08 Common baking mistakes and how to avoid them | From a professional pastry chef
In this post, I will uncover common baking mistakes that often go unnoticed and provide solutions to fix them. These tips will significantly improve your baking skills and help you become a better baker.
AUTHOR : KHUSHALI PATEL
*For the best results, read the entire post & follow the instructions.
Have you ever tried baking, but the final result left you disappointed, even though, you were positive that you did everything correctly?
This is a common feeling amongst bakers, especially during the initial stages of their baking journey.
Although you followed all the baking tips and tricks that you could know, like not opening your oven while baking, or using room temperature ingredients and more, you were still left disappointed.
I was in the same place when I started baking, which almost made me leave baking entirely. But I am here to ensure that you avoid this situation because baking is one of the most joyful and gratifying experiences you can have.
The key to a successful baking journey is in the little things.
Yes! the little things matter tremendously.
By that I mean the temperature of your ingredients, the accuracy, the texture of the ingredients and the small things you do when you follow the most common baking techniques are what bring the maximum change and transformation in your baking skills.
These are all tiny mistakes I made when I was a self-taught baker myself, and I noticed them when I began baking professionally.
In this post, I will reveal the common baking mistakes I made (and I am certain you are making them too) so you don’t have to spend your resources the way I had to, to know what can instantly improve your baking skills.
So here are the common baking mistakes you might be making –
Mistake 01 - Not chopping your fats such as butter, or cream cheese before preparing your baked dishes (in short, avoid shortcuts)
Common problems you face when you skip chopping your butter or cream cheese –
Crumbly or unevenly baked dishes, dense cakes, burnt cookies, or cookies that have over-spread, burst or cracks in cakes.
Fats are made up of fat solids, moisture and milk solids.
It has the maximum potential to hold air compared to other baking ingredients, especially during creaming. This is because it does not change form when mixed with other ingredients.
Instead, the other ingredients just get coated with fat during the process. But for that to occur, the fat needs to be at the right temperature.
When the butter is too warm, it releases moisture, and if it’s cold, there is no place for it to hold air in its structure. Thus, losing its ability to coat the ingredients and be strong enough to hold air.
This leads to dense cakes, cookies that have over-spread and more.
That is why the butter (stick or block) must be at an even temperature throughout.
What should you do instead?
It’s important to chop the butter or any ingredient with a high-fat content in solid form into even cubes, and then let it come to the right temperature.
This ensures that the temperature of the butter is even throughout, leading to a better-baked dish.
Mistake 02 - Bringing your butter to room temperature instead of the right temperature
Common problems you face when the butter is not at the right temperature –
Dense baked dishes, over-spread cookies, split ganache or caramel, soft frostings or frostings that don’t hold their structure.
Room temperature is one of the most misleading terms in baking because the weather is different everywhere.
The room temperature in your home can be cool, while mine is pretty warm.
For example, while preparing buttercream, if you use butter that is too soft and warm or over-cream your butter, it releases moisture, and the frosting does not hold its shape.
To compensate, you may add more icing sugar to make it firm. But that leads to a much sweeter buttercream with absolutely no flavour.
So instead of using room temperature butter, use butter that is at the right temperature (or softened butter), and that is between 18°C – 21°C.
When the ingredients, especially butter, are at the right temperature, they mix evenly, which leads to fluffy cakes and well-formed cookies. This is because they hold their structure and the air that is introduced while creaming.
Yes, it’s as simple as that.
And as I mentioned previously, the temperature impacts butter the most and as a majority of doughs and batters are prepared with butter, it is even more crucial to avoid this mistake.
So, how do you know when the butter is at the right temperature or softened?
Follow this simple yet effective experiment, and you will be a baking pro instantly. For this, you will need a thermometer.
- Take a stick of butter in its packaging and leave it on your kitchen counter away from the sun.
- Chop them into even sized cubes and spread them on a plate evenly.
- Now every 10-15 minutes, check the temperature of the butter by inserting the thermometer right in the middle of the cube.
- When it reaches 18°C, press the butter with your finger.
You will find that the butter will resist your finger, and you will have to put a bit of pressure to make a dent. The butter will also be a little cool to the touch. This is when your butter is ready to be used for baking.
- Now check the texture of the butter once it reaches 21°C the same way (steps 1 through 4)
While doing this experiment, note down the time the butter took to reach the right temperature. So now every time you have to bake, you know how much time your butter takes to soften.
What should you do instead?
Prioritize the temperature of your ingredients so can achieve the perfect texture for your final baked dishes.
Mistake 03 - Not mixing and then sifting your dry ingredients such as flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
Common problems you face when you don’t mix & then sift your dry ingredients –
Pockets of flour, baked goods that haven’t risen evenly or at all.
I have to say this. In my opinion, dry ingredients like flours, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and more are the most neglected ingredients in baking.
When they are not given the attention they deserve, it can lead to major disappointment, like eating pockets of flour or having sunk-in cakes and cupcakes.
Dry ingredients are primarily responsible for providing structure to the baked dishes, but they can also hold air.
