Today’s Blog Post
Hi everyone! It’s time for another blog post. Today, I thought I would go through and respond to some of the most frequently asked questions we get from people on the blog. Of course, we do respond to every comment directly and do our best to answer your questions as specifically as we can. We love when you try out our recipes and leave us comments and reviews. Especially since when it comes to baking, things can very easily go wrong! So many variable factors are involved, like humidity, altitude, temperature, that we cannot always ensure the final product will turn out perfectly. However, we do appreciate your feedback, and some of your comments have definitely helped us improve how we write our recipes and give instructions. So thank you for reading and check out the rest of this post for some responses to FAQs!
Can I proof my dough in the fridge overnight?
We typically get this question on recipes for bread, rolls, or Danish pastries. These dough recipes use yeast, which means the dough has to rise, or proof, before you can bake it. However, lots of people want to bake pastries or rolls to eat them fresh out of the oven in the morning. And we don’t usually want to get up at 3am to make the dough! So, can dough be proofed in the fridge overnight? The short answer is yes!
We would recommend leaving the dough for its first bulk rise in the fridge overnight. And actually, this gives the dough a better flavor anyway. You may still have to get up a bit early to shape the bread/rolls/pastries and leave them for a second (but much shorter!) proof. We also prefer leaving the dough overnight for its first rise rather than its second because it takes up less space in the fridge. Alternatively, you can leave them for their second rise in the fridge overnight. However, there is a risk of overproofing them at this point, so just make sure to not leave them for more than 8 or 9 hours!
What size cake tin do you use?
This is a very common question, especially on our cake recipes. Generally, we use a 9 inch round cake tin for our round cakes, a 13×9 inch tin for rectangular cakes, and a standard loaf tin for loaf cakes or bread. We sometimes use metal pans and sometimes use glass – it depends on what we have at that given time! However, you can really use whatever size tin you have on hand. Just remember that baking in a glass pan means cakes will brown quicker, so you may want to turn down the oven by 25 degrees F or about 13 degrees C.
Metal pans are generally better for baking, as they bake things a bit more evenly. And of course, you may have to adjust baking time depending on the size of your pan. Bigger and deeper pans will need longer, while shallower and smaller ones may need less time. Just make sure to keep an eye on your baked goods and you will be fine!
How soft should my butter be when I add it to my dough?
If you’ve never made an enriched dough with butter and eggs, it can sometimes be difficult to know how soft the butter needs to be to get incorporated into the dough properly. When you’re working with softened butter, you want it to be soft enough that when you press on the butter, it gives and leaves an indent easily. However, it should not be looking shiny/glistening, as that it a little bit too warm.
When adding the butter into the dough, it is best to add it at the stage where the dough hasn’t quite come together yet (when it still looks “shaggy”). If you add it too late in the process, it may be more difficult for the butter to fully incorporate. You definitely don’t want the dough to look greasy, or be able to see chunks of butter! The end result should be a very soft dough.
How do I store my baked goods?
Storing baked goods definitely depends on what it is! Anything that contains whipped cream, pastry cream, frosting, or generally any type of filling/topping that contains dairy, should be kept in the fridge after they’ve fully cooled. Make sure to store in a container. If you have cakes/pastries that don’t include dairy fillings/toppings, you can keep them at room temperature for about 3 days, although they may last a few days longer in the fridge anyway! We usually cover the cake with plastic wrap, or we keep the baked goods on a cake stand that comes with a cloche/dome.
Cookies are another story – you can often keep cookies for up to a whole month if you store them in an air tight cookie tin. We do this with our Christmas cookies! With some of the softer cookies (especially ones with jam) we recommend eating within 5 days as the moisture tends to make them stale faster. And if you have any cookies dipped or topped with chocolate that has not been tempered, we do store those in the fridge to keep the chocolate solid. And as far as bread and rolls go, we usually store in an airtight bag for up to 4 days, but they’re usually gone before then!
Another storage option that we often use is freezing! You can cut cake into slices and freeze them, freeze cookies in ziploc bags, freeze slices of bread, and even freeze pastries – then you can super easily reheat in the microwave or thaw at room temp and enjoy a treat anytime! Just be sure to consume your freezer goods within 3-4 months for best results.
My bread/rolls turned out a bit flat – what happened?
If your rolls turn out flat or dense and not very fluffy, the dough probably needs more time to rise! To be honest, there are many challenges when it comes to working with yeasted dough. To read more specific tips about the process, check out our blog post Five Tips For Baking With Yeast. It is important to remember that yeast is a living thing, and you need to give it optimal conditions in order for it to thrive. Therefore, temperature and rising time are essential to baking a fluffy loaf of bread or batch of rolls!
The timing that we give in our recipes is only an approximation; your environment could mean that the dough needs less or more time. Colder temperatures slow down the rise, so in the winter, your dough will probably need longer to rise. In the summer, on the other hand, it may only need 30 minutes. If this seems confusing, we recommend using the poke test to see if your dough is ready. Simply poke the dough and if it doesn’t spring back immediately and leaves an indentation, it is ready to be shaped or baked.
Can I make this without eggs or can it be made gluten free?
The best answer to this question is that it really depends on the recipe. We don’t personally test out gluten-free or egg-free variations of our recipes, simply because we do not have the time or resources to do so. If we could, we would absolutely make sure that everyone could use our recipes! Generally, if it is a savory recipe for dinner or lunch, you can probably omit the egg/flour or replace it with something else.
However, when it comes to baking, it gets a lot trickier. Bread dough recipes are typically more forgiving, so leaving out an egg will only mean that the final product is not as soft and fluffy, but it will still be delicious. Cake recipes, however, are very challenging to make without eggs. The same goes for gluten-free recipes, as many ingredients would have to be adapted to ensure that the final product was just as tasty as the one with gluten. We hope that in the future, we can do some better adapting of our recipes to meet more of your needs!
