What It Is

Brown butter (also called browned butter) is a higher-fat version of butter, made by browning the milk solids in butter in a process that lends it a nutty flavour.

Brown butter is prized for its complex flavour. French pastry chefs use it to make financiers and madeleines, among other things. You can even make these chocolate chip cookies with pecans with brown butter instead of regular butter.

The Science of Brown Butter

Butter is roughly 80% fat, so there's still 20% to account for. The rest is made up of water and milk solids (proteins and sugars). While we know that oils and water don't mix, butter is actually an emulsion of animal fat and water. They are mixed together to form a very smooth texture and an even mixture.

If you melt butter in a pan on the stove, the emulsion will break. The milk solids will separate from the fat. They tend to settle on the bottom of the pan (though they also form a foam on the surface too). As you continue to heat the mixture, the butter will sizzle as you approach the boiling point of water.

As you heat the melted butter, the water will boil off. The temperature will rise above the boiling point of water, high enough that the milk solids (proteins and sugars) will brown. The browning process, known as Maillard browning, creates flavour compounds that have a complex, nutty flavour. This is why the French call it "beurre noisette." The word noisette means hazelnut, referring to both the aroma and the colour that forms when you brown butter.

Brown butter has a higher fat content per gram than regular butter. Brown butter solidifies just like regular butter when cooled, though the texture is more granular and less supple, probably due to the lack of water.

How To Make It

Step 1—Place the butter you want to brown in a small saucepan (image 1) and heat it up on medium–high heat until it melts (image 2).

Step 2—Continue heating the melted butter until it boils and sizzles (image 3). This is the stage when the water is boiling off. Continue cooking the butter until the sizzling subsides and the milk solids begin to brown (image 4). Make sure to swirl/stir the pan to ensure even cooking and so that the milk solids don't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

Note: Some bakers prefer to strain off the browned milk solids, leaving behind the clear, golden butter without any brown or black specks.

Enhancing The Nutty Flavour

Pastry chefs add a secret ingredient to the pan when they brown butter to enhance the flavour: fat-free milk powder (also called powdered milk or dehydrated milk). Adding milk powder to melted butter before browning it increases the concentration of milk solids, thereby increasing the amount of flavourful compounds that develop as the sugars caramelize.

If you are baking a recipe that calls for brown butter, consider adding milk powder to your butter before browning it to give it a stronger flavour that can stand up to the other ingredients in baked goods.

Here's how to do enhance brown butter with milk powder:

Step 1—Start by placing butter in a small saucepan (image 1) and cooking it on the stove until the milk solids begin to brown (image 2).

Step 2—Add powdered milk (image 3) and continue cooking, stirring continuously, until the additional milk powder begins to brown (image 4).

Rule of thumb: I like to add 25 grams of milk powder for every 115 grams (½ cup) of butter.

Don't Burn It

There's a fine line between brown butter and burn butter. If you continue to heat butter after the milk solids have browned, they will burn. This will completely change the flavour. If you are unsure of how far to take brown butter, pull the pan off the stove and, using a spoon, push away any foam on the surface of the melted fat. This way, you can see what's happening on the bottom of the pan. The flecks should be brown, like mahogany, not black. If they are black, you have cooked it too long. The nutty flavour is gone in burnt butter. You will have to start over because it may have bitter notes.

Brown butter still has milk solids and, therefore, is not appropriate for high-temperature cooking because it can burn.

Difference Between Clarified And Brown Butter

Clarified butter is not the same as brown butter. To clarify butter, you heat it to remove water and strain it to remove milk solids. It isn't browned and so doesn't have the same nutty flavour. Clarified butter has a more prominent milk flavour.

Vocabulary: Don't confuse beurre noisette (brown butter) with beurre de noisette (hazelnut butter)! Beurre de noisette is made just like peanut butter, from ground hazelnuts that are processed into a creamy, spreadable paste. Beurre noisette is made from melted butter that has cooked until the milk solids brown.

The Difference Between Ghee And Brown Butter

Ghee is a strained version of brown butter. After boiling off the water and browning the milk solids, you strain the mixture. Line a strainer with layers of cheesecloth to obtain a clear, golden butter free of milk solids. This increases the shelf-life of ghee. Ghee is more stable than brown butter and you can store it at room temperature without it spoiling.

Because brown butter still has milk solids, it's not appropriate for high-temperature cooking because it can burn easily. For high-temperature cooking, use ghee.

What To Make With Brown Butter

Brown butter has a unique flavour, akin to toasted nuts, but even better. It's really a great way of adding a nutty flavour to cookies and cakes without adding any nuts. You can use brown butter to make a quick caramel sauce like this whiskey caramel sauce served over baked apples.

The nutty flavour of brown butter also makes it great for recipes made with nuts. It complements and accentuates their flavour. You can use brown butter to make your bars and cookies. These white chocolate and raspberry blondies and these toffee blondies are both made with brown butter.

Once cooled to room temperature, you can use brown butter to make frosting, like this brown butter cream cheese frosting. It's the perfect complement to a pumpkin loaf cake or eggless carrot cake.

How To Replace Butter With Brown Butter

If you want to replace butter with brown butter in any recipe, ensure you use brown butter at the same temperature as the butter in your recipe (room temperature/softened, melted, or cold). If a recipe calls for melted butter, you can replace it with melted brown butter. If a recipe calls for cold butter, replace it with cold brown butter.

In some cases, it may be pertinent to add back a little water along with the brown butter to replace the water lost during the browning process. Use your judgment and remember there's only a small amount of water in regular butter (less than 20 %) so add back a quantity of water similar to what you think was lost.

Brown Butter FAQs

If you tried this recipe for brown butter (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

Print

Brown Butter

Learn how to brown butter with this recipe starting from regular unsalted butter to create a nutty "beurre noisette" to bake with.

Course pantry staple

Cuisine French

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Total Time 23 minutes minutes

Servings 15

Calories 110kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 230 grams unsalted butter

Optional enhancement

• 50 grams nonfat dry milk powder

Metric - US

Instructions

• Place the butter in a small saucepan. Heat the butter on medium or medium–high until it is melted.
• Once it's melted, continue heating the butter, swirling the pan occasionally. The butter may begin to sizzle/boil. This is because the fat has reached the boiling point of water and so the water will begin to evaporate. That's what we want!
• Continue cooking the butter until the milk solids settled at the bottom of the pan turn a deep golden brown. Keep an eye on it so they don't burn!

Optional enhancement

• Once your butter has browned, you can further enhance the flavour by stirring in nonfat dry milk powder and continue cooking the butter, stirring constantly, until the powdered milk browns. Do this on medium–low or even low heat to avoid burning it and stir continuously.
• Store brown butter in an airtight container in the fridge.

Notes

• 230 grams of butter should leave you with about 200 grams of brown butter, which is less than 1 cup (closer to ¾ cup).
• You can store brown butter in the fridge since it still has the milk solids. Otherwise, it may spoil!
• If you want to replace butter with brown butter in any recipe, ensure you use brown butter at the same temperature as the butter in your recipe (room temperature/softened, melted, or cold). If a recipe calls for melted butter, you can replace it with melted brown butter. If a recipe calls for cold butter, replace it with cold brown butter.
• You may have to add water along with brown butter. If a recipe calls for 115 grams (½ cup) of unsalted butter, that's actually about 92 grams of fat and the rest is water, proteins, and sugars. Brown butter contains no water. You may need to adjust your recipe to compensate for the lack of water in brown butter.

Nutrition

Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 4mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 383IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How To Make Brown Butter appeared first on The Bake School.

What is a bundt pan?

A bundt pan is a metal cake pan with a tubular or doughnut shape, meaning that cakes baked in this type of pan have a hole in the middle. This type of cake pan usually has intricate designs and swirling patterns embossed directly in the mould, creating a more decorative cake. The patterns of some bundt pans can serve as cutting guides for portioning out even slices, and for others, the patterns are well suited for glazes and icings that can drip and pool in places.

The bundt pan is similar to the German and Eastern European Kugelhopf pan (or Gugelhupf pan) for baking sweet yeasted breads and cakes (called Kugelhopf, Gugelhupf, or Bundkuchen).

Interestingly, the word "bundt" is trademarked by Nordic Ware, a Minnesota company. You may see bundt cake pans in stores labelled as "fluted tube pan" or "fluted cake pans" if they are produced by brands other than Nordic Ware.

How to use bundt pans

The elaborate designs and shapes of bundt cake pans make them a little tricky to use. It's important to take the time to prepare the cake pan for baking.

Greasing bundt pans

You have to grease a bundt pan, even if it's non-stick. You would be surprised how easily a cake will get stuck in a pan with intricate patterns as you see in this type of bakeware.

For greasing this type of bakeware, you have options:

• liquid fats, like canola oil, vegetable oil, or another neutral oil work fine, but because this type of fat is liquid at room temperature, the oil may slide down the sides of the pan and pool on the bottom, leading to pools of oil where the cake batter will not be able to spread. This can lead to empty patches and holes on the surface of the bundt cake. You can easily brush liquid fats with a pastry brush and do so just before transferring the batter to the pan, to minimize pooling.
• solid fats, like shortening or softened butter work best because when you spread the solid fat on the inside of the pan, in all the nooks and crannies, the fat stays in place and doesn't move at room temperature until the pan is in the oven. To apply solid fats to a bundt pan, use your fingertips, a piece of parchment, a paper towel, or even a butter wrapper. You can even use a soft pastry brush to do this task. Just make sure you apply it as evenly as possible, in a thin layer, and make sure to smooth it into all the edges and corners of the pan to make sure the surface is completely coated.

I do not recommend using aerosol oil sprays (like Pam) to prepare a bundt pan because the spray can create a sticky residue that gets baked onto the exposed edges. The pan will become very sticky and this can cause problems down the road.

Flouring bundt pans

As an extra precaution, you can also flour a bundt pan after greasing it. Do not take a risk: always prepare a bundt pan by greasing it (and even flouring it) before using.

I do recommend trying a baking spray specifically formulated for cakes. Bakers Joy is a great example. These usual contain both a fat and flour, and they work especially well for bundts, without leaving behind a sticky or gummy residue. Just make sure to hold the can of baking spray at a distance from the pan and to spray the inside evenly. Consult the manufacturers instructions for more information about the optimal distance for spraying the aerosol.

Like with all pans, it's important to take the time to prepare the pan to make sure that every part of the pan has an even coating of grease and flour. I may spend as much as 5 minutes to prep a bundt pan, but this guarantees that I will be successful when it's time to unmould the cake.

Filling it with batter

Filling a bundt pan is tricky because of all the indentations, bumps, and corners. You have to take the time to make sure that the batter reaches and fills every corner, from edge to edge, otherwise, you may end up with empty patches, pockets or holes.

Use a spoon or a small ladle, or even a piping bag with a big opening to ensure that every inch of the pan is properly filled with batter on the bottom before adding more to fill the pan. This is especially important with thick batters.

Some bakers recommend banging the filled pan on the counter to help the cake batter settle into the corners of the pan, but this might not work for thick batters. You may have to use the back of a spoon to push the batter into the corners and edges.

Make sure to only fill the pan until it's two-thirds to three-quarters full with batter. Otherwise the cake will take too long to bake and the edges may brown too much. Extra batter can be baked in muffin tins.

