Baking Tips

Bread bakers are constantly seeking out trade secrets to mimic professional French breads with crusty exteriors and soft, spongy innards. While nothing compares to state-of-the-art bread ovens, home bakers each have their tips for creating the "steaming" effect that contributes to the crystallization of the crust, whether it's baking the bread with a bowl of water-soaked stones or occasionally spritzing the loaves with water during bake time.

Here's a tip I recently stumbled upon while dining at Café de la Presse in San Francisco. My waitress let me in on a little secret: executive chef Patrick Albert is so serious about his bread that he ships in loaves from New York City each morning that are partially cooked and frozen. Once the loaves arrive in San Francisco, they're popped in the oven a second time to finish baking. The bread develops its awesomely crunchy exterior due to this process.

My hunch is that icy crystals form on the frozen dough and create a moist interior with a flaky, crisp crust. I utilize this method most when freezing extra loaves of bread to preserve for later. Here's my method: bake the bread according to the recipe's instructions, but pull out a few of the loaves before they start to turn golden (roughly three quarters of the way through cooking). Let the loaves cool to room temperature, then freeze them in an resealable bag. On a later date, preheat the oven to 400ºF, and bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes or until the bread has a caramel brown exterior. What's your secret to baking the best bread?

When I need butter to be at room temperature quickly, I grate it, but for eggs I use a different technique. I fill a big bowl with warm water, then I place the eggs gently inside the bowl. The key is to make sure that the water's not too hot; you don't want the eggs to cook. Let them sit for 10 minutes in the warm water, and they should be good to go. Have you ever done this? What's your method for bringing eggs to room temperature?

We've all been there: recipe in hand, apron on, ready to make a delicious layer cake (or cookies, tart, etc.) only to realize the butter isn't at room temperature! You could put the butter in the microwave, but there's a chance that it will melt completely. Since the texture of butter affects the finished baked good, it's important to get it to a room temperature-like status. The solution? Grate the butter. I've done this countless times and it always works. Grate the cold butter on the large side of a box grater (it may get messy), then use immediately.

Have you grated butter? What's your technique for getting cold butter at room temperature quickly?

Today's reader question comes from lovelittle. In the YumSugar Community, she inquired about frosting, strawberries, and cupcakes. She says:

"I made cupcakes like these [white frosting garnished with fresh-cut strawberries] for Valentine's Day and I want to make them again, but my only problem, and it was a big one, was that the strawberries kept sliding and 'leaking' on the frosting. Any tips on how to avoid this?"

Instead of using a sliced strawberry, I recommend using a small whole one. Press it gently into place on top of the frosting, so it won't slide off. A whole strawberry is less likely to leak juice on the icing. Do you bake? What's your advice for lovelittle?

Source: Flickr User DixieBelleCupcakeCafe