Nathan News

Have you ever wondered why the cake you just baked isn’t as moist as advertised? Or why the “soft” chocolate chip cookies you threw together are a little chewy? Or why that whipped cream topping on your no-bake pie looks a little soft? As a seasoned recipe developer, I get it. It’s frustrating when you bake something expecting a certain texture or look, and the recipe just doesn’t hold up.

Over the years, I’ve learned a few tricks to save cooking. I incorporate them into my own recipes, but they’re handy to have in your back pocket when I’m also cooking from someone else’s recipe – and I want you to know those secrets too! I turn to these tricks to make sure everything I cook comes out exactly as I intended. You’d be surprised how easy it is to twist and adjust cookies, pies and cakes to go from “meh” to “mmmmm”.

Vanilla and salt enhance the flavor, but, oddly enough, not theirs. Instead, they improve the other flavors in your treat, giving a lemon cake a deeper lemon flavor and a brownie more intensely chocolate. If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of vanilla, try doubling it. And a quarter (or 1/2) teaspoon of extra salt is just the pop you didn’t know your chocolate chip cookies were missing.

Browned butter has a nice, nutty, bold flavor and is spectacular when added to cookies, frostings, blondies and – my favorite – crispy cereal treats (let the browned butter solidify if your recipe doesn’t call for melted butter ). Although you’re probably used to browning butter gently and slowly on the stovetop, consider doing it in the microwave. it is infallible, practical and saves you from washing a pan. Microwave on high for 5-8 minutes, in a large, covered, microwave-safe container (which will also double as a mixing bowl).

The yolks provide fat and are an excellent emulsifier. Adding one or two more to the cake batter increases the moistness and tenderness of your crumb, resulting in a cake with a soft and deliciously crazy texture.

Ice cold water (like egg yolks!) adds moisture and a nice mouthfeel to a butter cake. Although the science behind this trick is a bit sketchy, supposedly the temperature of the water allows the butter to melt more slowly in the oven, creating a moist cake with a soft crumb. If you’re baking a chocolate cake, the ice water plays a different role, amplifying the chocolate flavor of the cake. Because it has no flavor, water does not interfere with the pure taste of cocoa powder and/or melted chocolate in your cake (like the same amount of milk or buttermilk might) and is an excellent choice for all chocolate. -lovers in the house.

Try: Food Network Kitchen’s Best Vanilla Cake

An oil-based cake is truly a treasure. Not only does it save you time, because there’s no butter softening (or, er, oversight on butter softening), but there is no butter creaming either. Also, an oil-based cake stays incredibly moist (oil doesn’t solidify at room temperature, unlike butter) and can therefore be baked on Tuesday and enjoyed on Friday. Use 3/4 oil (like vegetable oil or mild olive oil) as you would butter. So if a recipe calls for two sticks of butter, substitute 3/4 cup of oil). You can replace all the butter with oil or only part of it. Some cakes will have less lift and be less fluffy if made with oil, but what they lose in stature they will make up for in flavor.

As mentioned above, the yolks are golden (pun intended) when baking cakes, due to the moisture they bring. But they also play a role when baking soft cookies. Cookies with egg whites tend to be a little drier and doughier than those without. If you omit any of the egg whites when making your batter (substituting a tablespoon of water or milk to make up for the loss of liquid) and only add the yolk, you will be rewarded with a fondant, dense and soft jewel of a cookie.

Replace some of the all-purpose flour in your recipe with bread flour. Bread flour’s higher protein content results in a chewier baked good (think a good loaf of bread) and works the same magic in cookies and brownies. A one-to-one exchange could almost be too fluffy (yes it is possible), so start by replacing half and experiment from there.

The illusory shiny crust brownie can be yours if you add a cup or two of chocolate chips to your next batch of brownie batter. In my experience making tray upon tray of brownies during my tenure at Baked, melting the butter and sugar together also does the trick, but it seems the same can be achieved with the simple addition of the chips, which partially melt into the batter during baking (I learned this trick from King Arthur Baking and have never looked back). Plus, who doesn’t want to throw a little more chocolate into their brownie batter in the name of (brilliant) science?

Sure, you can make whipped cream in your stand mixer or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer (or even whip by hand!) but when you use your food processor, the result is not only tasty, but much more important, stable. It’s the perfect cream for topping a pie or layering in an icebox cake or really any application where a slightly droopy peak isn’t ideal.

Have you ever wondered why the tops of muffins and bread cakes in the checkout at your local bakery are wonderfully shiny? And why does every bite have a crispy, yet sweet kick? Well, the answer is in your pantry right now: sugar – ideally Turbinado (i.e. raw sugar), but granulated will do the trick too. After filling your muffin pan or loaf pan with batter, evenly sprinkle (with a heavy hand, just saying) Turbinado sugar over the tops of the muffins and the loaf cake, and bake. You won’t be sad you did.

Try: Food Network Kitchen’s Best Blueberry Muffins