Ten baking tips (and life lessons) from Australia's best bakers
In writing The Bakers Book, a collection of recipes, kitchen notes and wisdom, I asked 36 Australian bakers for an essential piece of baking advice – a lesson that changed everything, a tip that's always in their back pocket.
I expected a pantry of practical tips, but I also realised their wisdom has applications beyond baking. Here's what I learned.
We've all been there. You've turned up ready to bake, only to glare at the instruction for room temperature eggs and butter. Yours are fridge cold. Maybe you microwave the butter to a half-solid, half-liquid result and you take a gamble on the cold eggs. Your mixture comes together, but the scrambled egg effect is real. That's because a cake batter is an emulsion of ingredients, explains chef Danielle Alvarez. 'When something is a little bit too cold or a little bit too warm, it's never going to combine perfectly, or it will split or it will break,' she says. But if you forget to grab ingredients ahead, here's what she recommends: put eggs in their shells in a cup of warm water to let them come up to room temperature. It only takes a few minutes. For butter, warm a bowl in an oven or microwave, then place it face down over your butter. The ambient heat will soften it quickly – and evenly.
How did you first cream butter and sugar? Did you, like cookbook author and TV presenter Belinda Jeffery, put the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mum's old Kenwood mixer and 'beat the hell out of them'? These days, Jeffery recommends a gentler approach. Going hell for leather means you can over beat the mixture and let in too much air, which will make your cake rise, and then promptly collapse. Use a medium speed instead – until the ingredients are well mixed but not all the way to white, light and fluffy. Same goes for egg whites that need to be folded into a mixture – they should be 'just beyond sloppy', Jeffery advises – too firm and they won't incorporate into your batter. Start by whisking them in a stand mixer, but quit while you're ahead and finish off whisking by hand so you can stay in control and avoid over beating.
'I think baking is one of those things you can't ever really be perfect at,' says Nadine Ingram, cookbook author and owner of Flour and Stone. It's a bold admission from the woman with a TED talk on cake. Instead, baking teaches you that imperfect is beautiful, she says. 'You need to try things more than once to improve. I think a lot of our culture these days says you've got to get it right the first time or you've got to be the best at it … Baking teaches you how to break those habits.'
'I'll test recipes eight times and they're still not right … sometimes, things will turn out how they're going to turn out and you have absolutely no control over it, even with all the skills in the world.'
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When a recipe has an overwhelming number of steps, break down a project-bake by making the most of the freezer. 'I think people get so scared of baking because they start reading a recipe and think 'I don't have three hours',' says pastry chef Anneliese Brancatisano. 'Remember the freezer is your best friend … you don't have to make everything from scratch on the day.' Icings and buttercreams can be frozen and later defrosted in the microwave, for example. And the cold makes some things a choux-in. 'I always keep choux pastry in the freezer – just pipe it and freeze it. You can bake them from frozen, and the moisture from the freezer creates steam, which will help them puff up even more.'
Alisha Henderson of Sweet Bakes is living proof. She taught herself to pipe from YouTube videos, practising on cake she'd make, then freeze, and re-freeze, so she didn't have to bake one for every attempt. 'Instead of going through that process … you can bring it out, decorate it, try out all your new techniques, wipe it off, and chuck it back in the freezer,' she says. 'Don't eat it, obviously, but use it again and again.'
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'Baking is 70% organisation,' says Baker Bleu pastry chef Gad Assayag – and taking the time to get organised usually improves the outcome. This means reading through your recipe before you begin, weighing your ingredients before you start and ticking them off as you go. 'And only then, once everything is organised, your tools are there, then you start working. You have to understand the process and understand where you're going before you actually start,' he says.
It helps to remember bread has its own plans. 'Bread keeps you honest, it keeps you on your toes,' says chef, baker and teacher Michael James. 'It's a bit like life: you've got to let it take you on its journey. There are a lot of variables, so it's about guiding it.' Or as Jesse Knierum from Tasmania's Cygnet Bakery puts it: 'You might think you're hot shit, but then the weather changes.' You'll need to adjust for the season you're in, the temperature of the room and the ingredients you're using. Understanding what to tweak and when will help.