Baking the bundt cake

Bundt cakes tend to be very tall, thick cakes, and they can take as much as 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) to bake properly and completely, usually at either 325 ºF or 350 ºF. Be patient. Make sure to use a cake tester and/or a digital thermometer to check that your cake is done baking.

How to get the cake out of the bundt pan

Once you have checked that the cake is done baking and you are abolutely sure the bundt cake is baked through, place the cake pan on a cooling rack and wait 10 minutes. This gives the crumb time to harden and firms up the whole cake.

After 10 minutes, invert the cake onto the cooling rack and remove the pan. To do so, place the cooling rack on top of the opening of the bundt pan, and flip it over swiftly and without hesitating. Make sure to grip both the cooling rack and the pan firmly with both hands. If the pan is still hot, you will need to use a towel or oven mitts to avoid burning your hands.

The cake should slide right out of the pan and onto the rack, cleanly, without sticking, if it's baked properly and cooled just enough but not too much. If the cake cools too much in the pan, it will stick and break apart if you aren't careful.

What to do if the bundt cake sticks to the pan

If your cake sticks to the bundt pan, flip it back so that the opening is on top (as if to bake the cake in the oven). You will need to evaluate what is happening and why it's sticking. Ask yourself these questions:

• did you prepare the pan properly by greasing it and even flouring it?
  • If your answer is no, you may be out of luck and it might not unmould cleanly without breaking.
  • If your answer is yes, then there's hope!
• is the pan and/or the cake cool to the touch?
  • If your answer is no, it's likely you didn't grease and flour the pan properly.
  • If your answer is yes, it's likely that the pan and the cake cooled down too much, fusing it to the pan. Preheat the oven to 300 ºF and place the cake pan back in the oven to warm the outside. You want to warm the pan enough so that the fat on the edges melts. It could take about 10 minutes. The pan should feel warm, but not burning hot. Once the pan and the edges of the cake are warmed up, you should be able to unmould the bundt cleanly, assuming the pan was properly prepared before baking in it.

I have had a lot of luck rewarming bundt cakes that are stuck to the pan so you should definitely try this trick. If all else fails, make trifle.

Cakes to make using a bundt pan

Bundt cakes are designed to serve a crowd, so if you are hosting a gathering with many people, bundt cakes are ideal because they are simple to make and always impressive to serve. Here are a few bundt cake recipes to try:

• Chocolate chip bundt cake topped with an easy ganache glaze
• Orange cranberry bundt cake topped with a simple orange icing
• Eggnog pound cake with a crystallized sugar and rum glaze
• Apple bundt cake served with salted caramel sauce

You'll notice that most bundt cake recipes are actually 1-2-3-4 cake recipes, made from 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. Knowing the baking ratio makes the recipe easy to remember and once you've mastered it, you can use the ratio as a jumping off point to get creative!

Bundt cake recipes usually call for the creaming mixing method in order to incorporate more air into the batter, along with the chemical leaveners, baking powder and baking soda, to avoid a dense, heavy cake.

Can you make a bundt cake without a bundt pan?

You could technically bake most bundt cake recipes in any pan, but because most full-sized bundt pans have a volume of 10 to 15 cups (2.5 L to 3.75 L), this means you will have to split the batter into multiple pans and baking them could be tricky.

The beauty of the shape of the bundt is that it has a tubular or donut shape with a hole in the middle. The central metal tube helps conduct heat so that tall, dense cakes have a better chance of baking properly.

A tube pan could work for some batters, but you may want to wrap the outside with foil to avoid any dripping or leaking as the cake bakes since many tube pans are made of two pieces.

Remember the name bundt cake refers to the shape more than the type of recipe, so if you bake a bundt cake recipe in a regular cake pan, you are just baking a regular cake!

Other uses for bundt pans

Surprisingly, you don't have to use these pans exclusively for cakes! You can also use bundt pans for moulded gelatin-based recipes, and also for yeasted sweet breads, including monkey bread!

In my family, bundt pans are also used to make Middle Eastern moulded rice dishes with layers of basmati rice, ground meat, and toasted pine nuts. The trick is to press firmly each layer in the pan to create a dense texture that can survive flipping onto a plate, while holding the shape of the pan.

Bundt pan recommendations

I have baked a lot of bundts and I've found results vary depending on the pan. I've found with some older, vintage bundt pans, cakes are prone to sticking to the pan, no matter how careful you are about preparing the pan by greasing and flouring.

I bake exclusively with Nordic Ware bundt pans, which have a light non-stick coating on them for easy and clean unmoulding. These pans are very heavy duty so there's no risk of bending or damaging the shape of the pan, and they conduct heat well for even baking.

Measuring the size of a bundt pan can be tricky. Read this post about how to measure cake the size of a cake pan to find some tips and tricks (including using water to measure the size!).

I only recommend the following bundt pans:

• 10-15 cup bundt pans:
  • the Platinum Collection Anniversary Pan, which has a classic bundt cake shape and is the easiest pan to use. More intricate pans are more difficult to use because it can be hard to get the batter to fill every nook and cranny of the elaborate designs. This pan also features handles on either side to make it easier to get cakes in and out of the oven and also helps with unmoulding.
  • the Elegant party bundt pan (also on Amazon), which has a more intricate pattern than the Anniversary pan, but it's a little finer and different than the classic design.
• 6-cup bundt pans:
  • the smaller 6-cup Platinum Collection Anniversary Pan is the one I use and recommend. It's very sturdy and also has handles, which is helpful with smaller hands which can be harder to work with
• Mini bundt pans (also called bundtlette pans):
  • the easiest to use will again come from the Platinum Anniversary collection, with their mini bundt pans, which make 6 individual bundt cakes. Beginners should avoid pans with intricate, finer designs which are very difficult to use.

I highly recommend that both beginner and experienced bakers invest in at least one classic bundt pan to add to their arsenal of baking pans. Cake recipes baked in this type of pan are easy, feed a lot of people, and impressive!

Need more help with bundt pans?

Most of us aren't born with a natural ability to guess the exact size of any cake pan. If you would like to learn more about converting recipes from one pan type to another, you need the Baking Pan conversions chart.

Pan conversions chart

Use this baking pan size conversion chart to help you swap cake pans in a recipe. Learn how to find out which pans are equivalent and how to convert from one cake pan size to another.

Get the chart

The post How to use a bundt pan appeared first on The Bake School.

Get familiar with the units of measure and their abbreviations

Some recipe writers will spell out the units of measure in their recipe, as inches and centimetres, for example, while others may abbreviate them to in and cm. Here's a rundown of the commonly used abbreviations for the units of measure used for baking pans.

Units of lengths

Europeans follow the metric system, where lengths and distances are expressed according to the metre, whereas North Americans tend to measure distances according to inches and feet:

• inches are abbreviated as in or as "
• centimetres are abbreviated as cm
• millimetres are abbreviated as mm

Conversions from centimetres to inches

You may need to convert from inches to centimetres, or centimetres to inches when you are choosing the appropriate bakeware for a recipe. Europeans use the metric system and measure bakeware in centimetres, while North Americans use inches.

The conversion from centimetres to inches is easy: there are 2.54 centimetres per inch. If you have a measurement in inches, multiply it by 2.54 to get the measurement in centimetres. Or to convert centimetres to inches, divide the centimetres by 2.54 to get the measurement in inches.

You can also use this list of common (rounded) conversions, which will be especially useful for bakeware dimensions:

• 4 in = 10 cm
• 5 in = 13 cm
• 6 in = 15 cm
• 7 in = 18 cm
• 8 in = 20 cm
• 9 in = 23 cm
• 10 in = 25 cm
• 11 in = 28 cm
• 12 in = 31 cm
• 13 in = 33 cm

How to measure the pan size

Method to measure dimensions of cake pans and bakeware

As bakers, you should always have some kind of clear plastic or metal ruler, and even a measuring tape in your toolkit (or kitchen drawers). Both of these should show measurements in centimetres and inches to make converting between metric and imperial pan sizes easier.

In most cases, you should measure the dimensions of a cake pan at the top of the pan (at the opening), from the inner edge to the inner edge, straight across. But some manufacturers may opt to give the dimensions of the bottom of the pan.

Use a ruler or measuring tape to measure the dimensions of your pans.

• For square and rectangular cake pans, the vertical and horizontal lengths are measured from corner to corner, as opposed to a television or computer screen, where the dimensions represent the diagonal across the screen from corner to corner
• For loaf pans, the length, width, and height of the pan are measured from inner edge to inner edge (though some brands measure the outside dimensions of the pan so this is brand dependent).
• For round cake pans, the diameter is measured straight across the top of the pan—note that round pan sizes are expressed as the diameter, and not the radius)
• For bundt pans and tube pans usually, the size is expressed as a volume, but if you want to measure the dimensions, measure the diameter straight across the top opening of the pan. Most bundt pans have 10- to 14-inch diameters

Easy way to calculate the volume of your baking pans

There can be a lot of math involved when you want to calculate the volume of your baking pans. To make matters worse, some of the math is not so obvious when you realize that, for some types of cake pans, the sides of pans aren't vertical, but rather angled, meaning your round cake pan is actually a truncated cone, which comes with a different formula for calculating volume than the volume of a cylinder.

For this reason, I recommend letting go of your calculator and using a different method. You can also invest in this recipe scaling calculator workbook which is a set of spreadsheet that does the math for you, calculating pan volumes among other things.

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Use your kitchen scale

The easiest way for you to determine the volume of your cake pans is to use your kitchen scale! Here's how:

1. Place the empty, clean pan on your kitchen scale
2. Set your kitchen scale unit to grams
3. Tare the scale to zero it
4. Fill the pan with tap water, all the way up to the rim if you can, without spilling
5. Read the weight displayed on the scale: that's the volume of your pan in millilitres!
   1. Remember the density of water is 1 gram per millilitre
   2. If you can fill your pan with 1000 grams of water, then the volume of your pan is 1000 mL or 1 L

Use a liquid measuring cup

Another easy way to determine the volume of your pans is to use a measuring cup to count the number of cups of water you can fit in the pan. The problem with this is you can quickly lose count with larger pans.

Some common baking pan sizes

If you want to convert a recipe from one pan size to another, you need to know the dimensions of the two pans and/or the volumes. To do this easily, you can use this easy-to-use baking pan conversions chart with sizes and volumes for most cake pans and bakeware, as well as conversions and equivalents.

Pan conversions chart

Use this baking pan size conversion chart to help you swap cake pans in a recipe. Learn how to find out which pans are equivalent and how to convert from one cake pan size to another.

