a muffin or cookie recipe by half? No, go for it! But in general, I’d stick to recipes specifically developed for small servings, of which there is a growing contingent of online. Also Edd Kimber (@theboywhobakes) has a great book on this called Small Batch Bakes.
“Getting great texture with less sugar”
This is not something we think about too much here at EGO HQ, but I realize it is a valid concern. I’m glad you acknowledge that sugar isn’t just about sweetness or flavor, it’s a key factor in giving cakes, cookies, etc, their structure and color. Because of that, simply reducing the amount of sugar in a recipe, without accounting for those factors with other ingredients or techniques, can spell disaster. If I were you, I’d look at Joanne Chang’s Baking with Less Sugar.
“Greasing and lining pans“
I don’t know what to say! You gotta do it. And little differences like baking spray vs. butter, or dusting the tin with flour, or using parchment, really matter. Here’s a tutorial from me on an easy way to line round tins.
After the paywall….
Dense muffins and breads??
Baking at high altitudes??
U.S. to metric??
Activating yeast???
Cake-y and/ or puddle cookies??
Dividing batter between tins???
