December 3, 2015
Our top ten tips for baking happiness!
As we get ready for one of the most wonderful times of the year that brings us all together, whether gathering at the dinner table to be thankful for those we love or celebrating the joyous time of Christmas, one thing Sara and I love to do is BAKE! So we thought it would be great for us to share with you some of our helpful baking tips.
Tip One: Select what you wish to bake! This might take some time, but it really is a good thing to prep! Our top three favorites we bake are Snickerdoodles (Sara and Matt’s Favorite), Iced Sugar Cookies (Joe’s Favorite) and Italian Cookies (My Favorite). Besides cookies, we will make homemade pasta, Pumpkin Pie, Torte and lets not forget Cinnamon Swirl Bread!
A side tip with tip one, don’t go over board with the cookie/dessert baking! When you bake to many it can be overwhelming where to put them! In this case, a smaller quantity is better. 🙂
Tip Two: Gather all the items you need and make sure they are fresh! You got all your favorite recipes pulled and you can’t wait to bake! Make a list of all the items you will need to make those treats. You know like flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, butter, crisco, eggs (oh man do we use eggs) Vanilla bean extract, Lemon extract, powder sugar, etc..Since we love to ice and decorate our sugar cookies we can’t forget the ARRAY of SPRINKLES!!
Tip Three: Don’t forget the non-baking items! Sometimes we forget this ourselves and it isn’t pretty… but don’t forget the parchment paper, wax paper, food coloring and aluminum foil. Make sure any thing you use to bake doesn’t need to be replaced like piping bags, cookie sheets or spatulas.
Tip Four: Schedule it out & have a partner! The best part of baking is doing it with Sara so we always schedule some time to do our baking! We break it up into three or four different days (yes, we bake THAT much). We schedule what days we will bake and exactly what we bake!
Tip Five: Christmas music is a MUST. We really love to sing all of our favorite Christmas songs! Of course the classics are wonderful, but we also love Michael Buble and Pentatonix the whole time we are baking!
Tip Six: Read the recipe thoroughly before starting! Now that you have everything purchased and ready to go…each recipe is different! Some will call for you to cream the butter, eggs and extract’s before adding other ingredients. If the flour calls to be sifted then you should not miss this important step! Using measuring cups and spoons for the right amount!
Tip Seven: Each one of our recipes have little notes & that’s okay! Like our Snicker doodles we bake at 350 for 12 minutes: 6 minutes on our bottom rack and 6 on the top rack. Every oven temperature varies so keep notes for yourself to make each batch come out delicious year after year!
Tip Eight : Simple, but important: cool the cookies before icing!! Having a room temperature cookie helps the icing stay better for the sprinkles!! When we ice our sugar cookies, we put a table in the living room with the cookies and put on one of our many favorite movies! We enjoy it so much and this would work perfectly with little kids! Plus, it isn’t bad you get to taste test the broken ones. 🙂
Tip Nine: Freezing the cookies are okay! If you do over bake, which happens to us ALL of the time, freezing is a great tool to help!! We first put the cookies (in a single layer) in a heavy duty Ziploc freezer bag or cookie tin! If you do want to stake the iced sugar cookies, first put them in the refrigerate on a sheet tray to harden! Once they are, you can stake them in a Ziploc freezer bag! Wrap the bag with Heavy Duty Freezer Aluminum Foil!
Tip Ten: Can’t forget the most important part…grabbing a big glass of milk, a few cookies to test and cheers to a job well done!
We hope you enjoyed these top ten baking tips for extra happiness in the kitchen during this holiday season!! Stay tune for even more baking tips, recipes, and baking stories!! xoxo
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