Get the chart

Here's a list of the cake pans and bakeware you may need:

• Square pans (like brownie pans)
  • 8x8x2-in pan, also called an 8-inch square pan is 20x20x5 cm (8-cup volume)
  • 9x9x2-in pan, also called a 9-inch square pan is 23x23x5 cm (10 cup volume)
• Round cake pans
  • 6” x 2-in (15 cm x  5 cm) (4 cup volume)
  • 8” x 1.5” (20 cm x 3.8 cm) (4 cup volume) or 8” x 2” (20 cm x 5 cm) (6 cup volume)
  • 9” x 1.5” (23 cm x 3.8 cm) (6 cup volume) or 9” x 2” (23 cm x 5 cm) (8 cup volume)
  • 10” x 2" (25 cm x 5 cm) (10 cup volume)
  • Springform, usually 9” x 3” (23 cm x 7.6 cm) (12 cup volume)
• Rectangular bakeware
  • 9x13x2-in pan is 23x33x5-cm (16 cup volume)
• Sheet pans
  • Full sheet 26" x 18" x 1" (66 x 46 x 2.5 cm
  • Half sheet 13” x 18” x 1” (33 x 46 x 2.5 cm)
  • Quarter sheet 9” x 13” x 1” ( 23 x 46 x 2.5 cm)
• Loaf cake pans
  • a standard loaf cake pan is a 9x5x3-in pan is 23x13x6-cm and is sometimes referred to as a 9x5 pan for short (8 cup volume), but sometimes 8.5” x 4.5 “ x 2.75“ (21 cm x 1 cm x 6 cm) (6 cup volume) are used
• Pie plates
  • a standard pie plate has a 9-in diameter or 23 cm
• Bundt pans and tube pans
  • Typical bundt pans are 10” x 3.5” (25 cm x 9 cm) if not larger (minimum 12 cup volume)
  • Typical tube pans are either 9” x 3” (23 cm x 7.6 cm) or even 10” x 4” (25 cm x 10 cm) (12–16 cup volume usually)

For a complete list of pan sizes of most bakeware in inches, centimetres, cups, and litres, and for help on how to convert recipes from one pan size to another, buy this pan conversions chart!

Converting a recipe from one pan size to another

Once you know the volume of the pan used in your baking recipe, you can then make substitutions:

1. use an equivalent pan of equal volume and make no changes to your recipe, but remember that you will have to adjust baking times because taller, narrower cakes will take longer to bake than shorter, wider cakes.
2. use a larger volume pan and scale up your recipe: calculate the ratio of volumes (larger pan divided by recommended pan volume) and use that factor to scale up the quantities in the recipe. The factor will be greater than one because you are scaling up your recipe. All you have to do is multiply all the ingredient quantities by that factor (the ratio).
3. use a smaller volume pan and scale down your recipe: calculate the ratio of volumes (larger pan divided by recommended pan volume) and use that number to scale up the quantities in the recipe. The factor will be less than one because you are scaling down the recipe. All you have to do is multiply all the ingredient quantities by that factor.

Frequently asked questions

The post How to measure cake pan sizes appeared first on The Bake School.

Sugar is an essential building block for life. It's a source of energy for most living organisms through glycolysis of glucose and it's a way of storing energy through gluconeogenesis, from glucose to glycogen. Sugar is even a building block for DNA nucleotides and RNA ribonucleotides. Basic biology aside, sugar is also essential in baking and sugar does more than just make your baked goods taste sweet. Here's everything you need to know about sugar in baking.

What sugar is

When we talk about sugar in baking, usually we are referring to sucrose. Other sugars you may hear about and use in baking include glucose, fructose, maltose, and lactose, among many others.

All sugars are carbohydrates, also called saccharides, and they can be simple or complex. Simple carbohydrates include monosaccharides and disaccharides or simple chains of sugars bound together.

Here's a rundown of the simple sugars you will often hear about and/or use in baking:

• Glucose, a monosaccharide with the formula C₆H₁₂O₆
• Fructose, a monosaccharide with the formula C₆H₁₂O₆
• Sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose bound together—this is what we commonly refer to as "sugar" when we bake, usually in the form of granulated white sugar
• Maltose, a disaccharide of two glucose molecules bound together—this is the sugar in corn syrup, along with glucose
• Lactose, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose bound together—this is the sugar in milk and dairy products that many people have trouble digesting because they lack the lactase enzyme.

Sucrose, maltose, and lactose are all examples of small oligosaccharides (made up of two sugars). Oligosaccharides can have anywhere from 2 to 10 sugars bound together in a simple chain.

Complex carbohydrates are longer chains of sugars that have a more branched or intricate structure. Complex carbohydrates fall under the polysaccharide category and are much larger than oligosaccharides. Starches are a great example of complex carbohydrates because they are longer, more complex chains of glucose molecules bound together.

Types of sugar to bake with

We can divide the sugars we bake with in two big categories: crystallized sugars and the sugars that are in the forms of syrups.

Crystalline sugars

Most sugars crystallize when they are refined and purified. Some sugars are pure sucrose, while others may contain molasses, starches, or other ingredients. The colour differs depending on how pure they are, as does the size of the crystal (which also varies depending on the process).

White sugar

White sugar is made up of sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose bound together. You can rank white sugars according to their grain size or particle size, from largest crystals to smallest crystals as follows: coarse sugar > granulated sugar > superfine sugar > powdered sugar > fondant sugar.

• Pearl sugar resembles rocks of white sugar. It's so coarse and big that it doesn't melt readily when heated, nor does it dissolve as easily as other sugars. Pearl sugar is used to sprinkle on baked goods before baking, especially chouquettes (made of pâte à choux) and brioche buns (like this chocolate cranberry bread)
• Coarse sugar is finer than pearl sugar, but the crystals are still quite large. 700 to 1400 µM
• Sanding sugar is used as a finishing sugar, like sprinkles.
• Granulated sugar 450 to 650 µM
• Superfine sugar is especially useful for making meringues and pavlova because the finer crystals dissolve more readily in the egg whites, leading to a better texture of meringue with more lift. Superfine may also be labelled as ultrafine sugar. 150 to 450 µM,
• Caster's sugar (same as superfine sugar)
• Powdered sugar (also called icing sugar or confectioner's sugar) is sold in two forms, 6X and 10X, where 6X is more coarse than 10X. Both are much finer and more powdery than caster, superfine, and granulated sugar. Powdered sugar is mixed with up to 3 % cornstarch or tapioca starch before packaging. The starch absorbs moisture and reduces clumping. 10 to 40 µM
• Fondant sugar is an even finer form of powdered sugar and has the finest grain on the list of sugars. Fondant sugar doesn't usually have a starch added to avoid the starchy mouthfeel powdered sugar may give. It's often used for glazes and therefore may have maltodextrin to improve shine in donut glazes or 3–10 % invert sugar added to help glaze adhere without running off (like on donuts).

On this list, anything more coarse than powdered sugar will have a grittier texture. That texture may reveal itself in your baked goods. Think of shortbread made with icing sugar versus granulated sugar: using granulated sugar leads to a more gritty texture.

The coarsest sugars are not usually incorporated into baked goods. Instead, they are used as a garnish or finishing element. They are sprinkled on just before baking on the surface of doughs, usually. So pearl sugar, turbinado sugar, and sanding sugars are a garnish, as a rule.

Note that jam sugar would fall under this category of white sugars, but jam sugar is made of superfine sugar plus pectin. You use this type of sugar to ensure jams made with low-pectin fruit will achieve the perfect set. Of course, if you boil jams for long enough and to a high enough temperature, you will hit the jam setting point regardless of the pectin content of the fruit. For this reason, I feel like using jam sugar isn't critical or necessary.

Brown sugar

There's a very common misconception about brown sugar: many bakers think it is less refined than white sugar because of its golden-brown hues. That's false. Most brown sugars are white sugar mixed with a little molasses, to add back some of the colour and flavour lost during processing. This is an easier way for manufacturers to create a consistent product from one batch to another. The exception is muscovado, as you can see on this list of brown sugars:

• Yellow, golden or light brown sugar are lighter and more golden in colour, as the names suggest, and have a milder flavour.
• Dark brown sugar has more molasses added to it and therefore a more pronounced flavour. It works really well in these chocolate chip cookies with pecans, lending them a more complex flavour than white sugar alone can
• Muscovado sugar is less refined than dark brown sugars. For this reason, you may notice it has a more noticeable flavour, perhaps a little more earthy.
• Coconut sugar is made from the sap of flower buds of coconut palm trees. It is very dark in colour and has a very pronounced flavour that can be overpowering. Like maple syrup, the sap is boiled down to concentrate it. The concentrated syrup is then crystallized.

You can replace any of the brown sugars in this category for another in the same category, gram for gram, and cup for cup. But remember that some of these are much more flavourful than others, so make sure the substitution you are making is appropriate for the result you want in terms of colour and flavour.

Raw sugar

Marketers will claim raw sugar is less refined. It is still refined up to a point in order for it to crystallize and taste good. These sugars generally haven't been decolourized:

• Turbinado sugar: a coarse golden crystalline sugar with large crystals
• Demerara Sugar: popular in the UK and similar to turbinado
• Golden cane sugar (also called evaporated cane juice or natural cane sugar): similar to granulated sugar but slightly less refined.

Turbinado and demerara sugars fall under the category of finishing sugars. You use them to garnish baked goods, like the top crust of a pie before baking, or the outer edge of a log of slice-and-bake cookie dough.

This type of granular, coarse sugar doesn't melt as easily as regular granulated sugar and therefore imparts more texture if you use it in doughs or cakes. For this reason, it isn't recommended in most recipes, except as a textural and visual garnish.

You can use golden cane sugar instead of granulated sugar, replacing one for the other, gram for gram.

Syrups and liquid sugars

Liquid sugars have water in them, which is why they aren't crystalline. Over time, many of these may and will crystallize, creating a gritty texture. Crystallization is most common in honey and maple syrup, though you may observe it in glucose too, which becomes more solid with time.

• Honey—bees produce honey, which beekeepers harvest. The bees eat flower nectar, digesting the sucrose in it, "inverting it" with their saliva to the building blocks, glucose and fructose. Honey is more acidic than other sugars, with a pH around 3.5, minimum.
• Maple syrup is sucrose syrup that comes from the sap of the maple tree during late winter and early spring months. Maple producers collect the fluid, watery sap of maple trees and boil it down to form a syrup. Producers grade maple syrup and label it according to how concentrated the product is and the colour ranges from very light to amber and even dark (almost black).
• Corn syrup (light or dark), also called glucose corn syrup is mostly glucose and maltose. It's made from the hydrolysis of starches (complex carbohydrates of glucose molecules). The flavour of light and dark corn syrup is different and therefore used in different circumstances.
  • Light corn syrup is flavoured with vanillin
  • Dark syrup has a very small amount of molasses.
• Glucose syrup is a colourless syrup that is very viscous and therefore hard to handle. Professional pastry chefs will wet a spoon with water to help remove glucose from a big tub, without having it pull and form strings that stick everywhere. Glucose is clear and colourless but will darken with time. The colour doesn't affect it. Glucose syrup will also become thicker and even dry out or crystallize if stored for a long time. Glucose syrup comes from starch: starch molecules are long chains of glucose molecules bound together and hydrolyzing starch breaks down the chain into the monosaccharide building block that is glucose.
• Molasses is a produced in the early stages of sugar cane refinement. It is a dark (practically black), thick, sweet, slightly bitter syrup, mostly made of sucrose. It's made by concentrating sugarcane juice
• Treacle is a syrup made during the sugar cane refinement process.
  • Black treacle is another type of molasses.
  • Golden syrup is also called light treacle and it is a cane syrup, but much lighter in colour than black treacle and molasses (as the name suggests). Golden syrup has a milder, very light taste. It's also known as pancake syrup.

