Mistakes in Baking
Failure is the mother of success. Let's say "HELLO" to AUNT.
"Hello, AUNTIE~~"
The 7 Most Common Baking Mistakes are MOTHER's sisters (so they are the AUNTs of a successful baker... ). When I don't know how to bake the bread, they always help me to visit the Mother of Success. Her name is Mrs Failure.
Not taking Ingredient Measurement Seriously
-
Not Understanding Your Oven
-
Under/Over Beating the batter
-
Opening Oven Often During Baking
-
Making Substitutions Without Understanding the Science
-
Wrong Temperature of the Ingredients
-
Using Inferior, Expired and/or Out of Season Ingredients
How can they help us?
Not taking Ingredient Measurement Seriously
Just like cooking, baking is also based on a science. But unlike regular day to day cooking, the impact of not being precise shows most in baking. It is important to know the rules for proper measuring for both dry and wet ingredients for them to work together in harmony.
Not Understanding Your Oven
Ideally, you would assume that when your oven shows 350F, its indeed 350F right? But sadly that’s not always true. Every oven is different and at times even the expensive, upper rung models, can be off. It could be because of general wear and tear and/or because the seals on your Oven door would have worn out etc.
Under/Over Beating the batter
Another common problem is with “Hot Spots”. You might find that one part of your baked product burning/cooked faster than the rest. Its ‘cos of these Hot spots. Turning the pan at regular intervals or avoiding such spots is the way to go. You can find out your Hot spots by lining a cookie sheet with slices of bread.
Opening Oven Often During Baking
It is one of those things where being overzealous is counterproductive. The regular opening drops the temperature of the oven causing the baked product to cook unevenly. So resist the urge to do.
Making Substitutions Without Understanding the Science
It is necessary to understand why a certain ingredient is used in the recipe before making the substitution. Once the chemistry is down pat, you can make a decision to make a best substitution possible.
Wrong Temperature of the Ingredients
Room temperature butter is very crucial to the creaming process (with sugar) that provides the fluffy and tender texture to the baked goods. Ditto goes for eggs. On the other hand for many pastry based recipes, it is crucial to keep the ingredients cold. Its worth taking the time to follow this rule to avoid inferior results.
Using Inferior, Expired and/or Out of Season Ingredients
Needless to say, yet one of the common slips made by bakers is to overlook the expiry dates for leaveners (and other ingredients). Fresh ingredients make a remarkable difference to the end results. Same goes for using superior ingredients. Using cheap ingredients may be great for the wallet but not so much in the department of taste. Use good quality ingredients where it matters.
Be careful. She is not MOTHER's friend because she always wants us to avoid mistakes.
Baking Bread - Some Common Mistakes
My story--"Thank you, Auntie Mistake."
Because of "Auntie Mistake", Alexander Fleming created Penicillin, and John Clifford Pemberton created Coca-Cola. Both of them changed the world. Now, I think I can also change the world of olive fougasse with the help of "Auntie Mistake".
In an exam, the chef asked us to make the olive fougasse bread, and I made at least three mistakes in the process of operation. The mistakes even appeared in every step.
Firstly, when scaling the olive, I put to much olive water in the bowl.
Secondly, I put the flour on the olives. It's forbidden. Flour should be put in the bottom. In addition, the olive water wet the flour. Luckily, it developed the flavor of the bread.
Thirdly, olives should be put in the mixer in the last minute before stopping mixing, but I didn't know it. I put them into the mixer together at beginning, which made the broken olives were totally combined with the flour.
As the result of the three mistakes, the bread is ugly and dark, but the flavor of olive is strong. The classmates who tasted my bread even thought it was the most delicious bread in the class. Chef also said my fougasse tastes really good. However she still give me the low mark because of the terrible color, the ugly sharp and the series of forbidden operation.
In an exam, the chef asked us to make the olive fougasse bread, and I made at least three mistakes in the process of operation. The mistakes even appeared in every step.
Firstly, when scaling the olive, I put to much olive water in the bowl.
Secondly, I put the flour on the olives. It's forbidden. Flour should be put in the bottom. In addition, the olive water wet the flour. Luckily, it developed the flavor of the bread.
Thirdly, olives should be put in the mixer in the last minute before stopping mixing, but I didn't know it. I put them into the mixer together at beginning, which made the broken olives were totally combined with the flour.
As the result of the three mistakes, the bread is ugly and dark, but the flavor of olive is strong. The classmates who tasted my bread even thought it was the most delicious bread in the class. Chef also said my fougasse tastes really good. However she still give me the low mark because of the terrible color, the ugly sharp and the series of forbidden operation.