Just because baking is a science, doesn't mean you should leave your intuition out of the equation. 'Always, always listen to your gut when you're baking,' says Giorgia McAllister Forte of Monforte. 'Sometimes it's easy to get a little bit lazy or just think, I don't need to do this, it'll be fine.' If in your gut you know you should be doing something differently, don't ignore that feeling. It takes much less time to fix something earlier in the process than going all the way through to the end. Ask yourself: Does this feel right? Does it look right? Is there something I can do now that will save me time later?
'To stay in control, try baking low and slow,' says Alice Bennett of Miss Trixie Bakes. 'We have our ovens on at about 145C/300F on low fan. Typically, a lot of cookbooks will tell you something like 160C/325F. I've always gone a little bit lower and slower with temperatures – and you can apply this before you even put your cake in the oven. If you slow down the whole process, you're less likely to make a mistake.'
Gillian Bell, who travels the world making bespoke wedding cakes, is mindful of her mood when she's baking. 'I always mix my cakes by hand, and I stir in good wishes, good thoughts. I really believe that somehow it comes through … So I say to people, 'Find that place in your head, put on some music, do whatever you can to get to that place'.'' And remain positive. 'Everyone can bake,' says Bell. 'It's just that you don't know how to, or you don't have the confidence. You can make a cake in anything – you can make a cake in a big bean tin. So relax, let go.'
Ruby Goss is the author of The Baker's Book, Favourite recipes and kitchen wisdom by Australian bakers you love (Murdoch Books, $45)
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘The friendship of the good': how a community garden gave me a sense of something bigger than myself
If you came across our school garden, you might walk past without giving it much thought. On the surface, we don't have anything that would warrant a visit from Gardening Australia: no kitchen garden or water feature or 'reflection space'. But we do have something else you might not see at first glance – something I wasn't expecting to find when I first came to this suburb. I moved to Fawkner, Melbourne with my partner and kids about five years ago, in search of affordable housing. The suburb was nice enough but I felt unmoored. I didn't know anyone here and much of community life seemed to revolve around structures such as the extended family, the church and the mosque. I could see how vital these were for people in our suburb; for my part, however, I'm not religious and my extended family live far away. I tried to find other ways to make connections: my kids and I went to Lego time at the library; we hung out at the local playground and chatted to people at the skate park. But none of it added up to a sense of belonging. Then I signed up to help with our school garden. At the very least, I figured, it was a day out in the sun. On volunteer day, my partner pushed our kids to school in a wheelbarrow, and I was armed with a shovel and pitchfork. Around 50 people turned up to the school on a Sunday to help with the garden, and while the kids played, the adults chose jobs according to our levels of ability and enthusiasm. My partner opted to repair the garden beds and I went for the lower-stakes job of weeding. It was slow and careful work, pulling out dandelions and chickweed – along with a few chip packets. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Between gardening and tending to the kids, there were moments of socialising: a nod of thanks from a teacher, a chat with another parent about the out-of-control compost heap that lives behind the mud kitchen. These conversations were tentative, at least on my part; the pandemic and early motherhood had left me out of practice when it came to socialising. However, the school garden was the perfect place to learn how to be with other people again and I could see that I was surrounded by the sorts of people who I wanted to befriend. At midday we stopped for lunch (all halal, some vegan) and in the late afternoon the kids busied themselves by turning rubber gloves into makeshift water bombs. Eventually we wheelbarrowed our kids home, happy and hyper and wet. When I returned to school on Monday, it looked different – and not just because the garden was in better shape. It looked different because my relationship to the place, and the people, had subtly changed: I felt invested in them. After a few more gardening sessions, I had people to talk to and text. At first, these conversations revolved around the garden; however, one WhatsApp chat group led to another (as they tend to do) and soon enough I had people to hang out with. People I could call on for support if I needed it. Working together in this way brings us close to what Aristotle called 'the friendship of the good'. This, according to Aristotle, is the best kind of friendship: it happens when you see the good in another person, and they in you. It is very different to what he calls a 'utilitarian friendship', where we spend time with another person because of what they can do for us. A friendship of the good, conversely – like the school garden itself – is about creating something bigger than ourselves. Our school garden has given me a way to see the good in my neighbourhood. We have a diverse community: nearly half the adults here, including myself, were born overseas. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion If we are to believe the worst corners of the internet, then life is something to be feared. People are to be feared, because people – as the despots and tech bros would have us believe – are motivated purely by self-interest; therefore, we must dominate others, or risk being dominated ourselves. And maybe that is true for a small portion of society. But in every neighbourhood there is also this: people coming together to work on shared projects, motivated by simple altruism. Projects that help strangers build connections to place and each other. This doesn't mean the school garden is utopia. Sometimes the seedlings die. Sometimes a child gets upset and stomps on a tube stock. But even these moments become lessons about care, consequences and how to repair damage. In tending to the garden together, we create a common purpose rooted in the things we all need: nourishment, agency and belonging. And maybe that's the most radical thing we can grow. All We Need by Magdalena McGuire is out now (A$34.99 Ultimo Press)
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ten baking tips (and life lessons) from Australia's best bakers
Baking: it's part science, part craft, part magic. A mindful escape or total mystery, depending on who you ask. In writing The Bakers Book, a collection of recipes, kitchen notes and wisdom, I asked 36 Australian bakers for an essential piece of baking advice – a lesson that changed everything, a tip that's always in their back pocket. I expected a pantry of practical tips, but I also realised their wisdom has applications beyond baking. Here's what I learned. We've all been there. You've turned up ready to bake, only to glare at the instruction for room temperature eggs and butter. Yours are fridge cold. Maybe you microwave the butter to a half-solid, half-liquid result and you take a gamble on the cold eggs. Your mixture comes together, but the scrambled egg effect is real. That's because a cake batter is an emulsion of ingredients, explains chef Danielle Alvarez. 'When something is a little bit too cold or a little bit too warm, it's never going to combine perfectly, or it will split or it will break,' she says. But if you forget to grab ingredients ahead, here's what she recommends: put eggs in their shells in a cup of warm water to let them come up to room temperature. It only takes a few minutes. For butter, warm a bowl in an oven or microwave, then place it face down over your butter. The ambient heat will soften it quickly – and evenly. How did you first cream butter and sugar? Did you, like cookbook author and TV presenter Belinda Jeffery, put the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mum's old Kenwood mixer and 'beat the hell out of them'? These days, Jeffery recommends a gentler approach. Going hell for leather means you can over beat the mixture and let in too much air, which will make your cake rise, and then promptly collapse. Use a medium speed instead – until the ingredients are well mixed but not all the way to white, light and fluffy. Same goes for egg whites that need to be folded into a mixture – they should be 'just beyond sloppy', Jeffery advises – too firm and they won't incorporate into your batter. Start by whisking them in a stand mixer, but quit while you're ahead and finish off whisking by hand so you can stay in control and avoid over beating. 'I think baking is one of those things you can't ever really be perfect at,' says Nadine Ingram, cookbook author and owner of Flour and Stone. It's a bold admission from the woman with a TED talk on cake. Instead, baking teaches you that imperfect is beautiful, she says. 'You need to try things more than once to improve. I think a lot of our culture these days says you've got to get it right the first time or you've got to be the best at it … Baking teaches you how to break those habits.' 'I'll test recipes eight times and they're still not right … sometimes, things will turn out how they're going to turn out and you have absolutely no control over it, even with all the skills in the world.' Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning When a recipe has an overwhelming number of steps, break down a project-bake by making the most of the freezer. 