Fun fact: invert sugars are sweeter than the sugars they come from. For example honey (an invert sugar syrup made of glucose and fructose) is sweeter than sucrose. If you think about it a little, it makes sense because the bees turn one sucrose molecule into two sugars, so logically you would expect the product with two monosaccharides to be sweeter than the nectar with a single disaccharide.

The many roles of sugar in baking

Sugar plays many roles in baking and some of them are hard to replace if you want to make a subsititution or eliminate sugar from your recipes:

• Adds flavour and sweetness
• Tenderizes
• Retains moisture
• Improves shelf-life
• Contributes colour
• Helps aerate

Flavour

Sugar can impart a flavour to baked goods because:

• the sugar itself is flavourful: for example maple syrup, honey, and coconut sugar have very distinct flavours and these will come through when you bake with them instead of granulated sugar
• the sugar caramelizes when heated, developing flavourful compounds so even white sugar can contribute a flavour if it's heated for long enough.

Think of adding sugar, not only to impart sweetness, but also to contribute flavour. Use different types of sugar in your recipes to give a more complex flavour to baked goods.

Texture

Sugar disrupts gluten formation when they dissolve. Adding sugar to baked goods means that the proteins that make up gluten are less likely to assemble and will not assemble so easily. This means your baked goods will be more tender than without.

Sugar also disrupts protein coagulation and starch gelatinization, increasing the temperature at which these structure-building activities happen. This delay leads to a more tender product.

Of course, if you add too much sugar to a recipe, it may disrupt the structure so much that your cake collapses or can cause a more crumbly texture.

On the other hand, sugar can also lend a crunchy or crispy texture in recipes like cookies. Rolling cookies in sugar can draw out moisture on the surface of the cookie. This dries them out, leading to cracks and a crunchier texture. Examples of this include these sugar cookies with sprinkles, ginger cookies with crystallized ginger, chocolate sugar cookies, and chocolate crackle cookies.

You may also sprinkle the surface of baked goods with turbinado or coarse raw sugar before baking. This contributes a lovely sweet crunch texture to the surface of scones and biscuits, to the edges of slice-and-bake cookies that were rolled in sugar before slicing, and to the top crust of pies.

Moisture

Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from its surroundings. More sugar in a cake recipe contributes to a more moist texture and mouthfeel. By trapping water, sugar actually slows the drying out process of baked goods.

The hygroscopic nature of sugar means that it dissolves, turning into a syrup and so it contributes to cookies spreading when baked.

Shelf-life

Sugar improves the stability and shelf-life of baked goods. Remember that sugar is hygroscopic, meaning that it absorbs moisture from its surroundings. Sugar slows drying out in baked goods, giving you more time to enjoy them before they become stale and dry.

For this reason, recipes with reduced sugar often have to compensate with more moisture and/or more fat to improve perceived moistness and mouthfeel, but also to prevent baked goods from drying out too quickly.

Colour and caramelization

There are two ways that sugar contributes colour in baking: caramelization and Maillard browning. With caramelization, you have to heat sugar above 150 °C (300 °F) to colour and caramelize it. On the other hand, Maillard browning occurs much more readily, even at room temperature, especially in the presence of proteins and at high pH.

Tip: if you want to improve browning in baked goods that don't take long to bake, like cookies, try adding a little baking soda! You'll notice with my chocolate chip cookie recipe, I add 2.5 mL (½ teaspoon) of baking soda for 195 grams (1-½ cups) of flour. This not only has an impact on the spread but also the browning of the cookie.

Aeration

Recall that with the creaming mixing method often used for cakes and cookies, the first step involves beating together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This takes several minutes. This is a mechanical way for bakers to incorporate air in baked goods and is one of the reasons that this step is considered a method of leavening that people often skip over.

Actually if you don't spend enough time on this step, your baked goods may end up dense.

The same goes with meringue and egg-white based desserts. Dissolved sugar stabilizes whipped egg whites so that they can hold their shape and hold air.

Other roles of sugar

Sugar plays a role even in recipes that aren't baked:

• In ice cream, sugar traps water, reducing ice crystal formation, leading to a smoother mouthfeel and a softer texture
• In homemade preserves, sugar
  • is essential to achieving the perfect set when making homemade jams. In fact, if you reduce the sugar in a jam recipe, you may never get the jam to set.
  • traps water thereby increasing shelf-life and preventing the growth of microorganism. Again, this is because sugar is hygroscopic and so traps water. Water is essential for microorganisms to grow, so high quantities of sugar will delay the growth of mold and bacteria.

Substitutions with sugar

Use the weight not the volume

Because the size of the particles and crystals varies so greatly from fondant sugar to coarse sugar, replacing one sugar for another is tricky. You will need to consider weight, not volume, to make substitutions without having an impact on flavour.

Consult the baking ingredients conversion chart to see for yourself: 1 cup of powdered sugar weighs 125 grams, whereas 1 cup of granulated sugar weighs 200 grams. That's a big difference. It becomes even greater as you scale up a recipe or work on larger batch sizes. If you want to substitute one type of sugar for another, use the weight as your guide. Replace them gram for gram.

Consider the texture

You need to understand the role and impact of each type of sugar in order to replace one with another. You also need to have a clear goal in mind in order to make smart substitution decisions.

Granulated sugar will give cookies a more crispy edge. Brown sugar will lead to a softer or more chewy texture. Brown sugar may reduce the spread of cookies ever so slightly. Superfine sugar will increase the spread because it dissolves into a syrup faster.

Pearl and coarse sugars like turbinado don't dissolve readily and resist melting even at high temperatures. It would be a terrible idea to replace granulated sugar with a coarse sugar. This would make your baked goods very gritty and add a crunchy texture from undissolved sugar.

Consider the flavour difference

You also need to consider taste when swapping one sugar for another: granulated sugar is a white sugar that has no flavour except for sweetness. Muscovado sugar adds a lot of earthiness to a recipe through it's molasses and mineral content. You may want to replace a portion of white sugar with muscovado or brown sugar, instead of all of it.

Replacing granulated sugar with maple syrup or honey in baking

1. maple syrup and honey are both liquid. You may have to reduce the quantity of other liquids in your recipe when replacing sugar with either of these. Or if there aren't any liquids in the recipe, increase the flour: add an extra 1 tablespoon of flour for every 60 mL (¼ cup) of maple syrup or molasses added)
2. maple syrup is mostly sucrose, just like granulated sugar, so it's as sweet. This means you can substitute one for the other, cup for cup.
3. honey is sweeter than regular granulated sugar so you may need to make adjustments from the extra sweetness honey brings.

Replacing granulated sugar

Replace 200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar (or cane sugar) with either of the following:

• 200 grams (1 cup) of caster sugar (also known as super fine sugar or special fine sugar)
• 200 grams (1 cup) of brown sugar (light or dark doesn't make a difference but these will impart some caramel colour to baked goods, as well as some extra flavour)
• 190 mL (¾ cup) of honey
• 250 mL (1 cup) of maple syrup

Remember that you may have to adjust liquid quantities in your recipes if baking with sugar syrups.

⁉️ Sugar FAQs

Storage

If stored properly, the shelf-life of sugar is forever, meaning it won't spoil or go bad.

For syrups with water, storage varies:

• maple syrup must be stored in the refrigerator to slow the growth of mold and yeast cells
• glucose syrup shouldn't be refrigerated because it may crystallize. You may notice corn syrup or glucose will start to turn golden with age, but this has no impact on its properties. If this happens, you may not want to use it in a recipe where it could impart an undesired colour though.
• honey doesn't have to be refrigerated because of its acidity combined with a high concentration of sugar, it's not going to mold. You may notice it crystallize over time, but the sugar can be redissolved with gentle heating.

Recipes made with different types of sugar

Recipes made with molasses

• molasses cookies
• ginger molasses cookies
• ginger cookies with white chocolate
• gingerbread cutout cookies

Recipes made with dark brown sugar

Dark brown sugar contributes to a chewy texture in cookies and a richer flavour. Here are some baking recipes that feature dark brown sugar:

• spelt chocolate chip cookies
• chewy chocolate sugar cookies
• chocolate chip cookies with pecans

Recipes made with maple syrup

If you are interested in baking more with maple syrup, try these maple recipes:

• maple butter
• maple cream cookies (with a maple butter filling)
• thick and chewy maple cookies
• maple syrup pie
• maple pumpkin bread

Recipes made with honey

Honey gives baked goods a distinct flavour. If you'd like to bake more with honey, try these recipes:

• honey sugar cookies
• grapefruit pâte de fruit
• honey apricot jam
• strawberry rhubarb crumbles
• honey blueberry muffins

Recipes made with icing sugar

Icing sugar is essential in many frostings and glazes, but also used for decor in pastry. Here are some recipes that feature icing sugar:

• jam-filled shortbread cookies
• royal icing for decorating cutout cookies
• alfajores filled with dulce de leche
• thick cream cheese frosting

Recipes made with treacle

Treacle is darker and has a more pronounced flavour than molasses nad honey. Here are some recipes baked with treacle:

• Soft gingerbread cookies

📚 Further reading

If you would like to learn more about ways of baking with less sugar, I highly recommend the book Baking with Less Sugar by Joanne Chang. I really enjoy her book and I published a review of Joanne Chang's book a few years ago, so you can read my thoughts on it.

For more information about how to replace one sugar with another and all the things you need to consider, read my guide to baking substitutions.

If you are interested in diving deep into sugar and the science of baking, please read How Baking Works by Paula Figoni, a book that I have included in my list of best baking science books and references.

If you want to learn more about baking, I highly recommend you explore the baking 101 page and especially the series on baking ingredients! Within you will find a deep dive on the ingredients you need to bake.

The post Sugar in baking appeared first on The Bake School.

I have taken a lot of baking classes, on and offline, and also read a lot of baking science books. Here's a list of classes and resources I recommend if you want to learn more and go more in-depth on some of the topics we have covered, or if the topics interest you!

Disclosure: Please note that this post contains affiliate links.

Online baking classes

• Masterclass: Get a MaterClass membership and you will have access to baking and pastry arts courses taught by:
  • Dominique Ansel Teaches French Pastry Fundamentals: world-renowned pastry chef Dominique Ansel teaches pastry fundamentals, from how to bake a classic tart to croissant-making from scratch
  • Joanne Chang: Bake Like a Pro: cookbook author and pastry chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery in Boston teaches baking basics and baking science in this class so that you can get creative
  • Apollonia Poilâne Teaches Bread Baking: Apollonia Poil¨âne is a 3rd generation bread baker and the owner of the famous Poilâne bakeries in Europe. She is sharing the bread-baking secrets that have helped her master the trade.
• Skillshare: Get a membership with Skillshare and you'll be able to take so many baking classes:
  • For macarons, take a class with Marie Asselin of the blog Food Nouveau! She also teaches an excellent class on gelato-making.
• Chocolate Academy: Sign up for a membership with Cacao Barry's Chocolate Academy to learn about pastry and chocolate-making from professionals around the world. This is really a great deal considering how much content you will have access to! You can also take in-person classes if you are in Montreal (or Chicago). I took a three-day class dedicated to macarons and another three-day class on chocolate for beginners. Both were fantastic! I learned so much and went home with a lot more knowledge and several boxes of treats!
• Studio.com (formerly called Monthly): Sign up for the Christina Tosi baking class with Studio, covering cookies, pies, and cakes. I took this course in 2021 and it was informative, easy to follow, but also challenging.
• Demi classes—learn how to make marmalade and candied fruit through classes with pastry professional Camilla Wynne. I am a huge fan of Camilla and her books (Preservation Society and Jam Bakes). I've taken her in-person marmalade class, so you will undoubtedly learn a ton from her online classes!
• Virtual baking classes with Molly J. Wilk—Molly J. Wilk's pastry classes are very affordable. Each class covers a specific theme or type of pastry, like Opéra cake, Saint-Honoré, éclairs, etc. The prices vary but are very affordable!

