How to be a Faker Baker!

Now that i have completed 12 weeks of baking, I've come up with a few tips and tricks for all you baking novice's and even experienced cooks. The thing is, most chefs don't like baking. Its hard, chefs (and most home cooks too) generally treat baking like some people treat math. Many people are love writing, reading, and English people like me, for example) and hate subject like math and science and vise versa (some loath language arts and thrive off numbers and theories). Chefs may be excellent chefs, but when it comes to pastries, they begin to loose their cool. Pastry chefs are a lot rarer than savory chefs, and not surprisingly, get paid sometimes double the salary. Rachel Ray (as annoyingly "cute" as she is) always says, "I don't bake!" and some chefs of "top chef" were booted for their pathetic attempt at dessert concoctions. I am probably not going to be a pastry chef, but I do think my skills have improved tremendously in the past 12 weeks and i completely understand why they included baking in the culinary arts program (because the Le Cordon Bleu also has a separate Baking and Patisserie program). So here they are, a few tips you should know when you do venture into baking to ensure better products and self-proclaim yourself as a baker (even if you fake it!).

-BOX MIXES: yes, my baking teacher did consider these box mixes and canned frosting (or what she referred to as the f-word)taboo but lets be honest, the average home cook does not have loads of different flours, extracts, and baking powders necessary to make cakes or cookies for those once in a blue moon events (with the exception of those that DO bake often and DO happen to have these item on hand). Its simply easier and cheaper for these occasions to resort to the mixes. so if you do choose the mix, to ensure a more "professional" or "home-made" touch, remember to sift your dry ingredients ALWAYS. Nothing pisses me off more than biting into a brownine with a dry lump of powdered cocoa. Sifting ensures a smooth lump-less batter. Often your asked to add eggs and oil to these mixes so make sure you do use your amounts correctly. If you think skipping the oil or only using egg white will yield a healthier product, you may be right, but if substitution is your thing, so it when you make the whole thing from scratch. These mixes already have some oils and other sorts of chemicals in them that can make it taste off when you substitute your own products. If healthier baking is your goal, just don't go with mixes.

-PAM: or otherwise known as cooking spray to prevent your desserts and breads from sticking. Its used in most pastry kitchens, but my chef told us that she personally tries to avoid them whenever she can, opting to use a non-stick silicone "silpat" baking sheet or lining pans with non-stick parchment. why? because besides oil, these sprays have a fair amount of alcohol in them that can produce this waxy film on your product. I've tried it and its totally true. silpats are a little pricey but definitely a great investment and they last forever.

- FRUIT: are you stumped as to what dessert to make? start with nature's sweetness. Think of a seasonal fruit and try to build your dessert around that. this was a good exercise in our "mystery box" exams. Say you want to use cherries, you can flambe them with rum for a "cherries jubilee", incorporate them into cake like a cherry clafoutti, or if you can, maybe even a cherry sorbet. Just like savory menus can often be built off protein, dessert menus can be built off fruits.

-SCALES: by all means throw away the bathroom scale (clothes are a much better way to measure whether your leaning out or expanding), but instead trade it in for a kitchen scale. I think chefs don't like baking because to bake correctly, measurements must be precise to a T, unlike cooking which is more "dash" there, "hand full" there, "eye ball" etc. And cups and tablespoons are actually not very accurate. weight is the best way to measure so invest in a small kitchen scale (i got a digital one for like 14 bucks at costco) and you're baking good will probably always turn out perfect.

-VANILLA BEANS: again a pricey ingredient that goes a long way. extracts are OK, but the vanilla bean itself will really pack a great flavor to ANYTHING. Ice cream bases, pie, cookies, custards, cake, pudding, even savory dishes get a great enhancement with some scraped fresh vanilla beans. You can buy a single bean in most markets (for about 4 bucks per pod) but i think the best deal is a wholesale pack which has about 100 pods and costs about 50 bucks. Its a lot of vanilla beans, but you'll probably never need vanilla beans again and they don't go bad (so maybe you can pass them on to your grandchildren if you don't use them all).

See, you can make decent, gourmet desserts without being a pastry chef! and if all else fails, i am sure there's a lovely local bakery where you can get a cake and put it in you cake pan and call it your own. Don't worry, these cakes are generally not copyrighted.