Baking is an art, and there's nothing more frustrating than wasting time, money, and dishes for cookies or cakes that aren't up to par.
According to Gillie Houston on My Recipes, below are common baking mistakes you might be making the most.
Your oven is not at the right temperature
One of the most common baking crimes is one that you probably didn’t even realize you were committing: baking at the wrong temperature.
While in a perfect world, we’d all be able to trust the temperature displayed on our ovens, the reality is that each oven heats differently and unevenly, and the only way to guarantee that it’s set to the perfect temperature for your given recipe is to invest in an internal oven thermometer.
There's nothing more frustrating than wasting time, money, and dishes for cookies or cakes that aren't up to par. Picture: Supplied
Your dough is not rising
If you’ve given your dough ample time to rise and it still doesn’t appear to be growing in size, give your yeast a boost with this trick.
Heat a cup of water in the microwave, then place the dough next to the water and close the microwave to use it as a makeshift proof box and speed up the rising process (just make sure not to microwave your dough with the water). If your dough still doesn’t rise, chances are the yeast you used is expired and you’ll need to start over.
Your dough is tough and chewy
When the gluten within your dough or batter has been over-activated, it can lead to a tough, dense dough that will result in unpleasantly chewy baked goods. To correct this, mix your dough on a slower level until your batter or dough has just been combined, rather than mixing on high.