Baking

Ready to get baking with apples this fall? Pick one of these five varieties for the best results.

Ready to get baking with apples this fall? Pick one of these five varieties for the best results.

This may look like your average graham cracker crust, but it's so much better.

It's way better than lemon water!

There's a daunting number of cardboard pints and quarts of different cream varieties at the grocery store. Which is which?

Forgot to plan ahead? No problem.

Don’t have a cake scraper? Use this unexpected kitchen item to help get those sides super smooth.

The secret to perfectly even graham cracker crusts? Check your kitchen cabinets.

The result? Rich and chocolatey brownies made just for you.

This is how you can fix it and prevent it in the future!

It's simple to make and you can add it to so many different things!

The flour you choose affects your ultimate outcome. Learn how bleached versus unbleached flour makes a difference in baked goods like cookies, cakes, breads, and more.

Learn how to tell when homemade breads are fully cooked with these tips.

You'll wish you thought of this one sooner!

If there’s one dessert I cannot resist, it’s a rich and fudgy chocolate brownie recipe. It’s hard not to love these timeless sweets. And while easy to make, there are a few tips that will ensure a stand-out batch every time. So before you get ready to bake your next batch, be sure you’re not making any of these common mistakes. Brownies fall into two delicious camps: fudgy and cakey.

This is a game-changing tip!

A versatile ingredient, its unique flavors and consistency is great in soups, salads, and more.

Food coloring comes out in full force around the holidays when it’s time to make colorful icings, candies, and other sweet confections. While liquid food coloring used to be the only option available for tinting foods, there are now many other choices, from gels to pastes to even powdered food coloring. Here’s a guide to the different types, how they can be used, and the pros and cons of each one! What it’s made out of: Synthetic colorings with a water base.

Butter brings the flavor, but here's how it can bring crunch, chew, and more.

Its not all sweet!

Not to be dramatic, but the results were kind of mind-blowing.

Just like the professionals!

Espresso powder and instant espresso provide nuanced flavors in rich, chocolatey baked goods. Learn the best swaps here.

Here's what you need to know as we head into cookie season.

Avoid these mistakes and you'll have holiday cookies to reach for all season long.

I love this for me.

No awkwardly cut foil strips required.

These are the best ways to keep your brown sugar soft so it's always ready.

They're not always interchangeable.

This is the one baking rule you should break!

Simple and effective!

Here's why it's such a smart tip.

With the exception of perhaps oil, few pantry staples come in as many varieties as vinegar. I regularly keep on hand no fewer than seven different vinegars: red wine, white wine, champagne, sherry, rice, apple cidar and balsamic. Later on, I discovered white balsamic vinegar, a blend of white grape must and white wine vinegar. Recently, while scanning through the ingredients list of a recipe I was making, I came across a vinegar I was unfamiliar with – White balsamic vinegar.

We have been grilling tons of fruit this summer – plums, peaches, pluots, figs – and it has been the perfect opportunity to break out our precious bottle of saba.We first encountered saba at a gourmet market and just had to bring a bottle home. Although it was a bit pricey and we had never tasted it before, we were intrigued by the description of an ancient, syrupy condiment similar to Balsamic vinegar. The splurge was worth it.

"Whether it’s cookies, cakes, or brownies, the type of pan you use has a big impact on how your desserts bake," content creator Benjamin the Baker revealed.

A winning chicken dinner for adults and kids alike.

It's a subtle difference, but an important one.

Have you ever reached for the eggs while baking only to realize that the recipe calls for large eggs, and you only have extra-large? Or have you ever eyed the medium eggs at the grocery store and wondered how different they really are from jumbo? Eggs come in different sizes and they differ quite a bit in both weight and volume. When a recipe calls for an egg, substituting them with one size smaller or bigger is not a major problem.

No special tools required!

Are you baking with coconut oil yet?

Knowing when you can stop kneading the dough is among the more mysterious aspects of baking bread. Sure, it’s no longer a wobbly mess of bubble-gummy dough, but is it really done? To find out, there are ways to tell whether the dough is ready after kneading it for 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-10 minutes in a mixer. Here are a few clues to look for. The point of kneading dough is to strengthen the gluten, which are the stringy bands of proteins that give bread its structure and texture.

Prettier loaves ahead!

A member of the kelp family, kombu is a seaweed that makes for a versatile pantry ingredient, providing dishes with umami flavor, nutrients, and minerals. While most kombu comes from Hokkaidō, Japan, it is also cultivated in Korea, where it is known as dashima, and China, where it is known as haidai. (Maine kelp is similar and can be substituted for kombu.) Dried kombu can be used to make Japanese dashi (a savory broth), added to beans to make them more digestible, and eaten in salads.

A reader recently asked about substituting gelatin leaf (called for in one of the recipes) with powdered gelatin, and the thing is, none of us really knew for sure! Hear our thoughts below – care to weigh in?First off, all three of these products are derived from the same source – animal collagen. When heated slowly, collagen in the skin, bones, and connective tissue of an animal breaks down into gelatin, which can then be used to set liquids into jellies.

Oils, applesauce, and yogurt will all work in a pinch.

When it’s time for fall and winter baking, dark, sticky molasses gets pulled out from the back of my cabinet. There’s no replacement for the sweet, almost smoky flavors it adds to cookies and cakes, like chewy molasses cookies and dark molasses gingerbread cake, plus it plays oh-so-nicely with winter spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Molasses comes in different forms and each has its taste, use, and way of making it.

Avoid these missteps and you'll be on the path to puff pastry perfection.

I don’t bake with yeast all that often, but I always reach for the packets of dry yeast when I do. But what about those little cakes of fresh yeast, the ones professional bakers are always talking about? It was time to find out more about fresh (or cake) yeast, and see what the fuss was all about. How is it different from dried yeast, is it easy to use, and would breads made from fresh yeast taste better?

More and more of us are discovering what a fantastic ingredient concentrated miso paste can be in our daily cooking – and not just for soup! Happily, many major stores have caught on and are starting to carry a variety of traditional misos to choose from. There are different types of misos and each is made from soybeans that have been fermented with either rice, barley or other grains. The real question is: how to choose?

Take your baked goods to the next level.

And why it matters.

Star anise just may be the most unique and fun-looking spice in the pantry. But it's more than just good looks.

Until recently I was constantly confusing evaporated and condensed milk — especially at the grocery store when trying to remember which one a recipe called for. It didn’t help that the cans look nearly identical. The differences are small, but they can have a big impact on your finished dish. The main differences between evaporated milk and condensed milk are sweetness and consistency.

Baking soda and baking powder are both essential pantry staples for bakers. They have long shelf lives, but can they go bad? The answer is yes. Both baking soda and baking powder will eventually expire. You’ll know when they won’t give your baked goods the lift that they deserve. You might ask yourself, “How can I tell if it’s still active before I ruin my next batch of muffins?” To find out if your baking soda or powder is still effective, follow the steps below.

Here's everything you've ever wanted to know, including how they get their names.

Pretzel pie crust? Yes, please!

How did I not know this?!

So THAT’S why we’re supposed to use room-temperature butter in our cakes!

If you’re like me, you’re always looking for a quick but filling and nutritious meal on a busy day. One thing I’ve learned to do is to tuck a few sweet potatoes into the oven whenever I’m baking something. That way, I have a head start on a delicious, nutritious meal, ready to go whenever I’m hungry but pressed for time. Read on for several suggestions for how to use a baked sweet potato.

The flavors will really pop!