Baking
Bread needs four things and only one of them is skill
Flour, water, salt and time. Almost every home baking failure is a temperature or timing problem rather than a technique one.
Dominic Ferraro
Kit reviewer, Dinner Starts Here
Dominic tests kitchen equipment and thinks most of it is unnecessary.
Contact Dominic through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
19 articles
Baking
Baking is chemistry, and that is why substitutions fail
Swapping ingredients in a cake is not like swapping them in a stew. The quantities are performing structural jobs.
Batch & Leftovers
Soup is the most forgiving way to eat a fridge
It absorbs odds and ends without looking like leftovers, and the structure underneath it is the same every time.
Baking
Your oven is lying to you about the temperature
The dial is a request, not a measurement. Domestic ovens overshoot, undershoot and vary by shelf, and every baking recipe assumes…
Baking
Gluten is the scaffolding, not the enemy
The same protein network that makes bread chewy makes a cake tough. Whether you develop it is the decision behind most baking…
Baking
Butter temperature is the hidden variable in pastry
Cold, soft or melted, the same butter produces three completely different results from the same list of ingredients.
Baking
Cakes dome, crack and sink for three different reasons
Each of the classic cake faults points to a specific step. Reading them tells you what to change rather than what to hope for.
Baking
Overmixing muffins and undermixing bread are the same mistake
Both are a misjudgement about how much the flour should be worked. One recipe wants a network and the other wants none.
Batch & Leftovers
Doubling a recipe is not the same as multiplying it
The ingredients scale linearly. The pan, the evaporation and the seasoning do not, which is why big batches often disappoint.
Batch & Leftovers
One base sauce, five directions
The most useful thing to batch is not a meal but a foundation that becomes several different meals without tasting like any of them…
Batch & Leftovers
Two hours on a Sunday buys four components, not four dinners
The batch session that survives is the one that produces parts you will want to combine, rather than meals you have already got…
Baking
Fresh, dried and instant yeast are the same organism at different speeds
The differences between the forms are about water content and how they are woken up, not about what they do to the dough.
Batch & Leftovers
Roast the tray slightly under and it survives the week
Vegetables roasted to perfection on Sunday are overcooked by Tuesday, because reheating is a second cook. Stopping early is what…
Batch & Leftovers
Sauces freeze well, assembled dishes usually do not
What survives a freezer is decided by water, fat and starch. A sauce is mostly liquid and comes back intact; a finished plate has…
Baking
Pizza at home is a schedule problem before it is a recipe
The dough is simple and the toppings are a matter of taste. What decides whether it works is when the dough was mixed and how hot…
Baking
Fruit sinks in a cake, and tossing it in flour is not the fix
The flour trick is repeated everywhere and does very little. What actually keeps fruit suspended is the thickness of the batter and…
Baking
Batters improve with a rest, and the reason is hydration
Pancakes, waffles and coating batters all behave differently after twenty minutes in the bowl. The flour has finished absorbing…
Baking
Custard is one skill that turns into six desserts
Egg and dairy thickened with gentle heat is the base of a great many puddings. Learn the temperature behaviour once and the rest…
Baking
Icing, glaze and ganache are the same idea at three ratios
All three are sugar or chocolate suspended in liquid and fat. What separates them is the proportion, and the proportion is what…