Baking for Dummies #10: More Techniques!

More Techniques!

I can't believe we’re already to post 10 of Baking for Dummies! Like I mentioned last week, we’re once again going over another few techniques to use while you’re baking. Today, we will be going over sifting and whipping! These are lesser-known techniques than mixing or folding, but it is still important to know about for certain recipes and just to simply know how to do it. Let’s dive in!

Sifting is a term used when you take dry ingredients and put them in a sifter (or a strainer if you don’t have a sifter) and shake the dry ingredients through the sifter into your mixing bowl. The purpose of doing this is to prevent large clumps of a dry ingredient into your batter and to smoothen the texture of your batter overall. Not a lot of recipes call to do this, but it is always beneficial to use this technique in any recipe whether it calls for it or not. Certain recipes that require a smoother texture will write to sift in the recipe, but it never hurts to do it either way! Make sure when you sift ingredients that you do not pour all the dry ingredients in the sifter at the same time; it takes longer to sift the more you add at the same time and the messier it can get. Be sure to lightly tap the edge of the sifter (or strainer) when sifting and have patience to allow for all your dry ingredients to get through the sifter into your bowl.

Another uncommon technique that is only used in certain recipes is whipping! Whipping is usually only used with ingredients such as cream or condensed milk, and the purpose is to violently mix something until it becomes lighter in texture and forms peaks. The term “peaks” is most used when referring to whipped cream. When making whipped cream, you either use a whisk by hand or a stand mixer (I suggest the stand mixer) and mix violently and quickly until the cream becomes almost stiff-like and stands up on its own. The benefit of using this technique is because it will add a lighter texture to whatever batter you have. Most of the time, you will only see this in recipes that require whipped cream, but it is a good technique to have in the back of your head.

I can’t believe we are at the end of Baking for Dummies! Everything discussed in the last ten posts should give a great start to any person that would like to get into baking. Thank you all so much for reading, and as always, happy baking!!