Bakers and cooks always impress me. They always have to be part scientist, knowing how ingredients react to each other, and half artist, knowing what looks and tastes good.
For all the questions where the answer was "your oven was the wrong temperature", the real answer is "you need to get an oven thermometer because you're oven likely isn't at the temperature you think it is."
Also: pay attention to the placement of your oven rack. The temp at the top is not always the temp at the bottom, and depending on where the heat element is, you could be almost broiling something while baking.
@@moand7862 this is in New York city, I'm sure the producers didn't care enough to support a good New York small business (and there are a TON of amazing NYC bakeries) and sadly bought some random ones instead
@@chaosasitswirls6125 Fair. There's plenty of decent bakeries in NY. Only major cities have good bakeries, any town under a population under 100k good bakeries no longer exist. 😪
The best advice I got about baking is to get a kitchen scale and weigh your ingredients. Most recipes here in America use measurements like a cup or a teaspoon. I usually avoid recipes that don't give weights.
Cookies that spread too much = the dough is too warm. Chill before you scoop! I also way underbake mine as they keep cooking in the 5 min you leave them on the tray after they're out of the oven.
Here's a tip for using black bananas for banana bread - if you have too many bananas don't throw them away. freeze them in their peels. When you want to bake, just let them defrost on a plate. Perfect every time. :)
For anyone who misses items in a recipe: prepare everything FIRST!! I go through my recipes, and I have separate bowls for every ingredient I'll need. I use post-it notes to label similar-looking items, or if I have two amounts of sugar to add at separate times or something. Very helpful.
My favorite guideline is Mise en place before cooking or baking ANYTHING. If you need to, check off the ingredients as you assemble them. Cookbooks are meant to be lovingly used, including writing in the margins.
My tip for successful buttercream is to whip the butter until it’s off-white (assuming it’s yellow to begin with). The air you are incorporating will give you the necessary structure to hold up the buttercream.
Agreed. Also, you want the butter to be soft but not melting, which will lead to a greasy buttercream. And sift the powdered sugar! I have found that it makes the buttercream very fluffy and light.
Baking is chemistry in action. It is all about balancing wet and dry components, knowing how much manipulation a dough can tolerate, proper temperature ranges, patience, rising agents and having binding agents at cold, warm or room temperature. Less is more. Start low and go slow. Practice, practice, practice.
Another way to not forget ingredients is to pre-measure and lay things out chronologically as they will be used in the recipe. The French call this _mis en place,_ and it's an organizational method that's become standard around the world for chefs of any stripe, including pastry chefs.
The problem with the cheesecake is a couple things. Over mixing, looked like no water bath (evens cooking temps) and I always leave my cheesecakes in the oven off for about an hour before putting it in the fridge to set.
Or simply move it to another area, often I have messy hands or something and don’t need to be spreading mess around the kitchen. It really isn’t that hard to keep track of things.
3:05 actually, it’s likely that the person isn’t refrigerating their dough. You should always refrigerate your cookie dough for at minimum two hours but it’s much better overnight.
Prue Leith ❤ I'm crushing hard! Knowledgeable, quirky and yeah kinda a smashing bird 🐦 🐦⬛ and Paul is the brother I wish I had! I bet these two are a riot after a lager or two
The answer for baking powder vs soda doesn't make sense. Baking powder is baking soda with an acid added, so they are used for different recipes depending on if the recipe is acidic or alkaline. Baking powder isn't just baking soda with moisture protection, they have different uses and they aren't necessarily interchangeable.
Last I looked, the only baking powder that HAS baking soda in it is DOUBLE ACTING... It's worth knowing in the cases where you have recipes that require both, and you might wonder why they don't seem right when you're getting it out of the oven... thus the cap's. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 Thanks for the clarification. I don’t know what would happen for example if one used baking powder instead of baking soda when making a quickbread such as banana bread.
in my country people pretty much exclusively use baking powder instead of baking soda. the one instance i know of where people use a little bit of baking soda here is cheese fondue but in that instance it’s to make it easier on the stomach.