'I think people get so scared of baking because they start reading a recipe and think 'I don't have three hours',' says pastry chef Anneliese Brancatisano. 'Remember the freezer is your best friend … you don't have to make everything from scratch on the day.' Icings and buttercreams can be frozen and later defrosted in the microwave, for example. And the cold makes some things a choux-in. 'I always keep choux pastry in the freezer – just pipe it and freeze it. You can bake them from frozen, and the moisture from the freezer creates steam, which will help them puff up even more.' Alisha Henderson of Sweet Bakes is living proof. She taught herself to pipe from YouTube videos, practising on cake she'd make, then freeze, and re-freeze, so she didn't have to bake one for every attempt. 'Instead of going through that process … you can bring it out, decorate it, try out all your new techniques, wipe it off, and chuck it back in the freezer,' she says. 'Don't eat it, obviously, but use it again and again.' Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion 'Baking is 70% organisation,' says Baker Bleu pastry chef Gad Assayag – and taking the time to get organised usually improves the outcome. This means reading through your recipe before you begin, weighing your ingredients before you start and ticking them off as you go. 'And only then, once everything is organised, your tools are there, then you start working. You have to understand the process and understand where you're going before you actually start,' he says. It helps to remember bread has its own plans. 'Bread keeps you honest, it keeps you on your toes,' says chef, baker and teacher Michael James. 'It's a bit like life: you've got to let it take you on its journey. There are a lot of variables, so it's about guiding it.' Or as Jesse Knierum from Tasmania's Cygnet Bakery puts it: 'You might think you're hot shit, but then the weather changes.' You'll need to adjust for the season you're in, the temperature of the room and the ingredients you're using. Understanding what to tweak and when will help. Just because baking is a science, doesn't mean you should leave your intuition out of the equation. 'Always, always listen to your gut when you're baking,' says Giorgia McAllister Forte of Monforte. 'Sometimes it's easy to get a little bit lazy or just think, I don't need to do this, it'll be fine.' If in your gut you know you should be doing something differently, don't ignore that feeling. It takes much less time to fix something earlier in the process than going all the way through to the end. Ask yourself: Does this feel right? Does it look right? Is there something I can do now that will save me time later? 'To stay in control, try baking low and slow,' says Alice Bennett of Miss Trixie Bakes. 'We have our ovens on at about 145C/300F on low fan. Typically, a lot of cookbooks will tell you something like 160C/325F. I've always gone a little bit lower and slower with temperatures – and you can apply this before you even put your cake in the oven. If you slow down the whole process, you're less likely to make a mistake.' Gillian Bell, who travels the world making bespoke wedding cakes, is mindful of her mood when she's baking. 'I always mix my cakes by hand, and I stir in good wishes, good thoughts. I really believe that somehow it comes through … So I say to people, 'Find that place in your head, put on some music, do whatever you can to get to that place'.'' And remain positive. 'Everyone can bake,' says Bell. 'It's just that you don't know how to, or you don't have the confidence. You can make a cake in anything – you can make a cake in a big bean tin. So relax, let go.' Ruby Goss is the author of The Baker's Book, Favourite recipes and kitchen wisdom by Australian bakers you love (Murdoch Books, $45)
Times
17 hours ago
- Times
The 15 biggest kitchen myths
I love the idea of treasured recipes and kitchen wisdom being passed down through the generations — the handwritten notes in the margins of old cookbooks, the whispered tip from grandma about the 'right' way to make pastry, the family belief that gravy must always be stirred clockwise. These traditions give cooking its soul. But the truth is, times change. A better recipe comes along, a quicker technique makes life easier, or science quietly debunks what we always thought was gospel. And yet some of these so-called golden rules just won't die. They are passed on reverently, like folklore — repeated at dinner parties, printed in cookbooks, even taught at cookery schools. The trouble is, a lot of them are just plain wrong. Having spent my entire working life in the kitchen, as a food writer, editor, recipe developer and chef, I've had endless opportunities to test these beliefs for myself. And in many cases, I'm astonished they still hold sway. It's time to separate fact from fiction, tradition from truth, and do a little culinary myth-busting. It's true that 99 per cent of the time you don't need to. Most things — roasts, cakes, bread, cookies, pastry, casseroles and ready meals — can successfully (and safely) be cooked from cold. Put the dish in a cold oven and as it heats up, so does the food. It starts gently, then quickly catches up. Depending on your oven, just add 6-8 minutes to the cooking time and as ever, check food is properly cooked before serving. The sourdough guru and bestselling author Elaine Boddy has been on about this for years. 