Online science of cooking and science of baking courses

• Harvard edx Science and Cooking course with Michael Brenner, Pia Sorensen, and David Weitz (AWIN)
• The University of Hong Kong Coursera Science of gastronomy

If online classes aren't your thing, you can also invest in these baking science books. Or listen to these baking podcasts.

Food photography courses

If your interest is more food photography, you have a few options:

• ACE Camps, for in-person food photography classes in various locations around the world. I have taken two ACE Camps, one with Hélène Dujardin and one with Aran Goyoaga. Both classes were excellent and really helped me become a better photographer.
• The Bite Shot offers a ton of free info and also paid food photography classes. These classes come highly recommended by many food bloggers.
• Foodtography by Sarah Crawford of Broma Bakery is another online class that you may want to check out

Regardless of how much baking experience you have, never stop learning! There's always room to grow and improve. A little extra practice doesn't hurt, especially under the guidance of professionals, who love to share their passion and knowledge with us. Take a baking class online! You won't regret it!

The post Online baking classes and resources appeared first on The Bake School.

Tart pan versus pie plate

Tart pans are not the same as pie plates. Pie plates are shallow and have an angled edge (for easy serving so that you can easily slide a pie lifter under slices), and pie plates often have a wider rim. On the other hand, tart pans have a straight, vertical edge to them and often don't have any kind of rim at all. In fact, the sharp edge of the tart pan is used to trim the dough to fit the mould exactly.

Most tart pans have a crinkled or fluted edge, but some may have a straight edge. Some tart pans come as one piece, and others have two pieces. Most tart pans are shallow, although quiche pans are deep tart pans, allowing for more filling.

Which tart pan you use is entirely dependent on what you are baking. If you are going to be pouring a fluid batter into your tart pan, this is when you would want to reach for a one-piece tart pan to avoid leaks. On the other hand, if you are baking a tart with a crust that you would like to remove from the pan to serve, this is when you need a tart pan with removable bottom.

Why do they have a removable bottom?

A tart pan with a removable bottom is a two-piece tart pan where the ring and base are separate. This means that you can slide the tart ring off of your baked tart to unmold the tart, and then you can slide the tart off the flat metal disk base onto a serving plate.

One of the key differences between a pie and a tart is that a pie is served from the pan it's baked in whereas a tart is unmoulded from the pan and placed onto a serving plate.

Some tart pans are perforated, like pie plates, to allow steam and air to escape, so that the crust dries out better, resulting in a better, crispier texture.

How to use them

Do you have to grease them?

Usually, you don't have to grease tart pans, and many tart pans come with a non-stick finish which ensures easy unmolding of tarts. Even if a tart pan isn't non-stick, I still don't grease it. That being said, if you have a feeling that your tart may stick to the pan or you are concerned, greasing and flouring the tart pan will help ensure that your tart will come out of the pan after baking. It's really up to you and make sure to follow the recommendations written in your recipe.

Personally, with most of my tart crust recipes, I don't grease the pans (like the sweet sugar cookie dough for these Earl grey panna cotta tarts and the matcha sugar cookie dough for these matcha tarts). They don't stick!

How to fit the dough into a tart pan

In order to line the tart pan with your dough you have two options:

1. For fragile, shortbread cookie crusts, for graham cracker crumb crusts, and for Oreo cookie crumb crusts: you may pile the crumbly mixture into the pan and press it into the bottom and up the sides of the pan to form an even layer of dough. This is the easiest way to line the pan with your dough, but make sure that you press the cookie dough crumbs firmly into the pan to form a solid base and sturdy edge. You can use your fingers for this step and a flat-bottomed glass will help make the bottom of the crust flatter and even throughout.
2. For sturdier doughs: you can chill the dough for an hour after it's made, then roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough so that the disk of dough is about 2 inches larger than your tart pan. You might need it to be even larger if your tart pan is deep. Once rolled out, fold the dough in half, gently and loosely then slide the dough onto your tart pan. Unfold the dough and gently work the disk of dough into the nooks and edges of the pan. It's very important that you get the dough nestled into the corners of the pan to avoid shrinkage during baking!
3. For fragile doughs that break when they warm up: after chilling the disk of dough, slice it into thin, even strips. Line the pan with those strips, reserving a little of the dough to patch any holes. Press the pieces together to give it a smooth finish without any gaps.

Tip: NEVER grab the tart pan from underneath because the removable bottom will lift up and break your dough. In fact, I always recommend placing the tart pan on a cookie sheet to make it easy to move the tart from the counter to the fridge or the oven. This way you avoid any potential accidents.

How to remove the tart from the pan?

I learned this technique when I was studying at Le Cordon Bleu. Our practical sessions were usually about 2.5 hours (not including cleanup time), which meant that in 2.5 hours, when a tart was on the menu for the day, we'd have to make it all, from start to finish, all while seeming "in control" and working "cleanly and neatly". Hah.

Obviously, in 2.5 hours, we tended towards insanity, especially at the very beginning of the session when we were mostly lost and confused. It also meant that at the end of class, we were all rushing to un-mould our semi-cooled (read practically straight-from-the-oven) tarts to get them on boards and serve them to the instructor for grading.

The final minutes were madness. We sweated and we fretted, and we ran around like headless chickens. There was the need to get the tart on the plate as fast as possible and the fear of destroying the not-completely-cooled tart which was in a most fragile state of oven-hot.

Here are the steps to take to get your tart out of the pan:

1. Find a sturdy, free-standing object that is slightly smaller than the hole at the bottom of the pan (good to plan ahead and find the right size beforehand!). This could be a small inverted metal mixing bowl for full-sized tarts, or for mini tarts, a small drinking glass or even a large shot glass.
2. Place the tart on the object, and carefully slide the ring off the tart and down the stand. Then all you have to do is take down the tart and slide the tart off the bottom round and onto a plate (or serve it on the metal round if you are nervous).

This works for full-sized tarts, like this raspberry chocolate tart, this Earl Grey chocolate tart, rhubarb chocolate tart, or this plum tart. This technique to remove tarts from tart pans is especially useful for getting mini tarts out of the pan, like these Earl Grey panna cotta tarts, matcha tarts, and even pumpkin tarts. This also works for removing tarts with a fragile crust from tart pans, like gluten-free tart crusts. Just take the time to choose the bowl or cup that you will be standing your tart on.

A few extra suggestions for getting a tart out of a pan

1. Use a tart pan with a removable bottom! The best tart pan I've worked with is from Wilton, which you can buy on Amazon! The Wilton pans are sturdy and come as a set of 3 tart pans with removable bottoms at 3 different standard sizes (8", 9", and 10"), which means you are covered for most tart recipes. They are heavy-duty and have a non-stick finish, which is a little extra insurance if you are worried about the tart sticking to the pan. They are worth every extra penny.  Trust me. Invest in them.
2. You may want to butter and flour the pan depending on the dough you are working with. If you aren't sure, just do this in case.
3. Let the tart cool as long and as much as you can. Let it cool completely if you can. If your tart shell is warm, it is more fragile, which means there's more risk that it breaks when you unmold it.

And, if all else fails, even a broken tart tastes delicious. I've baked a lot of tarts, and I've broken and cracked a lot of tart edges. You will survive. Just eat the tart and hide the evidence.

Can you make a tart without a tart pan?

1. The best replacement for a tart pan is a tart ring: the tart ring is what pastry professionals will use. It's a simple ring with no bottom, which means zero stress because all you have to do is remove the ring. Pastry chefs will set the ring on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then roll out the dough and fit it to the ring set on the baking sheet. The tart is baked as is and then cooled in the pan. Once cooled, the ring can be lifted off easily and you know the tart crust will not be stuck to the baking sheet because it's set on a layer of parchment. Very smart!
2. Pie plates can work, but not ideal: You can absolutely make a tart without a tart pan, for example, in a pie plate or whatever pan you have with 1-inch sides (or higher), but you won't be able to unmold it to serve it on a plate. You will probably have to serve the tart in the pan it was baked in. Nothing wrong with that. Note that pans with vertical, straight edges may be difficult to serve from because of the angle of the sides.
3. For a deep-dish tart, try a springform pan, like for this deep-dish quiche with Swiss chard
4. Apple tarte tatin is made in a large skillet and flipped out of the pan to serve (as you would flip an upside-down cake)

What else can you bake in them?

I actually use tart pans more for other recipes than for tarts, go figure. Tart pans are great for making shortbread cookies. For example, these lavender shortbread cookies were baked in a tart pan, giving them a pretty scalloped edge with zero effort on your part!

Tart pan suggestions

Here are the pans that I've tested and use to bake tarts:

1. For full-sized tarts, I use the Wilton 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, which you can buy on Amazon. This pan has a dark non-stick finish, which makes for clean unmoulding and golden brown crusts.
2. For individual tarts, I use 4-inch tart pans with removable bottoms, which you can buy on Amazon.
3. For deep-dish tarts, I use this 8-inch springform pan from Wilton, which you can get on Amazon.

The post How to use a tart pan & remove a tart from a tart pan appeared first on The Bake School.

Who doesn't love to decorate baked goods with sprinkles? Sprinkles are the easiest way for a baker to make a dessert look cute or finished without having to put much effort into it. Sprinkles can hide a lot of "defects" too. Find out all about the different types of sprinkles, what to use them for, and even how to make them!

Types of sprinkles

There are 6 basic types of sprinkles that you can buy:

1. Jimmies, also called sugar strands because they look like broken pieces of spaghettini. They come in all colours
2. Nonpareils, also called 100s or 1000s, tiny round, and colourful, roughly the size of seed beads
3. Quins, also called shaped sprinkles or confetti, are matte, colourful, and flat, like sequins (thus the name), but they come in a variety of shapes (stars, hearts, snowflakes, etc.)
4. Dragées or sugar pearls also called edible pearls, very hard, smooth, round pearls with a very hard texture (they can be very difficult to bite through) and they are larger than nonpareils
5. Sanding sugar, is fine, sparkly, and basically looks like colourful fine sugar crystals
6. Sugar crystals are slightly larger than sanding sugar, with a pearly, opaque colour.

What's in them

As you can probably guess, sprinkles are mostly made of sugar. Sugar is the primary ingredient on sprinkle labels and so it is listed first. Other ingredients in commercial sprinkles include wax, food dyes, oil (vegetable and/or palm), cornstarch, flavours (natural and/or artificial).

