How to Bake (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 10:50

Baking is such a simple process that the earliest roasters could do it with just hot stones over 4,000 years ago. However, because it allows for a truly wide range of cuisine complexities, baking is still an area of experimentation for today's curious chefs. If you've never baked before, this article will explain the basics of baking, offer tips for baking specific food groups, and suggest some recipes to get you started. Don't worry, if the ancient Egyptians could do it, so can you!

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Part 1 of 3: Baking Basics

Step 1. Select a heat source

When baked, the food is heated from the outside to the center, resulting in a grilled, crispy outer surface and a soft inside. For grilling, you need a heat source that is high enough to heat the food to its fullest (for processed meats, this is especially important, as undercooked meat may contain disease-causing pathogens). So far, the most common tool used for baking is the oven. Modern ovens allow you to set precise and controlled temperatures for cooking, and offer easy access to food without releasing heat to the surroundings. Although less common, you can also bake in a variety of alternative methods, including:

• Traditional outdoor ovens like tandoor
• Dutch Oven
• Microwave oven (technically, this is not baking as it uses microwave radiation to warm food. However, the “microwave oven” recipe persists for making traditional baked goods such as brownies.)

Step 2. Choose a reasonable recipe

Baking projects can range from simple recipes (staples like bread or chicken breast) to large projects (like the elaborately decorated desserts you might see on cooking shows like Cake Boss). If you're a beginner, it's best to stick to something simple - a simple cookie recipe or an easy chicken thigh recipe. Make sure you have prepared all the ingredients in the recipe from the start. Rushing to the store while cooking is annoying and can even spoil certain recipes that need to be worked on quickly.

• If you can, measure out the ingredients first. It's not essential, but it can make the baking process a lot faster.

  

• Practice good cooking safety. Wash your hands before starting any cooking project and after touching any raw material that may contain disease-causing bacteria (especially meat, poultry and eggs).

  

• Wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty or an apron.

  

Step 3. Preheat the oven

By their nature, all baking recipes require high heat. Set the oven to the temperature stated in the recipe. Then, move on to the next step! Let the oven heat up. The oven takes time to reach the required temperature for baking. While the oven is heating up, you can do the other steps in the recipe. When it's time to put the food in the oven, the oven should be (or are almost) at the right temperature.

It's tempting, but don't open the oven door until you're ready to put food in. Doing so will release the heat trapped in the oven, lowering the temperature inside the oven and extending the time it takes to reach the baking temperature

Step 4. Follow the recipe

Every recipe is different. No set of rules can perfectly guide you through every baking process. However, most baking recipes include some or all of the following general steps:

• Prepare food (for meat, poultry and vegetables). Food placed directly into the oven without any preparation will taste dry and tasteless, at best, or not cooked properly, at worst. Meats like chicken breasts often need to be marinated, stuffed, and/or broiled in a frying pan before grilling. Vegetables like potatoes need to be poked with a fork before baking to allow the moisture to escape. Almost every recipe involves some kind of process for preparing food.

  

• Mixing ingredients (for pastries, desserts, etc.). Often, the wet and dry ingredients are mixed in separate bowls, then mixed together to form a dough or mixture.

  

• Prepare baking utensils. Pots and pans are not always ready to be used for baking. Sometimes special preparation is required before baking - many baking recipes, for example, require you to grease a baking sheet with butter.

  

• Place the food in the roasting pan. Dough or prepared meat or vegetables will not cook properly if placed in the bottom of the oven. Usually, raw food is poured or placed in heat-resistant metal, glass, or ceramic containers that can be easily removed from the oven (with oven mitts).

  

• Cooking in the oven at a high temperature; that's the definition of grilling. All baking recipes need to be baked in the oven (or a suitable alternative). Pay attention to instructions on how far food should be placed from heat sources.

  

Step 5. Place the food in the oven

After preparing the food according to the recipe instructions and making sure the oven is hot, place the food (in the roasting pan) into the oven. Close the oven door and set the time according to the recipe. Now, wait for the food to cook and enjoy the delicious aromas that (hopefully) fill your kitchen.

