Introduction to commonly used tools for baking (including the purchase and use of ovens)

Part 1: Essential tools for baking

Oven (top left picture)

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The oven is the main workhorse of baking and an indispensable tool. To bake delicious pastries, choosing an oven you like is the first step.

Microwave ovens cannot replace ovens. Their heating principles are completely different. Not even a microwave with a grill function.

As for the purchase and use of ovens, because of the length, I have put it at the end of this article. You can see it by reading below.

Measuring spoons and kitchen scales (top right picture)

Tools that are absolutely indispensable for baking. Western pastry is different from Chinese food. It pays attention to quantity and the proportion of each ingredient must be accurate. For a more detailed introduction, please see "Kitchen scales and measuring spoons, are you ready?"

Baking pan, baking grid, and heat-insulated handle (pictured below left)

Most bread , cookies, and cakes need to be baked on a baking sheet. It is best to have two baking pans, which are more convenient for daily use (biscuits generally cannot be baked in one pan, and if there are two baking pans, the second pan can be prepared while the first pan is baking). The grilling net can not only be used to grill chicken wings and meat skewers, but can also be used as a cooling rack for bread and cakes. Insulated handles (or insulated gloves) can prevent burns when handling the baking pan/grill. Generally, these three tools will be equipped when buying an oven.

Manual egg beaters and electric egg beaters (lower right picture)

Whether you are beating butter, eggs or whipping cream, you need to use an egg beater. When mixing some wet ingredients together, a whisk is also needed.

An electric egg beater is more convenient and labor-saving, and it is very difficult to beat whole eggs, so an electric egg beater must be used. But electric egg beaters are not suitable for every occasion. For example, if you want to beat a small amount of butter, or if you don't need to beat it and just need to mix eggs, sugar, and oil, it will be more convenient and faster to use a manual egg beater. Therefore, both egg beaters need to be equipped.

Rubber scraper, plastic scraper (top left picture)

The plastic scraper (top) is a small but effective tool that can be used in many situations. When kneading, you can use it to scoop off the dough that sticks to the chopping board. It can also help us move the shaped dough to the baking sheet.

The rubber spatula (bottom) is a flat, soft spatula suitable for mixing batter. It is the most powerful tool when making chiffon cake and mixing egg white paste and egg yolk paste together. And while stirring, it can stick tightly to the wall of the bowl and scrape clean the cake batter adhering to the wall of the bowl.

Stainless steel basins and glass bowls (top right picture)

Prepare at least two stainless steel basins or large glass bowls for beating eggs, and also prepare some small bowls for each raw materials.

Chopping board and rolling pin (lower left picture)

These two items need no introduction. However, one thing needs to be added: when making pasta, it is more recommended to use a non-wooden chopping board. Such as metal and plastic chopping boards. Compared with wooden chopping boards, they are less sticky and less likely to breed bacteria.

Tin foil, oil paper (lower right picture)

Baking paper, used to line the baking sheet to prevent sticking. Sometimes oiling the baking pan can also prevent sticking, but using paper pads can save you the trouble of cleaning the baking pan. Oil paper is cheaper than tin foil. But tin foil can wrap food during grilling to prevent moisture loss. During the baking process, covering the surface with a layer of tin foil after the food is colored can also prevent the food from coloring too darkly.

Floor sifter (pictured left)

Used to sift flour or other powdered materials. Sifting flour can not only remove small flour particles in the flour, but also make the flour more bulky, which is beneficial to mixing. If there are other powders such as cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, etc. in the ingredients, mix them with the flour and sift them to help mix them more evenly.

Cake round mold (pictured on the right)

If you don’t make cakes, you haven’t really done baking. You must have at least one 8-inch or 6-inch cake round tin.

Buying a mold with a removable bottom will make it easier to remove the mold. If you want to make a chiffon cake, do not buy a non-stick cake mold.

Part 2: Baking Tools

Measuring cup (top left picture)

Like the measuring spoon, the measuring cup is also a tool used to measure quantitative ingredients. The reason why I don’t list it as a must-have tool is because basically all the recipes on my blog do not use “cup” as the unit.

Piping tips and piping bags (pictured above right)

Can be used to decorate flowers. When making cookies and puffs, you can also use them to squeeze out colorful batter. Different decorating nozzles can extrude different patterns. You can purchase a single decorating nozzle or a complete set according to your needs.

Decorating turntable (lower left picture)

A tool for making decorated cakes. Placing the cake on a turntable makes it easier to spread the whipped cream and decorate it.

Cake spatula (pictured below right)

When making a flower cake, it is used to smooth the whipping cream on the cake.

Various styles of cake cups (top left picture)

Used to make muffins and other cupcakes. There are many sizes and colors to choose from, and you can buy them according to your preferences.

Toast mold (top right picture)

If you want to make toast, it is a must-have tool. For home production, it is recommended to purchase a 450g toast mold.

Circular cutting dies (lower left picture)

A set of cutting dies of different sizes that can cut out round dough pieces. In addition to this round one, there are also chrysanthemum-shaped cutting dies.