The wax is a coating on some sprinkles which makes them shine and can also stops them from absorbing moisture and prevents (or slows) colour leeching and bleeding into batters. If you've ever seen a sprinkle cake where the sprinkles are more like splotches of colour throughout the cake, it's likely that the sprinkles were unwaxed or the batter was just very wet. The wax could also prevent (or slow) clumping.

Imitation versus real chocolate sprinkles

With chocolate sprinkles, beware of imitation chocolate sprinkles that contain no chocolate nor any cocoa products whatsoever. These are often sugar sprinkles dyed brown. Again, there's nothing wrong with artificial colour and flavour, but artificial chocolate sprinkles taste nothing like chocolate, and worse: they tend to melt into a pink puddle.

I now buy Dutch chocolate sprinkles, which is the main ingredient in fairy toast (buttered toast sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles). The Dutch chocolate sprinkles are made with real cocoa powder so they taste better. Honestly though, I would pick chocolate shavings over chocolate sprinkles if I had a choice...

Where to buy them

If you want to buy sprinkles, they usually have the basics at grocery stores, and some stores will carry a variety of seasonal Wilton sprinkles and sprinkle mixes. Try your local craft shop, which might have a baking section. Michael's stores carry a few fun mixes of Wilton sprinkles, for example. Here are some brands to seek out when you are shopping for classic sprinkles:

• Wilton sells a variety of sprinkles and also offers seasonal mixes for the holidays
• Watkins brand has "naturally dyed" sprinkles and colourful sugars (not that there is anything wrong with artificial dyes!)—note that the colours are muted, so they may be almost invisible if mixed into certain cake batters and cookie doughs
• Nuts.com sells a variety of sprinkles and sanding sugars and you can order large quantities (I also buy cake flour and certain nuts from them too!)

If you want the option of buying a greater variety of sprinkles that go beyond the basics, try these sources. They offer sprinkles in every size, shape, and colour:

• Sweetapolita
• Fancy Sprinkles

How to use them

Sprinkles are used as decor on cakes and cookies, but they can also be added into doughs and batters, providing pops of colour. These sugar cookies with sprinkles are made with rainbow jimmies, which are mixed into the cookie dough, but you can also garnish the dough with more sprinkles before baking.

You can use rainbow jimmies or nonpareils to make:

• sprinkle or funfetti cakes and the infamous Milk Bar birthday cake
• birthday cake truffles (with the cake and crumb scraps from the birthday cake)
• stamped chocolate cookies dipped in white chocolate and nonpareils
• homemade pop-tarts, iced and sprinkled with jimmies or nonpareils

Use sanding sugar to decorate:

• cut out sugar cookies, which are brushed with maple syrup and topped with lots of sparkly sanding sugar
• matcha gingerbread cookies, dipped in white chocolate and green sanding sugar
• spritz cookies, sprinkled before baking with sanding sugar
• chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting, finished with pink sanding sugar

Use chocolate sprinkles to garnish:

• chocolate chip mug cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
• chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, on the edges and the top

How to make homemade sprinkles

At home, you can make sprinkles simply by mixing the sugar with water and meringue powder (or even egg whites), like for royal icing. You can colour the thick icing with food dyes and pipe it into lines. The lines are then dried out and broken up to make rainbow jimmies.

Full disclosure: Yes, you can make homemade sprinkles and it's not difficult, but I don't recommend making sprinkles at home. I find the job a little tedious, it's a lot of work, and not very rewarding.

The resulting homemade sprinkles aren't as striking as commercial or store-bought sprinkles. Plus you can buy fancy sprinkles at a relatively affordable price.

With homemade sprinkles, the colours may not be as vibrant as commercial sprinkles, unless you add a lot of gel food colour. Otherwise, they turn out pastel. Furthermore, some colours are harder to achieve than others. Deep yellows work well, but pinks tend to all look the same when the sprinkles dry.

I'd rather buy them then make them but if you feel like experimenting with homemade sprinkles, try this recipe to make them. You may want to experiment with different amounts of water to achieve a piping consistency that is thick enough to hold its shape but thin enough that you don't break your hand trying to squeeze the mixture through a piping bag with a fine tip.

📖 Recipe

Print

Sprinkles

Learn how to make sprinkles, specifically rainbow jimmies, though you could also try to pipe different shapes and sizes to make other types of sprinkles.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Rest time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 2 cups

Calories 32kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Piping bags
• Fine piping tip

Ingredients

• 250 grams icing sugar
• 30 mL warm water
• 22.5 mL meringue Powder
• gel food colour

Metric - US

Instructions

• Line a couple of sheet pans with parchment paper and set aside. Prepare piping bags with fine round tips. If you are making multiple colours of sprinkles, you will need a few bags and tips to avoid having to clean in between each colour.
• Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat all ingredients until stiff peaks form (about 10 minutes).
• Let icing sit for a few minutes to let air bubble rise. If you are in a hurry, sometimes, running a spatula through the mixture can help push out air bubbles.
• Divide the icing into separate small bowls and add gel food colours until you achieve the desired colours.
• Fill each piping bag with a different colour and twist shut. Pipe colours in thin lines on the parchment lined sheet pans.
• Let the lines of icing dry completely, then break up into smaller pieces. Store in closed airtight containers.

Notes

If you only have one piping bag and one tip, cover the bowls of remaining icing with a damp paper towel to prevent drying.

Nutrition

Calories: 32kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Sodium: 9mg | Potassium: 8mg | Sugar: 7g | Calcium: 1mg | Iron: 1mg

The post All about sprinkles appeared first on The Bake School.

Most baking recipes call for a little (or a lot) of butter. Some require cold butter, like croissants, pie dough, and puff pastry, while others require softened butter, like most cookies. Some recipes recommended salted, others unsalted. What's the difference and which do you use when?

What butter is

Butter is a dairy product, usually made from cow's milk. You can find butter made from other animal milks too. Remember that cream (like whipping cream) is an emulsion of fat and water, two substances that don't like to hang out together, but they can under the right circumstances.

The relationship between fat and water in an emulsion is fragile. If you whip cream for long enough, you can break the emulsion, causing the butterfat to separate from the water. You know this has happened when you are making simple whipped cream and it ends up looking lumpy and/or dense instead of light and smooth.

The water in the cream that separates from the butterfat is called buttermilk. Do not confuse the buttermilk extracted during the butter-making process with cultured buttermilk that you buy in the store. Buttermilk made during butter churning is high in protein, contains lactose, and is not as acidic. Cultured buttermilk is made by acidifying milk using live cultures (like lactic acid bacteria). These transform lactose into lactic acid, thereby lowering the pH of the product, souring it and leading to a thicker texture.

Rinsing the separated lumps of butterfat and squeezing them together, you can form the fat into a block of butter to bake with.

Improved shelf life

Churning cream into butter is actually a technique to prolong the shelf-life of cream. Removing the buttermilk from the cream slows and decreases spoilage caused by bacteria. When you make ghee by melting butter and boiling off the water, you can further extend its shelf life of it.

Adding salt to butter is another way to preserve it for longer. Culturing cream and souring it before making butter is another way to extend the shelf-life of butter.

Now, most of us don't have to go through the process of making butter at home. Butter is sold at most grocery stores, in blocks (usually by the half pound or pound) or in sticks (usually quarter-pound sticks).

Types of butter

You likely have noticed there is more than one type of butter in the dairy refrigerator case at your local grocery store. Where I live, you can usually find:

• unsalted butter, made from cream with no salt added
• salted butter, made from cream with salt added—usually contains 2–2.5 % salt
• half-salted butter, made from cream with half the salt added
• cultured butter, made from cultured cream where the cream was mixed with live cultures (including lactic acid bacteria). These transform lactose to lactic acid, leading to a tangier flavour (the same idea as yogurt made from cultured milk)
• European or high-fat butter, made from cream with a higher fat content (82–84 %, if not even higher than that) and less water
• light butter, made from cream with extra water added so that it is lower in fat than regular butter
• spreadable butter, which has canola oil added to it to make the product softer, more malleable, and spreadable, even when cold.

The type of butter you buy and use will depend on the recipe you are following. In general, you shouldn't buy light butter for baking recipes because it contains less fat and more water, which may contribute to cookie spreading. I wouldn't recommend using spreadable butter to bake with either. Again, the ratio of fat to water will be different than what most recipes are developed with.

In North America and the UK, unsalted butter that is uncultured is sometimes referred to as "sweet cream" butter because it's made from cream that isn't soured or cultured. This type of butter is unsweetened, even though the name indicates otherwise.

The role of butter in baking

Butter does more than just add fat to your baking recipes. Actually, it plays a role well beyond taste, affecting moistness, flakiness, tenderness, rise, and spread of baked goods. Butter contributes:

1. Fat and flavour
   • Butter is around 80 % fat, which means that it contributes to tenderizing baked goods since fat inhibits gluten formation. But butter also contains milk solids, which contribute many dairy notes to certain recipes, and these milk solids can brown in the oven, lending a subtle nutty flavour to recipes and also golden colour.
2. Texture and leavening
   • Butter contains quite a bit of water (almost 20 %), which means that when it's heated, it releases water, which can then evaporate and contribute to the rise of baked goods, thus acting as a leavening agent. Butter contributes to the rise and flakiness of pie crust, homemade croissants and puff pastry.
   • Many recipes begin with creaming the softened butter with sugar. This is a crucial mixing method that incorporates air into the mixture and another reason why butter contributes to leavening and opening up the crumb of baked goods.
3. Spread
   • Since butter contributes both fat and water, it contributes to the spread of cookies, specifically.

Why it's so special and unique

Just like gluten, butter has unique properties that make it hard to substitute. The number one difference between butter and other fats is its plasticity: the ability of butter to be malleable and bendable at certain temperatures so that it can hold its shape.

This is why butter works so well for the creaming mixing method. When you whip butter and sugar together, you are incorporating air into the butter. This gives the mixture a lighter colour and texture because it is aerated. You can't do this with other fats, like vegetable oils or even coconut oil that is solid at room temperature.

When to use each type of butter

Different types of butter are interchangeable in most recipes, but some products are better suited in specific recipes:

• For laminated pastries, like puff pastry, croissants, and pie dough, you can use regular unsalted butter; if you can, invest in a higher-fat butter, like European butter, that would be even better.
• For biscuits and scones, you can use a higher-fat butter, like European butter, for a more flaky effect; regular unsalted butter can also work.
• For most cookies, like drop cookies or cut-out cookies, you can use regular unsalted butter, or even salted butter (depending on the recipe)
• For shortbread cookies, you can use regular unsalted butter, a higher-fat European butter; even clarified butter can work for a richer flavour and more tender crumb.
• For brioche bread, use regular unsalted butter
• For cakes, use regular unsalted butter

Croissant-makers will often purchase a special butter specifically for croissants, flaky pastries, and viennoiseries, called "dry butter" (beurre sec in French). This is also called "Beurre de Tourage." This butter is supposedly dryer than regular butter. It's formulated to create more distinct layers of butter/fat between the sheets of dough.

Most "beurre sec" products on the market hover around 82–84 % fat, which is the standard butterfat content of European butter. I'm not sure this special dry butter is any dryer than European butter.

