It is my job to educate as well as entertain with this blog. I want to increase the baking knowledge of everyone because I believe it would help them become better bakers. Since I enjoy learning, I thought I would take the opportunity to help out where ever I can. The first bit of baking knowledge I would like to pass along is the Importance of Room Temperature ingredients.
You may notice when you pull out a recipe, especially for cakes, that they ask for some of the ingredients to be at room temperature. You might ask yourself why this is. Sure, it makes perfect sense for butter to be soft so that it’s easy to mix, but what about the rest?
Why Room Temperature?
Most of the ingredients that need to be at room temperature include eggs, milk (or other liquids), and butter (or other fats). If you were to add cold eggs to a creamed butter and sugar mixture, you would curdle the fats, which would affect not just the texture of your cake but also the taste. Adding cold ingredients together not only doesn’t mix well, but it will even kill any air/volume you have added to your cake batter during the mixing process, which will make for a much denser bake. This is why it is so vital when baking cakes where added air is one of the essential leavening agents.
So before you begin baking, make sure to take out any ingredient that says to be at room temperature at least an hour before you start; this will save you from having a failed bake.
As a side note, if you notice that after you add your eggs to the creamed sugar and butter that the batter looks curdled, it is not the end of the world. You can still finish your bake, and it will still taste delicious.
Other information you might be interested in:
Baking Basics: The Art of Substitution
Baking Basics: Baking with Milk
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