Tower mold and pie plate (lower right picture)

Essential tools for making pie and tower desserts. Friends who often come to my blog should know that there is a category in the blog that is "Pie and Tower Western Desserts". If you want to make this type of Western pastries, towers and pie plates are necessary. There are many specifications for pies and trays, with different sizes, shades, and laces, and you can purchase them according to your needs.

Brush (pictured above left)

In order for many snacks and breads to be beautifully colored, they need to be brushed with a layer of brushing liquid on the surface before baking. This is where the brush comes in handy.

Various knives (pictured above right)

A coarse serrated knife is used to cut toast, a fine serrated knife is used to cut cakes, and a general medium-sized knife can be used to divide dough and small wipes. The knife is used to apply fillings and jams, and the fruit knife is used to handle various fresh fruits used as baking ingredients... In short, choose different knives according to different needs. Of course, you can also be less particular and travel all over the world with one knife.

Pudding mold and small cake mold (lower left picture)

Used to make various puddings, small cakes, etc. There are various styles of these small molds, and you can choose to buy them according to your own preferences.

Bread machine (pictured below right)

Making bread at home, kneading the dough is a manual job. So many students choose bread machines. Most of the bread baked directly by the bread machine is not very tasty, so generally everyone ignores its function of baking bread and only uses it as a tool for kneading dough.

However, the shortcomings of kneading dough in a bread machine are also obvious. Because of the low power and low kneading efficiency, it takes a long time to knead the dough well. Moreover, the heat generated during the kneading process cannot be dissipated, and kneading the dough for a long time will cause the temperature of the dough to be too high. If you knead the dough by hand, you can feel the change process of the dough with your own hands, and you will have the fun of homemade bread.

Attachment: Guide to purchasing and using an oven

Purchasing an oven

From a practical point of view, choose a household oven with basic functions. It can completely meet the needs. So, what are the basic functions needed in an oven? ——There are two sets of upper and lower heating tubes, and the upper and lower heating tubes can be heated at the same time, or they can be turned on individually for upper or lower heat. It can adjust the temperature and has a timing function. The inside of the oven is divided into at least two layers (three or more layers are better) ).

Another thing to note is that if your use of the oven is not just for baking toast slices and chicken wings, but you want to be able to bake a variety of colorful pastries, you must buy it. An oven with a capacity of 24L or more - at least 20L.

I don’t recommend buying the oven in the picture. It cannot adjust the temperature freely and its capacity is not large enough. But it is a light wave oven, which preheats quickly and has high thermal efficiency. If you have some experience, you can use it well. If you are a novice, it will be more troublesome.

A few things to pay attention to when using the oven

1. The oven must be preheated when using it. Preheating is to ensure that the oven reaches the required temperature before food is placed in the oven. If you put food directly into the oven without preheating, and the heating tube is fully heated at this time, the food will face problems such as uneven heating, water loss, and easy scorching on the surface, which will affect the quality.

Preheating method: For example, when baking biscuits, the recipe requires a temperature of 190 degrees. Before putting the biscuits into the oven, first turn on the power to the oven, adjust it to 190 degrees, and let the oven empty for a while. After the inside of the oven reaches 190 degrees, put the biscuits in for baking.

Preheating time: Domestic ovens generally do not have a preheating indicator light. Therefore, you need to pay attention to the condition of the heating tube. When the heating tube turns from red to black, it means that it is preheated. Depending on the temperature and oven size, the preheating time is also different. Theoretically, the greater the power and the smaller the oven, the faster it will preheat. Generally, preheating takes 5-10 minutes. Do not preheat for too long. If the oven is left empty for too long, it will not only waste energy but also shorten the life of the oven.

2. Currently, domestic household ovens basically cannot adjust the temperature of the upper and lower tubes separately. When encountering a formula that requires different temperatures for the upper and lower tubes, such as "in the middle of the oven, the upper tube is 180 degrees and the lower tube is 200 degrees", we can take the average value, that is, heat the upper and lower tubes at 190 degrees, and place the baking sheet next to it. Next level.

3. The temperature of household ovens is generally not accurate and generally unstable. Therefore, when baking according to the recipe, the temperature of the recipe may not be suitable for your oven. At this time we need to make flexible adjustments. If you follow the recipe and bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes and find that the biscuits are burned, you should know that you should lower the temperature or shorten the time next time.

4. The oven is heated by heating tubes. Therefore, inside the oven, the temperature difference between the area close to the heating tube and the center of the oven is very large. If the internal volume of the oven is relatively small, the food will easily be heated unevenly during baking - the food near the inside may be almost burnt, but the food near the outside may not be colored yet. Does this make you feel depressed?

There are several ways to improve uneven heating, such as taking out the baking pan halfway through baking, changing the direction and putting it back again. Or change the position of the food in the baking pan. Cover the surface of food that colors too quickly with a layer of tin foil, etc.

The larger the oven, the less likely it will be uneven heating. This is one of the reasons why it is not recommended to buy a small oven. There are many 9L and 10L ovens on the market. If used to bake cakes or bread, it is difficult to bake high-quality products. This type of oven is more suitable for baking bread slices, chicken wings, and various meats.

The above are all reproduced from Junzhi’s blog