'Preheating is madness — so wasteful and pointless. I receive so many messages from people who don't believe it'll work, then try it, bake perfect loaves and swear they'll never preheat again.' So why do recipes and pack instructions tell us to preheat? Because cooks have come to expect exact timings, and the only way to achieve this is to start with a level playing field: a preheated oven. You can also save yourself even more energy by switching the oven off five minutes before the end. • Read restaurant reviews and recipes from our food experts This is a ceremonial habit in many kitchens, but mostly unnecessary. Modern flour is uniform, finely milled and bug-free. Experiments by the science food writer Harold McGee show that sifting has little to no effect on texture. You'll save yourself mess and washing up by giving it a quick whisk instead. Don't throw away your sieve just yet, though: cocoa powder and icing sugar clump and genuinely do need sifting. Obviously, if you keep opening and slamming your oven door, it will struggle to maintain temperature. But soufflés, cakes and even Yorkshire puddings are more robust than we give them credit for. It's absolutely fine to rotate the tray at half-time or test things by prodding towards the end. The one exception I've encountered is gougères; delicate choux pastry puffs that featured on the menu when I cooked in France. A few years ago I demonstrated the recipe at a large food festival. The celebrity chef with whom I was sharing the stage opened the oven door as a joke, and my point was proved. It sank. It's fine to put stainless steel serrated knives, such as paring or vegetable knives with plastic handles, in the dishwasher. Resin-handled or ceramic knives are another matter, however. It's not that you'll blunt them, but they are not designed to withstand the dishwasher's rapid heating and cooling cycles or harsh detergent. Wash by hand — it takes seconds. As Axel Steenbergs of Steenbergs Organic (the UK's leading organic herb supplier) explains, this isn't necessarily the case; it depends on the herb. 'The woodier the original plant, the more likely it is to retain its flavour — think bay, thyme, rosemary and lavender. Leafy herbs like basil, chives, chervil and parsley are better fresh, especially if they are from your own garden rather than the supermarket.' There are some exceptions — dried dill is one of Steenberg's favourites. As for oregano, dried is infinitely more flavourful. Steenberg also advises using fresh herbs for bright summer dishes and salads and switching to dried in winter. There is a myth that extra virgin olive oil is automatically better than other oils, in all contexts. It isn't — not for flavour (except when you want an olive flavour), and not for cooking. It is perhaps the best all-round oil from a health point of view, although rapeseed gives it a run for its money. Because it's unrefined, Evo (as it's known in the trade) retains far more of the olive's natural flavour — grassy, peppery, often with a bitter tang. That's desirable in dressings and drizzles, but often too assertive if you're making something like mayonnaise, where a milder or neutral oil is more suitable. Then there's the warning that Evo is bad for non-stick pans. Some manufacturers do advise against it (the low smoke point can cause the oil to carbonise and build up residue) so check care instructions when buying. My pan is a Scanpan (and is the best I've ever had) and I use Evo for all Italian recipes; the scent of the oil as it warms is una goduria — pure pleasure in a pan. • Seven olive oil recipes — this summer's favourite ingredient One of many myths surrounding pasta. About 250g dried pasta actually cooks perfectly in as little as 1 litre of water (add 1 teaspoon salt), or 500g in 1.2 litres (add 1½ teaspoons salt). You just need to watch that it doesn't boil over. Even more radical, you can start dried pasta in cold water then bring it to the boil; simply add 2-3 minutes to the time it says on the pack. Best of all, here's the way I do it. Add the pasta to boiling water, bring it back to the boil, pop on the lid, turn off the heat and leave it for the time it says on the pack. And don't add oil to pasta cooking water — it's messy and a waste of oil. Instead, stir the pasta often until the water comes back to the boil, after which there's no need because the bubbling