Mise en Place

Mise en Place is a French term, and it literally means "to put int place." Mise en place is what you do to prepare for baking. If you get into the habit of doing a mise en place when you get started it will make your baking a breeze.

The first thing you want to do is get out all of your ingredients from your well stocked pantry. Be sure you have everything you need before you start! Get out your measuring cups, spoons, scale and prep bowls. Fill your sink with hot soapy water. As you work you can put your dirty dishes into the sink and cleanup will be easy when you finish!

I find it much easier if I measure out all of my ingredients into prep bowls and line them up in order of use. If you have little bakers in your house, it is really easy to prepare everything and then invite them into the kitchen to help. If you have anything you need to chop it is easier to do that without distraction of a little one in your kitchen too!

Once you have everything measured out, it is a breeze to mix up your dough or batter. Be sure to keep an eye on your recipe because the order that ingredients are added and the amount of mixing needed makes a huge difference in your finished product!

Happy Baking!

A well stocked pantry

I thought it would be appropriate to start out this blog with what is needed to start out baking. Having a well stocked pantry makes it easy to decide to make something and just get started. There is nothing more aggravating than starting a project only to have to stop in the middle and run to the store! There have been plenty of times I have had to do this so now I try hard to keep my pantry well stocked so that I can get to creating when the urge strikes!
Basics- I keep plenty of flour in the house- all purpose, bread, whole wheat, cake, self rising. If you bake for anyone with gluten intolerance, you should also keep rice, sorghum, and buckwheat flours. For sugars, I keep granulated, organic granulated, powdered, light brown, dark brown, demerara, and turbinado (these last two seem to be the same thing...) Other sweeteners to keep in stock are honey (local is best if you can get it), corn syrup, and molasses.
I like to keep butter in the freezer and take it out as needed. Butter will absorb smells from other foods in your refrigerator so it is important to wrap it in plastic wrap. I also keep organic shortening in the pantry. I rarely use margarine in baking so that is something that I don't routinely keep available.
Other dry goods that you want to think about are things like chocolate chips, coconut, and nuts. Nuts can lose their flavor and get bad fairly quickly so if you aren't going to use them soon, these are also best wrapped in plastic and put into your freezer as well.
To make things easier on myself, I store all of my dry goods in large plastic tubs with airtight lids. This is so much easier and cleaner than keeping things in their bags. A container with a large opening will make it easier for you to measure cups of flour, sugar, etc.
I hope to post some pictures of my pantry once I figure out how to download pictures from my phone since my camera is in the shop!
Happy Baking!