• Take this opportunity to clean the utensils that have been used to prepare the food.
• It's okay to check food as it cooks using the oven light or by briefly opening the oven door. If you open the oven door, close it again as soon as possible to prevent the oven from losing heat. If you're worried that the food will burn, check halfway through the baking process, then halfway through as needed.

Step 6. Take the food out of the oven

When the baking time is up and you've checked to make sure the food is done, take it out of the oven. Be sure to use some kind of hand protection. Oven gloves are a handy option because you can still use dexterity when handling food. However, a rolled up towel carefully held between your hands and the roasting pan can also be used if you have to.

• Careful! Watch the food as you remove it from the oven, being very careful not to spill any hot liquid. Grilling can be a fun and relaxing process, but if you're not careful during this step, it can lead to painful injuries.
• Place your work on a surface that won't burn; Do not place near flammable objects. Use a heavy duty rag, oven mitt, or cooling rack to protect cabinet countertops.

Step 7. Let the food cool

Food is usually still too hot to eat when it's freshly removed from the oven. It's also possible that the food doesn't have a "finished" texture yet - cookies are usually too soft to hold when they're just out of the oven. Finally, some recipes use the heat remaining in the pan to continue cooking after removing it from the oven. Allow food to cool before eating - if stated in the recipe, carefully transfer the food to a cooling rack, which will allow cool air to reach all surfaces of the food.

Step 8. Decorate the food

For some foods, the external decoration is mainly used to enhance the visual presentation of the food, for others, the garnish plays an important role in the taste of the food. For example, parsley garnishes aren't essential for baked pasta dishes, but plain, dry cakes without frosting taste very bland. Your recipe may have specific instructions for garnishing or even include a separate list of ingredients for the recipe's garnishing elements (as is often the case with frostings and sauces). Give your cooking the finishing touch, serve and enjoy!

Part 2 of 3: Baking Specific Food Groups

Step 1. Bake bread, pastries and desserts

When most people think of “baked food”, they think of breads and pastries – the types of food that can generally be bought in bakeries. This type of food usually uses common ingredients such as flowers, butter, eggs, sugar, baking soda, salt, oil, starch, cheese, and/or yeast to make dough or mixtures which are then baked in parts or whole. Breads and pastries are often seasoned with spices, syrups, and other additives to give them a unique sweet or savory taste. The following are some basic points to remember when baking breads and pastries:

• The final shape of the food usually corresponds to the roasting container used. A loaf of bread baked on a baking sheet, for example, will have a different shape than a loaf of dough baked on a flat pan.

  

• Baked foods usually require special preparation to ensure the food doesn't stick to the pan. Butter, shortening, oil, or aerosol spray are generally used to keep the pans smooth.

  

• Some baked goods that use yeast (especially bread) require additional time for the yeast to "swell". Yeast is a microscopic living fungus that feeds on the sugar in the dough, and releases carbon dioxide gas (which causes the dough to “rise”) and other compounds that affect the taste of the food.

  

• In general, the higher the proportion of dry ingredients (flour, etc.) to wet ingredients (eggs, oil, milk, etc.) in a recipe, the more crumbly the resulting dough will be. One common trick for working very crumbly dough is to chill it in the cooler or refrigerator - the dough will solidify, making it easier to handle and shape without crumbling.

  

Step 2. Roast the meat and poultry

In addition to frying, broiling, and grilling, grilling is a great method for cooking meat and poultry. The hot, dry air used for grilling can result in a browned, crunchy surface to the poultry cutlet, while keeping the inside of the meat moist and juicy. Roasting a large piece of beef or lamb on low heat for hours is a great way to ensure you get a moist, savory, and fully cooked end result. Here are a few things to keep in mind when grilling meat and poultry:

• When grilling large cuts of meat, have a meat thermometer ready, as well as a list of desired internal temperatures for different types of meat. It's much easier to use a thermometer to judge whether or not meat is done than to painstakingly remove the meat from the oven, cut it up, and put it back in the oven.