water will stop it sticking. Finally, fresh pasta is not superior (or inferior) to dried, it just cooks quicker and has a slightly softer texture. And I find cream-based sauces (such as alfredo) stick to it better than dried. That might have been true once, but not any more. There are good reasons to choose unsalted: you might prefer the taste (especially with artisanal or cultured varieties) or wish to reduce salt intake. If a recipe specifies unsalted butter, then tells you to add a measured amount of salt, it's because the writer is aiming to control the salt level precisely or they persist in the old-fashioned belief that unsalted is inherently better. Smaller eggs tend to be laid by younger birds, at the peak of health, and are excellent quality. The yolks are proportionately larger than the yolks in bigger eggs, and the whites tend to be less watery. Yet because recipes often specify large eggs, people often turn up their noses at small and medium. The result? Hens are put under increasing pressure to lay larger and larger eggs through multiple husbandry techniques. Pressure is the word: large eggs can be painful and exhausting for the hens. Jane Howorth, the founder of the British Hen Welfare Trust, urges shoppers to buy mixed-weight boxes instead. 'The farmers and hens will thank you, and you'll get more yolk for your buck.' Plus, if you're following a recipe, switching egg size is unlikely to throw it off. As for the 'should I store eggs in the fridge?' debate — yes, they keep better. Ideally remove half an hour before using, or float them in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes. This is not the case — however, it does make the meat much tastier. The process doesn't seal anything in — in fact, some moisture is lost — but this doesn't mean the meat ends up dry. Juiciness comes from not overcooking and letting the meat rest. Just be sure to keep the heat high, so the surface browns quickly without stewing in its own juices. As the food writer and broadcaster Tim Hayward explains in his book Steak: The Whole Story, searing causes meat fibres to release amino acids and sugars. When exposed to high heat, these compounds trigger the Maillard reaction, creating that rich, savoury crust we associate with sizzling steaks, chops and barbecue favourites. Keep going and sugars begin to caramelise, adding depth and sweetness. Recently, disenchanted by a run of garlic that was mouldy or sprouted before its time, I tried prepared garlic cloves, the kind that are peeled for you and come chilled in tubs. They are a bit more expensive, but the cloves are large, fresh and juicy. I used them to make a batch of hummus, which my husband tells me I never make garlicky enough, and it was deemed the 'best ever'. I won't be going back to fresh. Who came up with this? Salting early, either in the soaking or cooking water, improves texture and flavour and allows the seasoning to penetrate the bean, not just coat the surface. If your beans are too hard, they are out of date, or you live in a very hard water area, or you've added acidic ingredients (tomatoes, vinegar, lemon juice) too early. • The perfect prawn cocktail and seafood recipes for summer It reduces it, but doesn't eliminate it. In a long-simmered boeuf bourguignon, about 5 per cent of the alcohol remains. In quick-flamed dishes such as crêpes suzette, as much as 75 per cent remains. The quantities of wine or cognac used are unlikely to get anyone drunk, but it's worth knowing if someone has an allergy or avoids alcohol for other reasons. Overheating will ruin chocolate, but by far the commonest cause of seizing — when chocolate turns lumpy and grainy — is water getting in while it's melting. Even the smallest amount (like from a damp wooden spoon) can make the sugar clump up and break the emulsification, ruining the smooth texture. The fix, which may seem counterintuitive, is to beat in more water (teaspoon by teaspoon, hot or cold) until it becomes smooth again. You may need to fiddle with your recipe to take account of this, but at least the chocolate is saved. As a guide, you'll need to add up to 1 tbsp water per 100g chocolate. Melting chocolate in the microwave rather than over a pan of hot water also minimises the risk. If you've seen the guck left in the water after washing mushrooms, you wouldn't want to eat it. Furthermore, McGee's experiments showed that they absorb very little water from washing, and if they are fried correctly over high heat you'll never know the difference. 'Never crowd the pan' is also nonsense. Mushrooms reduce enormously in volume when cooking, so pile them in and keep stirring and tossing to get them brown all Murrin is a former editor of BBC Good Food and the founder of Olive magazine. His latest novel, Murder Below Deck, is published by Bantam. He has a lifetime achievement award from the Guild of Food Writers. @orlandomurrinauthor;