I absolutely adore these two!!!! Great show today!!! Paul & Pru are masters at what they do, watch the Great British Bakeoff. I love the competition and always learned a lot. They are accompanied by a selection of different british comedians too- its great fun watching them judge the offerings. Thank you both! More Paul & Pru on Wired!💙
That reminds me, I should feed Dave the Sourdough Starter; he's getting a bit hungry, I'd imagine. Oh, and a good note about starter: you don't use it all when baking. Just use part of it and feed the rest. Once it gets setup, sourdough starter is EXTREMELY hardy and tough to kill. I had mine setting in the oven (while it was off!) during the winter to keep him a little warmer and my wife went to preheat it for some chicken. It got to dang near 400F before I came out the bathroom and panicked. BUT, Dave was fine. Let the jar cool off on its own, removed some of the burned bits, and fed the rest. He bounced back almost immediately. Sourdough starter's like the Terminator of the baking world: once it gets going, it is very, VERY difficult to put down, lol.
I don't think they were questioning if Americans know what a vent is. I think the question was "what do Americans call that thing we call a 'vent'". Lots of different cooking / baking terms between the two countries.
@@CharleneCTX Watch again. Everything they say about Americans is rude. Remember, British people aren’t normally so direct. So by insulting Americans it’s actually more like the American equivalent of shouting.
@@greywater3186 A lot of people in the UK are dismissive of Americans because their only exposure is American media which isn't representative of "average America" in any way, its Hollywood.
Add a tablespoon or two of flour to your apple mixture when making an apple pie. It makes a nice filling that has a bit of a thicker “juice” not watery. So no soggy bottom
For softer cookies, substitute a small amount of the sugar (1/4 or 1/3 cup) for corn syrup. It cuts back on the crystallization of the sugar and they will be softer.
Paul you are right about the apple pie my mom always had me cook my apple the little bit and it takes up so much juice I really like all of the recipes. Of course I can’t make them all at my age but good luck with everything both of you.
Not that Im great at it or anything, but the 1 thing I've learned over my long years is not to be too upset when you fail. Most cooking/baking really kind of comes down to practice practice practice. Just like almost everything in life. You cant be too attached to the fact you just spent oh, $20-50 on a recipe, 1-2hrs on it and its not 'great'. Is it edible? Well, then you did okay for that 1st run of it. Go again, and improve where you went wrong. Keep going and keep trying and improving on what you did. Before too long and really not even a big amount of money or time you've done a recipe you can be proud of and you can say, "yeah, I nailed that one, yum!!!" and boy howdy does THAT time taste great when you really hit. Because, YOU did it. (Now repeating it again.... pfft.. thats something I still struggle and giggle with all the time) *smiles*
It might be the. hard thin cookie problem is due to using super fine/casters/bakers sugar. This fine sugar is not a universal baking product, it’s better for sauces and puddings. When I switched to baking sugar all my cookies went bad, and it took me forever to realize the problem.
2:25 Don’t forget butter temp. Keep it 50 ~ 55 degrees F. If it’s too cold your butter will shard and break and you wont get that flaky of a croissant. Still will be delicious though 😊
I think the hand mixer is an under utilized tool. A hand mixer can greatly reduce the clean up process if it’s able to take the place of a blender or stand mixer 12:18
I think Paul didn’t really help the person at the end who’s struggling with buttercream. The most likely issue is that the butter is too hot (melting and greasy) or too cold (breaks into clumps but doesn’t cleanly incorporate with the sugar and whip up soft). Butter temperature has gotten me a million times with baking. It’s just so very much more important than is usually emphasized in recipes.
That's because the woman asking the question wasn't specific enough. You can't just say "why can't I ever make it right" and just expect people to know exactly what you're doing wrong.
Samolina is the best, I love it. Especially with cherries or as a cereal lol, that's what we grew up on. Samolina,milk, butter, chocolate, cinemon, cook it and enjoy your pudding. And fight with your siblings over a slightly burn bits.🤭
This American did indeed know what venting was, but I had no earthly clue what "semolina" was😂 bless you all for typing the answers up at the end of each bit otherwise I wouldn't even recall what the word was to research later!🙈
