It’s a common misconception that you need masses of free time and a kitchen that looks like Nigella Lawson’s to be a good baker. All you need to bake successfully is a little bit of practice and a willingness to make mistakes. If you want to instil good cooking habits in your children from an early age, encourage them to get involved in the kitchen. Baking together is a fun ways to introduce children to cooking, as there is always a tasty reward at the end that has been lovingly prepared by both parent and child. If you’d like to get your baking skills up to scratch, follow these simple techniques for success.
Start Reading Cookbooks
If you don’t have cookbooks in the house, go and buy some. They can be found inexpensively online, from jumble sales and from second hand bookshops. The internet is also a mine of information when it comes to looking for recipes. Once you’ve got a couple of cookbooks or websites that you like the look of, study them. Read up on the techniques used in baking, how to measure and store ingredients, and the kind of equipment that is required.
Practice is Key
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with some recipes, choose one that you’d like to make. This might be a household favourite, or something simple just to get you started. Make this recipe a couple of times and note whether it turned out well or not, and which areas needed improvement. You can continue to practice this recipe until you’ve ironed out all the kinks and can make it perfectly. This can be a staple baked good recipe that you can fall back on time and time again. Why not try making a couple of different recipe for the same treat and asking your family which one they prefer? This way you can compare recipes and find which one works best for you.
Confident Baker
As you begin to gain confidence, you can start to change recipes round and treat them more as guidelines. Find inspiration from recipes that you needn’t follow by the letter and make a note of the adaptations you’ve created. It’s easy to forget what you did to get that perfect coffee and walnut cake or loaf of bread with sundried tomatoes in it, so dedicate a notebook to your recipes. If you’re interested in investing in some good quality baking equipment, look for a company that specialises in this, like BakeryBits. You won’t regret properly kitting out your kitchen if you continue to enjoy baking.
