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Saturday 11 March 2017

5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE

5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :





Hello all of you. It's been a long time since a 'Baking Basics' article has been published on the blog. So I thought I should write one now. 

I have already written a detailed article titled HOW TO START BAKING?   for new bakers. It is a detailed description about the procedure one should follow if he/she is going to bake for the first time. Another important article you should have a look at is ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR BAKING. In this article, I have sum up the basic tools and equipments one should have to start baking. I hope you would enjoy reading these articles. 

A baker weather a home baker or a professional baker, should have some particular ingredients all the time with him. These ingredients form the basis of any baked delicacy. Ofcourse, depending upon what you are baking, the ingredients would differ but these are some of the constant  baking  ingredients which are needed no  matter what you bake. 

Now let's have a look at these 5 INGREDIENTS THAT EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE :

1) FLOUR - 



Flour is undoubtedly the most important baking ingredient. Anything you have to make weather it is a cake , cupcake or a cookie; flour is needed. Even if you have to make savoury baked delicacies like pizza, buns, breads, etc, you still need  flour. 
 HOW TO USE  FLOUR PROPERLY? 
Always remember friends, whenever you use flour, ALWAYS SEIVE IT. When you seive flour, it  makes it airy. This helps in making spongy cakes and cupcakes. Also when you would seive flour, baking powder or baking soda together, they would mix together nicely. 

If you want to make your baked items healthier,  you can replace flour with wheat flour. 

Thus always have flour if you want to bake. It is the basic ingredient which you would need everyrime you bake. 

2) Sugar - 


Sugar is another important ingredient for baking. Sugar is needed in cakes,  cupcakes, muffins, cookies, biscuits etc. You should use powdered sugar for baking. You can easily get powdered sugar in market. But if you don't get it, no problem. You can make it at home also. Take a blender and fill it with sugar. Grind it till it gets powdered. You can now easily use it for baking. For making tasty frostings for cakes and cupcakes, you need sugar as well. Thus sugar is an important ingredient. 

3) Butter - 



Butter is also required for baking. Butter provides mositure to the baked goods. It makes cakes and cupcakes spoongy and soft. Remember always USE BUTTER THAT IS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. This is a very important baking tip. 
Now, most of the recipes ask for creaming the butter and sugar till sugar dissolves in butter properly. Bakers usually use hand mixer for mixing butter and sugar  together. If you don't have a hand mixer, you can wisk butter and sugar together using a spatula as well. 

Like but
ter, oil is also an important ingredient as many recipes use oil instead of butter. 

Also for making buttercream frosting, butter is required in a good quantity. Thus always have butter if you are going to bake. 

4)  Eggs - 



Eggs also make cakes and cupcakes spongy. Eggs should also be used at room temperature. If you are vegetarian, then ofcouse you wouldn’t bake cakes using eggs. You can easily substitute eggs with other ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. Below is a simple chart which shows the substitutes of an egg - 







You can use this chart to replace egg with ingredients like banana, yogurt and oil. In this way, you can easily bake cakes, cupcakes and many other things without eggs. 

5) Baking Soda and Baking Powder - 





Baking Powder and Baking  soda are the leavening agents. They help the batter to rise.  These are very very essential for  baking. Always keep in  mind that your baking powder and baking soda should be fresh. If they are expired,  they won't help your batter in rising. Therefore always use fresh Baking Powder and baking soda. 


Thus these are the 5 INGREDIENTS EVERY BAKER SHOULD HAVE.  

25 comments:

  1. I've never been a huge baker, but lately I've been craving sweets in the evenings so I went to the store and bought these items to have on hand in the pantry! Now I can make a minute mug cake whenever I crave it!

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  2. Once upon a time I had all these things in my house always. I would have to agree it is very difficult to bake anything if you do not have these 5 things in the house.

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  3. My elder sister loves to bake whenever she's home and she never runs out of these too ��

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  4. You definitely touched on all the essentials! I usually keep all these in my house already. Great post!

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  5. Thank you. This is so helpful. You cam replce an egg with yogurt. Wow! I akways wanted to know the difference between baking soda and baking powder
    -shorikka

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  6. I used to bake alot of gluten free goodies unfortunately I haven't in a while. Great list

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  7. I'm not a baker at all. My poor kiddos always want to bake together, but it's just not my strong suit! :)

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  8. I love baking and I'm trying to add more gluten/sugar free ingredient. I was shocked the other day when my mother in law still put in fat with her baking - yuck!

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  9. This is a pretty accurate list to start! I would add cocoa powder too but that's just coz, you know, chocolate :) And truth be told, I can't live without eggs even if I were not a baker lol.

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  10. These are absolute kitchen staples for me in baking and in cooking. I like to keep my house well stocked with commonly used ingredients.

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  11. I keep all of these on hand. I find it good to have both salted and unsalted butter available.

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  12. As an avid baker it is hard to argue with this list, I would add vanilla to it though.

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  13. 100% agree! I literally always have these ingredients available. You never know when a random urge to bake will hit ya ;)

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  14. I love baking and I am happy that I have found your post :) Now, please can you explain the difference between baking powder and baking soda to me? I am from Germany and we know solely baking powder, now I am living abroad and here in british stores they sell baking soda. Is ther a difference at all? I have asked a few, nobody really seems to know.

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  15. Good basic list. I'm starting to bake so will make sure I never run out of any of these.

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  16. I am sort of a spontaneous cook and baker so I think it is necessary to have certain things at home at alle times!

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  17. I love cooking. I will have to try this when I get the chance. Thank you for sharing.

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  18. I love plantain powder. It's much healthier than regular flour.

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