When to choose unsalted or salted butter

The quantity of salt in a block of butter will vary from one brand to another. Recipe developers cannot account for brand variation in the writing process. They can't test every brand of salted butter on the planet to validate that the quantity of salt it provides is sufficient for a recipe and not excessive. For this reason, most baking recipes recommend using unsalted butter and are developed specifically with unsalted butter. And to compensate for that lack of salt, you will add salt to these recipes.

There is an exception: Kouign Amann, a layered pastry from the Brittany region specifically made with salted butter. The Kouign Amann is known for having the contrast of salty and sweet flavours. Salt is very prominent and present in these recipes, coming from the butter and even extra added salt.

How to replace unsalted and salted butter in baking

The good news is that unsalted and salted butter can be interchanged fairly easily without too much effort.

• If you are following a recipe with unsalted butter and want to use salted instead, do a 1:1 substitution. Replace unsalted with salted butter, gram-for-gram or cup-for-cup; omit the salt in the recipe, or reduce it
• If you are following a recipe with salted butter and want to use unsalted instead, do a 1:1 substitution. Replace salted with unsalted butter gram-for-gram or cup-for-cup, and then add salt to the recipe.
• A rule of thumb to guide you when adding salt to a recipe: use 0.625–1.25 mL (⅛–¼ teaspoon) per half cup of butter or per cup of flour. Use carefully and with the warning that the amount of salt you need in a recipe depends entirely on what you are baking!

How to replace higher-fat butter

In laminated dough recipes for croissants, flaky Danishes, and puff pastry, many chefs prefer to use higher-fat European butter or beurre de tourage (a.k.a. beurre sec). Many home bakers may have trouble finding this type of butter, which isn't available in all grocery stores.

Some bakers replace beurre sec and European butter in laminated doughs with a mixture of butter and flour to create a firmer butter for rolling and layering.

Butter temperature in baking

The temperature of butter plays an important role in the outcome of butter-based recipes:

• cold butter is often used to create distinct layers in puff pastry, croissants, scones, biscuits, and pie dough. For this type of recipe, if the butter is too warm, the layering and flakiness won't be as distinct. The final product won't rise as much. Baked goods may end up greasy with warm butter. There's a good chance the butter will melt out of the flaky pastry as it bakes, if the butter is too warm. The temperature of cold butter is 2–4 °C (35–40 °F )
• softened butter is often a building block in cookies and cakes, which start with the creaming method. If the butter is too warm, you won't be as successful at incorporating air into the butter. Baked goods will be dense. Butter in cookies that is too warm (like in these jam-filled shortbread cookies or cut-out sugar cookies) may lead to cut-out cookies spreading and not holding their shape. This is why many recipes ask you to chill the cookie dough before baking. Softened butter is 18–21 °C (65–70 °F). You may use butter a little colder than that (like 16 °C OR 60 °F) with electric mixers that cause a lot of friction and heat when mixing. Higher-fat butter is firmer than regular 80 % fat butter at room temperature.
• melted butter is used in quick breads and pancakes, but also added to génoise cake batters. You can use melted butter to make chocolate chip cookies. Expect a denser cookie with melted butter. The melting temperature of butter is around 27 °C (82 °F). The temperature it melts at will vary depending on the type and composition of the butter. Higher-fat butter has a higher melting point than regular 80 % fat butter.
• clarified butter is made by melting butter in a saucepan to remove the milk solids. You can make clarified butter at home and you can use it to make Egyptian shortbread, also called ghorayebah. For cookie recipes using the creaming method, clarified butter should be around 21 °C (70 °F), so soft and opaque, not clear, fluid, or melted. Make it a few days ahead to make sure it's had time to cool.
• brown butter (also called browned butter) is made by melting butter, then heating it high enough to boil off the water and colour and transform the milk solids (lactose sugar and proteins), creating brown specks in the golden melted butter. You use often use brown butter to make financiers and madeleines. The French baking term for it is "beurre noisette" because the caramelized milk solids give off a most pleasant nutty odour.

Butter versus shortening

Butter has a lower melting point than shortening meaning butter melts at a lower temperature:

• The melting temperature of butter is around 27 °C (82 °F)
• The melting temperature of shortening is 47 °C (117 °F).

The difference between these two melting points is twenty degrees! Butter melts at a lower temperature, likely before the edges of the cookie have had a chance to set. This means that cookie dough made with butter will spread faster in the oven than cookies made with shortening.

Cookies baked with shortening will likely bake thicker than with butter.

The importance of butter temperature in baking

It's surprising how important butter temperature is in baking. If your butter temperature is off (when compared to the recommended temperature), it can really mess with your recipe and the outcome.

• For flaky pastries:
  • butter that is too warm will reduce the flakiness of the layers. The butter may melt into the dough instead of creating distinct layers.
  • butter that is too cold will crack into shards into the dough. This will have an impact on the layers and flakiness of the dough. Hard, cold butter can cause the dough to tear also, interfering with the layering.
• For cookies:
  • butter that is too warm will make it impossible to incorporate air in cookie dough. Cookies may end up more dense or greasy. Butter that is too warm may also cause cookies to spread in the oven when baking. This is why many recipes ask you to chill your cookie dough.
  • butter that is too cold will impede the spread of cookies as they bake in the oven. This will make for a fatter, taller cookie when you bake drop cookies, which might not be your goal.
• For cakes:
  • butter that is too warm will make it impossible to incorporate air if you are using the creaming method to combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Less air will mean a denser cake.
  • butter that is too cold will interfere with the creaming method. The butter isn't soft enough to incorporate smoothly into the batter. Cold butter may lead to pockets of butter in your batter, causing holes, textural defects, and fat pockets where butter melted.

Ways to soften butter

How much time you have until you need your softened butter affects your options for softening butter. If you need it immediately, then you'll have to try a quick method. If you can wait a few hours or until the morning, try the slow method.

1. slow method (PREFERRED)
   • leave the block of butter out for several hours at room temperature (which should be around 20–22 ºC)
2. quick methods for when you need to soften butter in a hurry
   • grate the cold butter you need onto a plate in a thin layer (or directly into your mixing bowl); let it stand at room temp for 10–20 minutes.
   • slice the cold butter into thin pieces and arrange in a single layer on a cutting board or plate; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes (more or less depending on the thickness of the slices). It will soften faster.
   • microwave the cold butter on a small microwave-safe plate. This is RISKY! The butter will warm up and melt unevenly. The water in the butter will cause it to heat up fast. Microwave at 50 % power or less, or on defrost mode, to hopefully soften it without melting it. Again, this is risky! The butter may be too soft or melted if you don't use small time increments to check it often.
   • use a heated glass or hot ceramic bowl and place the butter under the glass or bowl. The residual heat of it will warm the outside of the butter. This doesn't always work well, but worth a try. To heat the glass or ceramic bowl, fill it with very hot tap water or boiling water; let stand for a minute to heat up the bowl, then dump out the liquid. This works better with glass or ceramics because these are insulators, meaning they are good at holding heat. You could also try a thermos or insulated reusable mug for this trick.

I prefer the slow method, personally. I try to plan ahead for when I need butter and take it out of the fridge accordingly.

How to freeze butter

I tend to buy butter when it's on sale and load up my freezer for future baking projects. You can store blocks of butter in the freezer in the wrapper it comes in. It's so helpful to have a stash of butter in the freezer, but you may be wondering how to defrost butter when you need it?

You cannot simply take a pound of butter out of the freezer and set it on the counter to defrost. This is a big mistake! Condensation will form on the surface of the block of butter. This can lead to mold, especially with unsalted butter.

How to defrost butter

To defrost butter, you first need to defrost it in the refrigerator (this takes about 12 hours). Once defrosted, you can slice the amount you need to let that soften at room temperature.

Don't skip the fridge. If you do, the surface becomes wet from condensation and promotes the growth of pathogens!

Frozen butter can be an asset. If you are making scones, biscuits, or pie crusts, grate the frozen butter with a box grater. Work that grated frozen butter into the flour quickly. This will lead to a colder dough, which means potentially more a flaky pastry!

Frequently asked questions

Making butter from scratch

A fun exercise to do at home is to turn cream into butter. The idea is that you overwhip the cream until the emulsion breaks. The butterfat will separate from the buttermilk, which you can squeeze out and rinse off.

To make large amounts of butter, it's best to use a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. An electric hand mixer can work too or even a whisk and a lot of elbow grease.

You can also make butter by placing a cup of cream in a 500 mL (2 cups) Mason jar, closing the lid tightly, and shaking it like a cocktail shaker. This may take 30 minutes depending on how energetic you are with your shaking.

📖 Recipe

Print

Homemade Butter

Learn how to make butter from whipping cream with this easy recipe!

Course pantry staple

Cuisine American, Canadian, French

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 25 tablespoons

Calories 102kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer

Ingredients

• 750 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 60 mL ice water
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt or flaky sea salt for more texture

Metric - US

Instructions

• Place the cold whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment.
• Whip the cream on medium–low to begin with to reduce splashing, and as it thickens, you can increase the speed to medium or even medium–high.
• Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, and then continue whipping past the point of whipped cream, where the cream becomes lumpy and the fat begins to separate. This takes about 5 minutes
• Once the butterfat has separated out into clumps, whip in the ice water.
• Strain the mixture through cheesecloth and a fine sieve, squeezing the butter to remove most of the water. You can rinse the butter with more ice water to make sure it's free of buttermilk.
• Once you are sure you've strained away and squeezed out as much of the buttermilk and water as you can, transfer the butter to a bowl. You can use a paper towel to pat the butter and blot it to remove any moisture.
• Mix in the salt.
• Store the butter in the refrigerator.

Notes

You can also do this recipe with an electric mixer. You could even do this with a smaller amount of cream in a large Mason jar, close the lid, and shake the jar until the butterfat separates out. I've done it and it works. It just takes a lot of effort!

This recipe yields about 25 tablespoons of butter, so 345 grams or 1.5 cups of butter, roughly.

Nutrition

Calories: 102kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 34mg | Sodium: 86mg | Potassium: 29mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 441IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1mg

Plant-based butter alternatives

Today, you can also find vegan butter at the grocery store, made from a blend of oils, among others canola, soybean, coconut, avocado, and palm. Depending on the brand, you may see other oils in the ingredient list, as well as water and soy lecithin. These create an emulsion of just the right percentage fat to replicate dairy butters. You may also see beta-carotene or other natural orange/yellow food dyes. These colour vegan butter so that it looks more like dairy butter.

How to substitute with non-dairy butter

Plant-based butter alternatives are formulated to replicate the consistency, fat content, taste, and properties of dairy butter. They are often sold in block or stick forms, just like butter. Be sure to read the product label. Often the manufacturer has instructions on how to replace regular butter with a plant-based product in recipes. Usually, you can substitute dairy butter for a plant-based butter, gram for gram (cup for cup).

The post Butter temperature in baking appeared first on The Bake School.

My oven racks' default positions are the middle and bottom racks. Most of the recipes I bake use these positions. But for specific recipes, I may use one or the other, and they cannot be used interchangeably.

Basic oven rack positions

Most ovens have 5 or 6 rack levels and each serves a different purpose.

