Holiday Baking Tips
Plan your baking menu. Pull
out those favorite recipes and choose which cookies and confections are on the
holiday list this year. Make a list of the supplies you'll need.
Take inventory of
your pantry. Always purchase fresh yeast, baking soda and baking powder. These
leavening agents are inexpensive compared to high-cost ingredients such as
butter and nuts that would be wasted if the dough or batter failed to rise.
Take stock of your
supplies. Do you have all your decorating tips? Are your metal cookie
cutters rusting? Now's the time to find out, not when you're up to your elbows
in dough. Do you need to replace your baking sheets?
Count your
containers. Do you have enough containers to properly store finished baked
goods? What about cookie tins and decorative trays for gift giving? Tins can be
expensive, but they are the best containers for homemade gifts. Discount stores
are a good source for small to medium-sized tins.
The best cookie sheet
is one made of heavy-gauge metal, so it will hold the heat evenly and won't warp
over time. It should not have high sides, which would hamper the even flow of
heat over the cookies. Non-stick surfaces work well for cookie sheets, but dark
surfaces cause the bottoms of cookies to brown too quickly. Double insulated
cookie sheets will also keep the bottoms of cookies from browning to quickly.
Get an early start. Butter,
chocolate and nuts are expensive ingredients. Purchase several blocks of butter
when it's on sale and freeze it until needed. Check out prices at your local
discount shopping club for discounts on quantity items. If the amount is too
much for you, see if you can split it with a friend.
Measure, don't
guess....In baking, accuracy really counts. For measuring liquids, use
transparent or 1- or 2-cup marked measuring cups. Set the cup on a flat surface.
For measuring dry ingredients, graduated cups make it easy to obtain the exact
amount needed by leveling off with the sweep of a long-bladed spatula or knife,
rather than just judging by sight.
Ginger's
Cookie Exchange
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