When you sift your dry ingredients, they become light & fluffy because of the addition of air. But that does not mean that the ingredients are evenly mixed with one another especially when the recipe requires cocoa powder.
Baking powder and baking soda leaven or add air into baked dishes without which they would be flat and dense.
Yes, using fresh ingredients and sifting them is important, but making sure that they (especially the baking soda and baking powder) are evenly mixed in, is also essential.
What should you do instead?
After weighing your dry ingredients, mix all of them together with a spoon, and then sift them to introduce an extra bit of air.
Mistake 04 - Using measuring cups & spoons
Common problems you face when you use measuring cups and spoons for baking –
Dry or tough baked goods, poor flavour, not enough spread in cookies
Baking is a skill that is based on accuracy as it’s a science.
While it may seem that measuring cups and spoons are easier to use, they aren’t.
There are two reasons why:
- The way you measure ingredients can be completely different to the way someone else does especially the person whose recipe you are following, and
- Measuring cups and spoons although said to be standardized throughout the world, can still hold different volumes of the same ingredient.
What should you do instead?
Using weighing scales is way more efficient as it provides accuracy. It also reduces your preparation and cleaning time when you bake. You can read more about weighing scales in this post.
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Mistake 05 - Measuring or weighing as you go rather than preparing beforehand
Common problems you face when you measure or weigh as you go rather than preparing your kitchen station beforehand –
Burnt caramel, spending more time in the kitchen than required, missing out on an ingredient
When you prepare your kitchen station with all the equipment and ingredients required for a baking dish beforehand, mixing the ingredients is much faster and more efficient as the ingredients remain at an even temperature and the air that you introduce does not escape, which then leads to better-baked dishes (as mentioned in mistake 01).
Especially, while making caramel, if you do not have all your ingredients and equipment ready to go while working with sugar, you can burn the caramel or end up burning yourself.
Preparing your work station way before you even start mixing your ingredients also ensures that you do not skip a key baking ingredient which is one of the common mistakes that are made by beginner bakers.
What should you do instead?
Always weigh all your ingredients and set out all your equipment beforehand. This makes baking and cleaning up later much faster to complete.
Mistake 06 - Over-mixing or undermixing batters and doughs
Common problems you face when you overmix or undermix your batters and doughs –
Dense cakes, cakes that sink rather than rise well, pockets of dry ingredients in baked goodies, over-spread cookies or cookies that haven’t spread well.
Leavening is another important factor that can make or break your baking.
When you undermix your batter, the ingredients are not evenly distributed and mixed with each other. This causes uneven-baked treats or pockets of dry ingredients. Both affect not only the taste but also the joy that you experience when eating baked dishes.
On the other hand, when you cream your dough or batter, you add air into the batter. This air that makes baked dishes light and fluffy escapes when the batter or dough is overmixed as moisture from the ingredients (especially butter) releases, leading to dense and burnt baked goodies.
This also relates to cookie baking because when the butter is overmixed, the butter releases water, and the air escapes, making the cookies overspread in the oven.
What should you do instead?
It is important to remember that being quick and mixing the ingredients till just combined always ensures a successful baking result.
Mistake 07 - Not baking batters like cake batters immediately
Common problems you face when you don’t bake your batters immediately –
Domed or cracked cakes or cupcakes, cakes that have sunken in
This mistake relates majorly to batters such as cake, pancakes, and more. Not just for batters that have baking soda and baking powder in them.
When you add leavening agents to your batters, their effect starts almost immediately, especially baking soda as it provides that extra air by reacting to the acid in the batter.
And even if batters do not have any leavening agents in them, once air is introduced through mixing, the air can escape very quickly.
What should you do instead?
As you introduce the air either through the ingredients or technique, always bake your batter immediately to ensure that the lovely air does not escape.
Mistake 08 - Not utilizing the most out of your refrigerator
Common problems you face when you don’t utilize your refrigerator –
Over-spread cookies, soft jellies or cream-based products, crumbly and sticky cakes
If you live in a warm or hot & humid environment, this is a mistake that you surely might be making.
As I have mentioned in mistake 02, bringing your ingredients, especially butter to the right temperature is crucial. This is because when it is at the right temperature, the structure of the butter remains firm, which helps cookies, for instance, to maintain their shape.
But I have to admit that sometimes unintentionally, the butter does become too soft while mixing. This is when the refrigerator is your best friend.
What should you do instead?
Use your refrigerator so that the dough cools down again before baking even if just for 15 minutes. When refrigerated the butter becomes firm again, which prevents it from burning or over-spreading.
In Conclusion,
A lot of these common baking mistakes go hand in hand, but once understood and avoided can completely transform your baking journey.
My best advice is to improve your baking one step at a time rather than feeling overwhelmed.
By making a change one step at a time, you will be able to observe the effects it has on your final baking results easily.
Hi! I'm Khushali Patel, a cookie-loving professional pastry chef, recipe developer and content creator whose aim is to guide you to find more happiness in your baking journey every step of the way.
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