Anna Goldman - The Complete Cheesecake Cookbook: 766 Insanely Delicious Recipes to Bake at Home, with Love!

In this section we will discuss a few of the most commonly used ingredients in baking recipes.

Butter has an amazing flavour and texture by itself, and when used in baking recipes, it greatly enhances the flavour and texture of the final product. Unsalted butter is best as it gives you full control over the taste of your recipes.

Milk is one of the most important ingredients when it comes to baking. It makes the four tender, and also forms the base for quite a few recipes.

Always sift the flour before you use in a baking recipe. Pretty much every kind of flour out there can be used for baking, but the most popular kind used for making is All Purpose Flour. It is easily available, doesnt cost much, and easy to work with.

Cake Flour is another kind of flour that is smoother than all purpose flour. It is great for making cake sponges and other tender & spongy baked recipes.

Pastry Flour is another flour which works pretty much like cake flour.

Self-Rising Flour is basically all-purpose flour mixed with baking powder. To make your own, mix one teaspoon of baking powder for each cup of flour.

Rye Flour is a healthy flour with great nutritional benefits. However, it doesnt form gluten strands, making it ill-suited for yeasted dough.

Oat Flour is loaded with fiber and protein. It is commonly used in healthy baking recipes.

Almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour are a few other flours that are used in baking recipes today.

Baking powder is basically a mixture of baking soda and an acidic component. It is a leavening agent on its own, and doesnt require addition of an acidic ingredient to do its work.

Hundreds of branks make baking powder, and they are all pretty much the same. Just make sure the baking powder you buy is free of aluminium. Baking powder has a shelf life of about six months, so make sure you use it all before that.

Baking soda is a leavening agent that requires another acidic ingredient to do its job. It can be stored safely for years.

Found commonly in bread, dinner rolls and similar pastries, yeast is a natural leavening agent which does its job by fermenting in the batter or dough, causing a rise in volume by absorbing air.

Excess of sugar leads to a spike in blood glycogen levels, and is rightly blamed for many health problems. Eat sugary delights in moderation, and as a side to a healthy balanced diet. Sugar adds texture, sweetness, and moisture to baked recipes, making it an important ingredient in some of the sweet baked goodies. It promotes the growth of yeast in a few of the recipes too.

There are many kinds of sugars available out there, and every recipe will specify the kind of sugar used. If not mentioned, use the regular granulated sugar. Brown sugar is unrefined white sugar, and has a strong taste of its own, making it unsuitable most of the recipes. However, in some recipes, the flavour of brown sugar compliments the flavour of the recipe.

If a recipe in this book calls for dark chocolate, it is best to use a chocolate that has a cocoa content higher than 70%. Dark chocolate is the most commonly used chocolate in this book, as it has low sugar content, and has a strong flavour and great texture. If a recipe calls for chocolate chips, and you dont have those on hand, just chop up a chunk of dark chocolate into small bits and youre good to go!

White and milk chocolates are quite popular too these days, and taste great due to the high sugar content.

Today, two kinds of cocoa powers are popular- natural cocoa powder, and Dutch processed cocoa powder.

Unless stated otherwise, all cocoa powder used in this book is Dutch processed cocoa powder due to its darker colour and intense taste.

Free ranch fresh eggs are best. Unless stated otherwise, all eggs used in this book are medium-sized.

Eggs are one of the most commonly used ingredients in baking as they greatly enhance the texture of cakes and cookies, and allow air to be absorbed into the batter, making it fluffy. They are also help keep the recipes moist.

Eggs are delicious and nutritious on their own, and when used in baking recipes, impart their nutrition, taste, and colour to the recipes.

Gelatin or gelatine is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, derived from collagen extracted from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and gummy when moist. It is used to to stabilize creams or jellies and it needs to be bloomed before use. If you boil it, it loses its strength, so dont do that.

Unless stated otherwise, all gelatin used in this book is powdered or granulated. Leafed gelatin comes in handy sometimes too.

Nuts are rich in healthy fats, and taste absolutely scrumptious on pretty much everything baked. Some of the most commonly used nuts in baked recipes are: almonds, coconut, hazelnuts, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, pistachio, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, etc. Nuts are best used fresh.

Salt is a common ingredient in all kinds of cooking, and baking is no exception. Salt strengthens the gluten structure, enhances the flavour, and highly useful with yeast.

Spices are delicious and nutritious, and add a variety of flavours to baked recipes. One of the most commonly used spices in baking is vanilla. A natural extract of vanilla is best. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, orange zest, lemon zest, cloves, lavender, etc are some other spices commonly used in baking.