This post will walk you through how to make a Swiss Meringue. You may ask yourself why do I want to make Swiss version when it is more work than French meringue? There are two main reasons: stability and food safety. By heating the eggs to 160F (71C) you will kill off most bacteria that may be...
In order to make many desserts, you'll need to learn how to whip egg whites and make french meringue. This is one instance where I highly recommend an electric beater. It doesn't have to be fancy, but hand mixing becomes very tedious and can take more than an hour if you are whipping up a large...
If you want to use the microwave to temper chocolate, this post that goes into depth on how to temper for each of the various chocolates. However, if you do not own a microwave, or you are having overheating issues trying that method, this tutorial is for you! It will also so you how to fix bloom...
Buttermilk Honey Wheat Bread is yet another recipe from the game "what's left in the pantry?" However it was created, it is this soft, tender crumb with a lovely flavor of honey and wholesomeness of wheat flour. In a word, it's delicious. How the recipe came about is the fact I had buttermilk...
We will be making lots of bread recipes on this site, so learning kneading dough by hand will be an essential skill if you don't own a stand mixer. Whether you think you can't do it, have physical limitations or are a beginner, don't despair. It's much easier than it looks. Especially when you...
Tempering white chocolate doesn't have to be difficult. But exactly what is it? White chocolate is cocoa butter with milk and sugars added. Some people argue it's not chocolate at all because there is only cocoa butter, not actual cocoa in the candy. That's up to you to decide. One thing that is...
Now that we've learned the basics on tempering chocolate, let's learn to temper milk chocolate. I like to practice with baking chips, pretzels and cereals to make a delicious candy bar that doesn't need much work. That way, all the chocolate is used up after practicing and you can break it up and...
Tempering semi-sweet chocolate doesn't have to be difficult. If you want to learn about the basics of what tempering is, you can read my post on it here. Otherwise, let's move on. You'll want to know the basic temperature for the type of chocolate you are working with as noted in the table below:...
Tempering dark chocolate is the process of making chocolate smooth, shiny, durable and snappy. You can read more here. In the meantime, think about how sometimes you buy a chocolate bar and it's streaked with white, is bendable and melts just touching it. That's because the chocolate became too...
What is tempering chocolate? You may find yourself asking this when learning how to bake. Tempering is basically making the chocolate to have a nice sheen, breaks instead of bending and slower to melt. Think of a nice candy bar that snaps as you break it. I took a few pictures below for reference....
When flour goes bad, it really turns. I've never been more relieved to see mold in a container. My water was safe! For the past week and a half, I've been trying to start a sourdough with equal parts water and flour. Unfortunately, if you go back to the beginning, you will see I've been struggling...
Learning to make sourdough starter can be tricky. Make sourdough, they say. It's easy they say. You add equal parts in weight of flour and water and basically keep adding equal amounts for about a week until you get the wild yeasts captured and a happy sourdough starter. Sounds so easy, right?...
The more I bake, the more injuries I seem to develop. From being bitten by the chickens, obsessive hand washing causing deep cracks in skin and now allergies to things like spices and dish detergent. But this is a new one. Candy coating causing allergic reaction didn't even seem possible. It all...
Making macarons without almond flour can be fun. I like to call them mockaroons. I ran out of almond flour. Well...not completely. I have one unopened back that I am squirreling away for a rainy day. I decided instead of opening it to experiment with other ingredients. So often, you will read when...
There are days I can't seem to get out of bed. I will lie there feeling completely and totally useless and start to cry. Suddenly, this little pipsqueak begins to pester me. "Leave me alone," I'll mumble through tears of self despair to my little man. "I can barely walk today, I can't drive, I...