• The top rack is for broiling. It's the closest to the top heating element of your oven. When you set your oven to the "broil" setting (as opposed to the "bake" setting), only the top element heats up and the heat of the oven is concentrated towards the top of the oven. When you want to brown the top of a casserole, the cheese on top of a lasagna, or caramelize the sugar layer on top of crème brûlée in the oven, you will use the top rack for these specific baking tasks.
• The middle racks are for even baking. You likely have 3 middle racksThese racks are evenly spaced and approximately halfway between the top and bottom heating element. You would use the middle racks when you set your oven to "bake" for baked goods that you want to feel an even heat (not too hot on top, and not too hot on the bottom).
• The bottom rack is for recipes that require more directed heat on the bottom. Any baked goods that you have trouble baking through on the bottom specifically should be baked on the bottom rack, which will benefit from the heat of the bottom element concentrated on the bottom of the baking pan.

What to bake at each position

1. Top oven rack: you will use the top rack for these specific baking tasks:
   1. To brown the top of a casserole or the cheese on top of a lasagna or a gratin
   2. To caramelize the sugar layer on top of crème brûlée in the oven.
2. Middle racks: these are especially useful for cakes and cookies. These require even heat, when you don't want heat concentrated on top or on bottom of the baked goods.
3. Bottom rack: it's best to bake pies on the bottom rack. Pie filling is quite insulating and prevents the bottom crust from cooking without more heat directed to the bottom of the pan. Therefore baking and browning the bottom crust of a fruit pie can be very difficult. You need more heat directed to the bottom crust to help it cook, which is why using the bottom rack is your best best!

Utilizing multiple rack levels

As you become a more skilled baker, you will likely start to transition to using different racks for different stages of baking:

• You may start a pie on the bottom rack to ensure the crust gets a good amount of heat early on, then you may slide your pie to the middle rack to finish heating the pie all the way through.
• You may begin to bake casseroles on the middle shelf, then in the last 10 minutes, move the pan to the top rack to broil, creating a delicious golden-brown top that you would never achieve on the middle rack.

Baking on two racks simultaneously

You might find yourself in a situation where you have two sheet pans of cookies to bake at once. But technically, there's only one true middle rack in your oven. You have two choices:

1. Bake the two pans separately on the middle rack, one at a time. When the first is done baking, take it out and slide the second pan in.
2. Bake both pans at the same time, using the first and third middle rack positions, leaving the true middle rack empty.

If you choose to bake multiple sheet pans of cookies or layers of cake at the same time, make sure to rotate and swap the pans partway through the baking time to ensure that they bake evenly.

How to know which rack to use

If you are ever unsure of which oven rack position to use (or if the recipe doesn't specify), ask yourself a few questions to establish what your goal is:

1. Do I want to caramelize the top of something? Brown cheese? Crisp up the top? Use the top oven rack position in conjunction with the broil setting!
2. Am I worried the bottom of my baked goods won't bake properly? Use the bottom oven rack in conjunction with the bake setting!
3. Do I want an even bake throughout? Use the middle oven rack position in conjunction with the bake setting.

Once you know where you are headed, you can adjust your baking rack positions accordingly and utilize your oven's full potential.

Here's a rundown of recipe categories and which oven rack to bake them on:

• cookies: middle oven rack
• cakes: middle oven rack
• scones: middle oven rack
• bread: middle oven rack
• pie: bottom oven rack with a sheet pan under the pie plate to catch drips
• fruit crisps and crumbles: middle oven rack with a sheet pan under the baking dish to catch drips

The post Oven rack position appeared first on The Bake School.

What it is

Dulce de leche is a sweet, caramelized milk spread that is very common in Latin America. It's also called milk jam. You can smear it on toast, especially brioche, or you can use it as a filling for cakes and cookies.

How it's different than caramel

Dulce de leche and salted caramel sauce are not the same thing. With dulce de leche, milk and sugar (or sweetened condensed milk) are cooked to make a thick, spreadable caramelized milk jam. On the other hand, for caramel sauce, the sugar is cooked alone, sometimes with water and corn syrup or glucose to prevent crystallization. The dairy (cream and/or butter) is added after sugar caramelization occurs.

Caramel has a deeper flavour coming from the burnt sugar notes from the different cooking process. Some love it and some hate it for that reason. Though the processes can seem quite similar, the flavour and outcome of making dulce de leche versus caramel are quite different.

Note that you can further cook caramel sauce to make a thicker filling or soft caramels, and it's likely that you could do the same with dulce de leche.

Ways of making it from scratch

There are several ways of making dulce de leche at home. Some start with cans of sweetened condensed milk, others start from milk and sugar. It's a delicate process to caramelize sweet milk and it takes time. The goal is to darken the colour of the milk to a deep mahogany, while also caramelizing the sugars and milk solids, developing the flavour, and thickening the mixture to a spreadable, thick consistency.

There are a few ways of making dulce de leche from sweetened condensed milk:

1. boil the sealed can of sweetened condensed milk in a water bath for several hours (note this can be dangerous if the water bath boils down, there is a risk of burning the pot, or worse)
2. boil the sealed can of sweetened condensed milk in a pressure cooker (this is not recommended by the companies that manufacture sweetened condensed milk because there's a risk of explosion)
3. decant the can of condensed milk into a saucepan and heat it on the stove, stirring often, to caramelize it without it scorching or sticking on the bottom—this takes 1 to 2 hours depending on how low you heat it
4. decant the can of condensed milk into a baking dish and heat it, covered, in a water bath in the oven for almost an hour at 425 ºF

You can also opt to start with milk and sugar, stirring it on the stove for an hour or more to achieve the same result.

Whether you start with cans of sweetened condensed milk or a combination of milk and sugar, all of these methods work fine. But some require constant stirring and all of them take at least an hour.

How it's used

Dulce de leche has a caramelized flavour and a thick, gooey texture. It makes a great spread at breakfast (after all, it is called milk jam for a reason!). It's also a great filling for cakes and cookies. You can pipe dulce de leche onto cake layers you are stacking to make a layer cake. You can also sandwich it between shortbread cookies to make the most delicious alfajores cookies.

The chemistry of dulce de leche

There are several key processes that happen when making dulce de leche: evaporation, caramelization, and Maillard browning.

Evaporation

Depending on the method you use to make dulce de leche, more or less evaporation can occur leading to a thicker or thinner product. In a closed vessel, like a can, there isn't any evaporation that occurs, whereas on the stove in a pot, uncovered, evaporation occurs for the duration of the cooking process, leading to a more concentrated spread and potentially a thicker or more gooey texture.

With this dulce de leche recipe, you start with 1 litre (4 cups) of milk, which is concentrated down to only 375 mL (1-½ cups)! This means that much of the water has evaporated and the flavours and other compounds have concentrated, leading to a more flavourful spread.

Caramelization

Making dulce de leche is much like making caramel in that the sugar transforms from white to dark. The sugar breaks down and reacts, transforming into colourful, flavourful compounds. In the case of caramel, the sugar is the only ingredient to caramelize and the dairy is usually added later.

With dulce de leche, both the milk and sugar are cooked together in a slow process where both undergo caramelization. Remember that milk contains sugar, specifically in the form of lactose, which is a disaccharide made from glucose and galactose. Just like sucrose, lactose will also caramelize if you heat it enough.

Caramelization not only causes a colour change but also a flavour change, bringing more smoky notes and a deeper, more complex flavour. The more colour you achieve, the more flavour.

Maillard browning reactions

Maillard browning reactions occur at high pH (meaning basic or alkaline) in the presence of proteins and sugars. High pH speeds up the reaction, though it can occur at lower pH over much longer periods of time. Higher temperature combined with high pH, proteins, and sugars, can also speed up the process, but again, browning can also occur at room temperature if you give it enough time.

Knowing the impact of pH on browning, some methods call for baking soda, a base and common chemical leavener. The baking soda encourages browning through Maillard browning reactions. However, if you add too much baking soda, you will taste it!

You may also notice that some commercial dulce de leche may contain ingredients like milk solids, powdered milk, or even lactose. These are all ways of adding more protein and/ or sugar to increase the browning and/or caramelization products without adding more water. Basically, these compounds add more flavour.

The flavour of Maillard reaction products is different than caramelization products because of the proteins that react, contributing nitrogen and even sulfur to the products formed, yielding a distinct flavour.

Making dulce de leche from milk

Ingredients

To make it at home, you only need a few ingredients:

• whole milk (or 2 % milk)
• granulated sugar
• baking soda (optional but it helps with browning)

See recipe card for quantities.

Special tools

I make dulce de leche in a pot on the stove, stirring with a wooden spoon, and then I store it in mason jars, so you don't need anything special to do this recipe. However, I would like to mention that boiling milk rises up significantly so you need to use a pot that is at least 4 quarts or 4 litres to boil 1 litre of milk. I've tested this recipe in a 3 quart (2.8 L) pot and it boiled over.

Method

Once your ingredients are gathered, all you have to do is bring the milk and sugar up to the boil in the pot, then add the baking soda, and continue heating to thicken and brown the mixture until it has the consistency of a thick caramel sauce.

You can check the consistency on the back of a spoon, or dollop a little on a saucer (like the plate test you do when you make marmalade).

Storage

Transfer the homemade dulce de leche to a clean jar, and once cooled, you can close the jar and refrigerate it. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Substitutions

Even though this recipe only has a few of ingredients, you can make a few substitutions:

• If you prefer to start from sweetened condensed milk, follow the recipe as written but omit the sugar.
• If you want to make a lactose-free version, you can replace the milk with lactose-free milk. I wouldn't make any other substitutions.
• If you want to make a non-dairy version, coconut milk is what is most commonly used. You can even buy sweetened condensed coconut milk if you'd rather start from that (and then omit the sugar in the recipe).

Variations

You can infuse the milk with a variety of flavours, including:

• a vanilla bean
• whole spices (crushed green cardamom seeds, cinnamon stick, etc)

And if you find that this is all too much for you, you can always buy dulce de leche at the store. Here's a comparison of store-bought kinds (including a tip for how to thicken dulce de leche if it's too thin!).

📖 Recipe

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Dulce De Leche without Condensed Milk

Learn how to make dulce de leche without condensed milk, from milk and sugar, with this this easy recipe! This stove-top dulce de leche takes some time but the steps are very simple and make the best homemade dulce de leche!

Course Condiment

Cuisine Latin American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 24 tablespoons

Calories 73kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Wooden spoon
• Rondeau pan

Ingredients

• 1 L milk (2 %)
• 300 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL water
• 2.5 mL baking soda

Metric - US

Instructions

• Pour the milk and sugar in a large pot (at least 4 quarts or 4 litres) and place over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture comes up to a boil.
• Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together the water and baking soda. Stir to dissolve the baking soda.
• When the milk comes to a boil, take the pot off the heat and stir in the dissolved baking soda.
• Put the pot back on the burner and bring the milk back up to a boil, reduce the heat and continue to simmer the milk for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until it has caramelized and reached the desired consistency. As the mixture gets thicker, you will have to stir more and more so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.
• Transfer to a jar and let cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

Note that you can infuse the milk with a vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste to make vanilla-flavoured dulce de leche.

Nutrition

Calories: 73kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 45mg | Potassium: 63mg | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 68IU | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 1mg

Frequently asked questions

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