Raab - The clueless baker: learning to bake from scratch

Published by Firefly Books Ltd. 2013

Copyright 2013 Firefly Books Ltd.

Text copyright 2013 Evelyn Raab

ISBN: 978-1-77085-390-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Illustrations: Clive Dobson and George A. Walker

Cover design: Hartley Millson

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund as administered by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Published in Canada by

Firefly Books Ltd.

50 Staples Avenue, Unit 1

Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 0A7

Baking The Eleven-Step Program

1. First, decide what you want to make. This is the easy part. Do you feel like brownies, or are you having a focaccia kind of day? Do you want to throw something together really fast, or do you feel like taking your time and wallowing in the experience? Make up your mind, would you, please?
2. Choose a recipe. This book is full of them.
3. Read through the recipe. Do you have all the ingredients youll need? Are you sure? Do you have the right size baking pan? Will you need an electric mixer? Blender? Baking parchment? Does the dough have to chill before baking? Rise? Meditate? How long does it have to bake? Will whatever-it-is be ready to eat right away, or will you have to let it cool? Its all there in the recipe just take the time to read it.
4. Preheat the oven. Now. Before you do anything else. Go.
5. Assemble the ingredients . Take every single ingredient out and arrange it in a tasteful and attractive manner on your kitchen counter. If you are an obsessive type, you might even measure the ingredients into individual bowls and set them out in the order you`ll use them. But lets not get ahead of ourselves here.
6. Prepare your baking pan. Grease it, flour it, line it with parchment paper if the recipe calls for it. Have some bowls ready; get out your mixer (find the beater thingies!); grab the measuring cups and a spoon. You dont want to be groping around your junk drawer for a spatula when youre up to your elbows in batter.
7. Okay, now you can start. Begin at the beginning and follow the instructions exactly . This is no time to be creative. At least, not the first time. If you decide to bake the same thing again, you can be more adventurous substitute ingredients, take liberties and go rogue. But follow the directions at least once you may even learn something.
8. Keep your eye on the oven. Set a timer and make sure you can hear it ring from wherever youll be. If necessary, buy yourself a dollar-store timer that you can take with you out to the yard or down to the basement. You think youll remember to take the muffins out of the oven, but honestly, you wont. Not until you smell smoke. At which point it will be, alas, too late.
9. Do the toothpick test; tap the top of the loaf; stick a knife in the pie . Do whatever the recipe tells you, to make sure your whatchamacallit is baked to perfection.
10. Ta-da! Done. Remove your delicious baked item(s) from the oven, carefully remove from the baking pan(s) and let cool on a rack for as long as you can stand.
11. Enjoy. You earned it.

Bare Necessities, Electric Gizmos and Extra Added Widgets

Baking equipment tends to be pretty simple. Youve got your pans, your bowls, your spatulas. Most of the things you need are inexpensive and easy to find. If youre on a really tight budget, you can shop at secondhand stores and garage sales. If you recently inherited a fortune, you can blow it all at a fancy kitchenware store. Either way, your muffins will turn out just fine.

Bare Necessities

• two 8 or 9-inch (20 or 23 cm) round cake pans
• one 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33 cm) rectangular baking pan
• one 8 or 9-inch (20 or 23 cm) square baking pan
• two 9 x 5-inch (23 x 13 cm) loaf pans
• two 10 x 15 inch (25 x 38 cm) cookie sheets with 1-inch (2 cm) sides
• one muffin pan with 12 cups (or two with 6 cups each)
• one 8-cup (2 liter) bundt or tube pan (approximately 9 inches/23 cm diameter)
• one 9 or 10-inch (23 or 25 cm) springform pan with removable sides
• one or two wire grid cooling racks
• one set of Official Measuring Spoons (imperial or metric or both)
• one set of individual steel or plastic measuring cups (in graduated sizes: cup, cup, cup and 1 cup, or metric equivalents)
• heatproof glass measuring cups (1 cup/250 ml and 4 cups/1 liter)
• mixing bowls stainless steel or glass at least 2 really big ones (4 quarts/4 liters) and as many smaller ones as you have room for
• a bunch of small glass or plastic bowls for organizing ingredients
• whisk
• rubber bowl scrapers (spatulas)
• wooden spoons
• flour sifter
• pastry blender (that chopper thingy for making pastry dough)
• pastry brush
• wooden rolling pin
• cookie cutters
• baking parchment paper

Electric Gizmos

• electric mixer either handheld or countertop model
• blender traditional or stick type
• food processor

Extra Added Widgets (for the seriously motivated baker)

• pastry bag and decorating tips
• one 10-inch (25 cm) tart pan with removable sides
• one 10-inch (25 cm) two-part tube pan (angel cake pan) with removable sides
• electronic digital scale (to weigh ingredients)

The Essential Clueless Baking Cupboard

Its three in the morning. It suddenly occurs to you that you cant possibly get through the night without chocolate chip cookies. Homemade ones. Warm. Right now. Arent you glad you keep ingredients in the house?

Absolute necessities

• all-purpose white flour (regular or unbleached)
• all-purpose whole wheat flour
• granulated white sugar
• brown sugar (golden or dark brown)
• icing (confectioners) sugar
• baking powder
• baking soda
• quick-rise instant dry yeast granules
• butter
• vegetable oil
• solid vegetable shortening (preferably trans-fat free)
• eggs
• milk
• semisweet chocolate chips
• semisweet baking chocolate
• unsweetened baking chocolate
• unsweetened cocoa powder
• quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
• pure vanilla extract
• peanut butter
• cinnamon
• raisins
• walnuts
• nonstick baking spray

Noncompulsory ingredients

• cake and pastry flour
• cornmeal
• cornstarch
• graham cracker crumbs
• chocolate wafer crumbs
• natural bran
• honey
• corn syrup
• molasses
• whipping cream
• sour cream
• buttermilk
• yogurt
• cream cheese
• cream of tartar
• ginger
• nutmeg
• pecans
• almonds
• hazelnuts
• dried cranberries
• dates
• coconut
• lemons

Specialty ingredients

• white chocolate chips or chunks
• poppy seeds
• sesame seeds
• instant coffee powder
• phyllo pastry
• gluten-free flour mixture
• brown or white rice flour

Emergency substitutions

Can it be true? Youre out of chocolate? Baking powder? Brown sugar? Dont panic help is on the way. Not every ingredient is replaceable, but the following substitutions will allow you to continue baking despite the missing whatever-it-is. In some cases, the finished product will be almost identical. Some subsititutions can produce a slightly different flavor or texture in the finished product. Maybe a better one you never know.