Ten Time-Saving Tips

Written Saturday, September 12th, 2009 by TrishB

I've loved cooking for as long as I can remember. While I have taken a number of cooking classes, I am for the most part a self-taught cook. I am a voracious cookbook reader. My collection of cookbooks numbers in the hundreds and cooking magazines in the thousands. I have taken bits and pieces from the best of the best and fused them into palate pleasers for friends and family.

One of my favorite magazines is Fine Cooking and one of the most useful sections is their Readers Tips. I have scoured these for years. Over time, I plan to share many of my favorite tips with the you. Here are just a few to get started:

1. A level cake
For those of you who like to ice the middle of your cake, here is a great tip. It is often difficult to realign a cake perfectly after cutting it in half to ice it. So, before you cut, insert a toothpick horizontally into the side of the cake close to the bottom and insert another toothpick near the top, directly on top of the first one. Then cut the cake horizontally between the two toothpicks, ice it, and put the top back, making sure the toothpicks are aligned. Now you have a level perfectly aligned cake.

2. Keeping pie dough cold when you roll it
Place your rolling pin in a freezer for about 30 minutes before rolling your pie crust. The cold pin will keep the dough from getting warm when its time to roll it.

3. Saving those egg whites
How often do you find a recipe that calls for egg yolk and you end up throwing away the egg whites (unless you're in the mood to make some meringues). Instead, freeze the remaining egg whites in an ice cube tray. Put one egg white in each section. When a recipe calls for 2 egg whites, for example, all you have to do is push out 2. Before using, let the egg whites come to room temperature.

4. Another use for those ice trays
Who doesn't enjoy an iced coffee on a hot summer day? How disappointing is it when, after a few sips your drink becomes a watered down version of your former beverage? Solution: Freeze hot coffee in an ice cube tray. Use these coffee ice cubes the next time you make iced coffee.

5. Preserving berries
How often do you take that container of "perfect" looking berries out of your fridge to find the ones underneath squashed in the carton? The secret to preventing berry "squash": Line a baking sheet with 3 or more layers of paper towels. Scatter the berries over the paper towels. Keep them in your refrigerator until you are ready to wash and eat them.

6. Floss in the kitchen
Slicing a cake in half often leaves your table covered in crumbs. Use a plain piece of dental floss to split the cake in two. No mess, no fuss.

7. Separating dried fruit
I often like to bake with dried fruits including raisins. How often do you open the box to find the individual pieces stuck together? Try taking a pinch or so of flour and rolling the pieces stuck together in your hand. Then I add them to my batter. The flour helps separate the pieces of fruit and keeps them from bunching together in the batter. This allows for more uniform distribution in cakes or cookies. Don't worry, the flour on the fruit "disappears" with baking.

8. Defatting soup or stocks with frozen spoons
Toss a few slotted spoons into the freezer while you are making soup or stock. After the soup/stock cools a little, skin the top off with the "frozen" spoon. The stock glides through the slots while the fat congeals on the back of the "frozen" spoon.

9. Squash and an ice cream scoop
Fall is almost here. That means it is time to roast squash (butternut and acorn are my favorites). An ice cream scoop is a great tool to remove the squash after roasting.

10. Freeing a cake from a pan
You've just removed the most perfect looking cake from your oven. Now the hard part: getting it out of the pan intact. Instead of running a knife around the edge, which often tears the cake, use a 1 inch, narrow, HEAT RESISTANT rubber spatula. You will be surprised how easy it is to free the cake from the pan.

Tags: community member, cooking tips, food blogging

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 08:21 pm and is filed under Baking Tips, Did you know?, How To, Quick Meal Tips, Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.