  

• Some people prefer to skin the poultry meat, while others prefer to leave the skin on the meat. When seasoned and cooked, the skin can produce a delicious crunchy texture, but it can also slightly increase the fat and calorie content of the food.

  

• There are advantages and disadvantages to letting the meat stick to the bones (as opposed to removing the bones from the meat). Cutlets that are still attached to the bone are generally cheaper and, according to some sources, richer in taste (though this is not supported by scientific evidence). Meat still attached to the bone also sometimes offers additional options in the cooking process (try stuffing garlic or other spices into the part of the rib attached to the boneless chicken breast). On the other hand, eating meat with bones can be annoying.

  

• Always cook meat and poultry until fully cooked. Research in 2011 found harmful staph bacteria in about half of all meat and poultry samples tested. Don't take any chances - make sure the center of the meat is cooked through with no pink areas and that the water runs clear. For meat that is still boned, stick a fork through the bone, feeling whether the meat is firm or not - a fork will pierce a piece of cooked meat smoothly and easily.

  

Step 3. Roast the vegetables

Grilled or grilled vegetable dishes are a nutritious addition to any meal. Some dishes, such as baked potatoes, make a delicious main course. Compared to frying, grilling is almost always a lower-calorie, higher-nutrient cooking option for vegetables. Slightly greased and sprinkled with salt and pepper, the vegetables can even be grilled for a crunchy, satisfying texture. Here are just a few tips for grilling vegetables:

• Generally, vegetables are "ripe" when they are tender. However, different vegetables take different times to soften - a whole squash, for example, can take over an hour to soften, while a carrot can take half. Find out about the cooking times for certain vegetables before attempting to grill them.

  

• Some vegetable dishes (especially baked potatoes) require you to pierce the vegetables with a fork or knife before cooking them. As the vegetables cook, the water trapped in them will heat up and become steam. If you can't escape through the holes you made, the built-up pressure can cause the vegetables to explode!

  

Step 4. Bake the casserole dish

Some baking recipes combine many types of food (some are even cooked separately from other ingredients) into a casserole-style dish. Often, these dishes use carbohydrates, such as rice, pasta, or starch, as the main ingredient. The ingredients in this dish can be layered or mixed freely. Usually, the casserole is served straight from the high-edge plate where the casserole is cooked. Casserole dishes are filling, easy to serve, and often quite rich in flavour. The following are just a few examples of baked casserole-style dishes:

• Lasagne
• Ziti
• Potatoes au gratin
• Macaroni casserole
• Moussaka

Part 3 of 3: Using Baking Skills

Step 1. Make a snickerdoodle

Snickerdoodles are simple (yet elegant) drool-worthy sugar cookies that can be paired with milk or ice cream or eaten on their own. Great for beginners, snickerdoodles are easy to bake and even easier to eat!

Step 2. Bake delicious sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are a delicious, nutritious starch. Sweet potatoes are rich in fiber, naturally taste great, and, surprisingly, go well with just about anything. Sweet potatoes can be buttered and a few simple herbs as a whole staple or accompanied by peas, cheese, bacon, and other toppings for a big dinner party.

Step 3. Bake crispy chicken thighs

Chicken thighs are pieces of poultry that are easy to get, cheap, delicious, and can be cooked into very delicious grilled dishes. Soak in the marinade before baking for a richer flavour, or coat the thighs with a dry coating or coating for a crispy blackish texture.

Step 4. Roast the layered pork

Whether it's for a family Easter dinner or just to enjoy on your own, the sweet-coated roast pork is a great main dish. Even better, you'll have leftovers to make delicious thick pork sandwiches for weeks.

Step 5. Bake the birthday cake

Cake recipes can be a little tricky to make, but if they work, you'll instantly become a party celebrity. Birthday cakes have unlimited potential for decoration - with practice, you'll eventually be able to create great masterpieces with fondant and frosting!