Baking Tools
A week ago, we reorganized our tools and ingredients in order to have the essentials at hand, maintain order and save time when saving everything after a busy weekend.
In the kitchen we have a piece of furniture where we store tools and a pantry shelf for the ingredients. But the space is insufficient to have everything in one place. So in the kitchen we leave the indispensable and we keep the rest in the cake room.
What is essential for baking? Here we give you our list.
- Electric mixer. Most of the cakes could be beaten by hand without any problem. But if you have an electric mixer then the work will be much simpler. You can use a hand mixer, just consider that you cannot beat heavy doughs like cookies. A little more expensive are those of pedestal, which makes them very comfortable because you can leave beating in what you take the next ingredient. But also check the power it has because although they look larger than the hand, the engine may not have the strength to beat heavy masses and then burn it. If your budget allows it and you also like to bake at home then consider buying a blender like the Kitchen Aid, in which if you can prepare all kinds of doughs without problems.
- Fine mesh strainer. Most of the time you should sift the flour and with the strainer you will do it easily and simply. There are special sieves / sifters, but personally I do not find them practical or is it that I have used a strainer all my life?
- Silicone shovels. They will serve you to mix or integrate some ingredient in a smooth way to the smoothie. They will also help you to empty the entire mixture, leaving “clean” the mold in which you beat.
- Measuring spoons and cups.
The cakes will work better if you measure the quantities. There is science behind each cake, so don’t change the amounts if you’re starting to bake. You could be lucky if you add the amounts “to the score” or with a “fist of this and a fist of that” or using your cup of coffee to measure. But if you want to repeat the recipe, it will hardly be the same on a second occasion. Choose the ones you like best: there are plastic, ceramic, stainless steel. The spoons and cups of different sizes are sold in sets. You can find sets of cups for liquids and powders, you distinguish them because the former have a piquito to facilitate adding the ingredients. But to begin with, a glass cup marked with the quantities and a set of measuring spoons is enough. I really like these stainless steel cups, - Bowls / Molds for whisking of different sizes. They will help you separate ingredients and perform the shake. They can be made of plastic, ceramic, glass or stainless steel. The size will depend on the amount you wear. A set of stainless steel bowls like the ones in the picture are super practical and you will always use them in your kitchen, not just in baking.
- Baking molds. There are aluminum, covered with non-stick or silicone. Most recipes are designed to be baked in a 9-inch or 22 cm pan, unless otherwise indicated. You can easily find this measure in any department store or even in the supermarket. It is the first mold you usually buy. If you like tall cakes and have several guests buy two molds and double the recipe. If you think it’s too much cake, then go to a store where you sell special items for baking and look for two 18 cm molds and you’ll have a tall cake using only the amounts of a recipe
- Cooling rack. You could do without it, but the truth is that letting the bread cool in it will prevent you from sweating, sticking and ruining your work. It will cool faster and the texture of the bread will be preserved.
- This is the perfect tool to measure the ingredients of a recipe exactly. But the truth is that most of the published recipes measure their ingredients with cups and spoons, therefore you can do without it temporarily. If you have it, it will help you a lot not only to bake cakes.
- Necessary to remember what time the bread comes out of the oven and does not burn. The clock also works if you have a good memory or cell phone alarm, especially if you leave the kitchen.
- A thermometer for the oven. Having it will help you verify that the temperature of your oven is correct. If you want to know if your oven is well calibrated, it will help you check that it heats to the temperature indicated by the regulator. In addition some manufacturers of stoves with ovens, no longer mark the oven knob with degrees but only divide it into five sections. In theory, the instruction will tell you at what temperature each section corresponds, but if you have your thermometer hung you will not have to look for the indications.