Like other types of cooking, baking is enhanced by an extensive pantry. Of course, you can get by with just butter, flour, sugar, and eggs in your kitchen, but you’ll be much happier if you have a full array of items to work with. The following are ten must-have bakery ingredients for baking, so stock up on what doesn’t go bad and enjoy baking!
Baking Powder
A leavening agent such as baking powder is essential for cakes, pancakes, and other baked goods. Baking powder consists of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), cream of tartar, and cornstarch. It comes in single-acting powder and double-acting: single-acting powder starts to release carbon dioxide as soon as it’s added, whereas double-acting does so only when heated. To make pancake or waffle batter, dissolve 1 tsp of baking powder in each cup of flour before adding the wet ingredients.
Baking Soda
Also called bicarbonate of soda. Baking soda has the same function as a baking powder (above) but does not contain any acid, such as cream of tartar. It’s used to make quick bread, muffins, and cakes.
Chocolate
Bittersweet, semisweet, or unsweetened chocolate is a good substitute for cocoa powder if you do not have any cocoa powder on hand. A cake or cupcake that calls for cocoa can be made with chocolate instead of cocoa powder, but ensure that the sugar is reduced so it does not come out too sweet.
Cocoa Powder
This is simply chocolate in powder form. It’s used to make chocolate cakes, brownies, and more. It can be used instead of chocolate in most recipes.
Eggs
Eggs are a good substitute for oil in many baked goods. For each egg called for in a recipe, blend 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp ground flax seed together in a small bowl, then let the mixture sit until it thickens. This makes for an egg-like substitute.
Flour
All-purpose flour is great for cakes, pastries, cookies, and brownies. Bread flour has more gluten than all-purpose, so it’s good for bread and other baked goods that need to be chewy or have a crusty exterior. You can also use gluten-free flour for baking.
Milk
Milk is necessary for cakes, cookies, and brownies. It can be substituted with soymilk or rice milk if you have a vegan on your hands!
Sugar
Caster sugar, brown sugar, and honey are all great substitutes for white sugar. Caster sugar has a fine grain, brown sugar is simply white sugar with molasses added (molasses comes from the refining of sugar cane), and honey can be used to sweeten baked goods.
In conclusion, these are some of the essential bakery ingredients. Utilizing them will help you create delicious baked goods that everyone can enjoy!