Articles
How to Soften Butter Quickly
Have you ever headed to the kitchen to get started baking and realize the recipe calls for softened butter? But your butter is still in the fridge and you don’t want to wait 1-2 hours for it to sit out to reach room temperature. Is it really that important? Is there a way to quickly soften the butter?
The Journey to Pavlova
Want to know what goes into recipe testing? Sometimes, it's 17 tries to get something just right! Here's the journey to pavlova – plus key tips and tricks to making the perfect pavlova every time.
Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder: What’s The Difference?
Have you ever had a baking disaster like an overflowing quick bread, or a cratered cake? It’s happened to experienced and amateur bakers alike, and the most likely culprit: mixing up the baking soda and baking powder. It’s easy to do, they’re both types of chemical leaveners They also look similar and have similar names. But that’s where the similarity ends. So, what is the difference between them?
All About Meringue: French vs. Swiss vs. Italian Meringue
While all meringues are featherweight and ethereal, they’re not all created equally. Originating from different European traditions, we’re exploring the similarities and differences of all three types — French, Swiss, and Italian meringues. Plus, we have tips and tricks to making perfect meringues every time.
How to Make Better Biscuits
Here in the Test Kitchen, I’m known as the go-to girl for biscuits. It’s because biscuits have always been one of my favorite comfort foods. Warm from the oven simply slathered with butter, or covered with sausage gravy, there’s no wrong way to eat a biscuit. Growing up, my Mom made Bisquick biscuits, and I’ve eaten my share of canned biscuits too, but once I learned how easy biscuits are to make, there was no going back. So welcome to Biscuits 101.
Baking With Kids: Rainbow Sprinkle Cookie Edition
If you’re like me and trying to find new ways to keep the kids busy, I have the perfect baking project for you - Rainbow Sprinkle Cookies. Even if you don’t have kids and just need a little pick me up while being cooped up at home, baking with sprinkles has a way to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
The Secrets to the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Want to know the secrets to making the best chocolate chip cookies? We're spilling everything, from if you should use butter or shortening to which kind of chocolate chips to use. Plus, grab our recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies.
Step Up Your Baking Game by Weighing Your Ingredients
I hate to tell you, but you're probably adding too much flour to your recipe.
Tips
How to Cut Perfect Cheesecake Slices with Floss
Cutting cheesecake with a knife can leave a real mess behind—and can really butcher your cheesecake slices. Here's a simple tip to cut perfect cheesecake slices with a basic household item you're sure to have.
How to Fold Ingredients for Baking With a Whisk
The way you whip and fold egg whites or whipped cream into batters is crucial to the success of your baked goods. A rubber spatula is the most common tool used to fold ingredients, but there's one that does the job even better. See our tip for how to fold whipped ingredients into batters for baking success.
DIY Flour Shaker for Baking
Having a flour shaker handy when preparing doughs and baked goods is helpful to successful baking—it rations the flour you're using, allowing for a light dusting, and helps keep your hands out of your flour container.
Tips to Keep Cream Cold When Whipping
It's a well-known fact that cold cream whips better—but what do you do when you have a hot kitchen? Here's a few tips and tricks to ensure your heavy cream stays cold so you can make perfect whipped cream every time.
How to Tent Yeast Rolls When Proofing
Sometimes enriched yeast doughs can be sticky, making them tough to cover to rise/proof. Here's a simple trick to create a tent for your rolls and breads to prevent sticking.
How to Cut Perfect, Bakery-Quality Brownies and Cake Slices
Want those crisp, clean edges on your perfectly square brownies? Turn to your pizza wheel to make your brownies and cakes look like they came straight out of the bakery.
How to Make Frosting Shiny
Frosting can sometimes lose its luster after it's been applied to a cake and allowed to set. Here's how to revive it, bring it back to life and make it shiny again.
DIY Cold Slab for Pastry- and Candy-Making
If you have a hot kitchen and/or don't have a marble slab for pastry- and candy-making, here's a simple hack to keep your ingredients cold using a common kitchen item.
How to Make a Frosting Dam for a Filled Layer Cake
A frosting dam helps keep your filled layer cakes looking clean and professional. Here's the simple technique to make a frosting dam when assembling and decorating cakes.
An Easy Way to Stabilize a Layer Cake for Decorating
Assembling and decorating a layer cake can be challenging, especially if your cake is slipping and slidding around when you frost it! Here's a super-simple tip to keep your cake stabilized—plus it helps make cutting the cake easier.
How to Neatly Cut Through Meringue
Meringue can be a challenge—it sticks to your knife and tears, usually messing up your beautiful pie or cake. While it's still tasty, try this quick trick to cut through meringue cleanly every time, leaving perfect slices of pie or cake to serve.
Use a Tea Infusion Spoon as a Flour or Sugar Shaker
A tea infusion spoon/ball may seem like just another unitasker in the kitchen, but with this quick baking tip, you can use it for more tasks.
How-To's
How To Assemble a Layer Cake with Frosting
Follow these simple steps for a cake that’s both impressive and stable.
How To Make Perfect Flaky Pie Crust
Making Perfect Flaky Pie Crust really is as easy as pie. Armed with just a few tips in this simple, step-by-step guide, you’ll be an expert in how to make flaky, tender, and crisp pie crust in no time — you'll wonder why you ever bothered with purchased pie dough in the first place.
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Recipes
German Chocolate Cake
If you’ve got an overactive sweet tooth or a nearly insatiable craving for the melt-in-your-mouth goodness of chocolate, grab a cold glass of milk. This German Chocolate Cake is sure to satisfy.
It isn’t an exaggeration to say most of our staffers are chocoholics, which means it’s also safe to say it’s never in short supply in the Test Kitchen — especially when you discover the two drawers we’ve devoted entirely to stashing it. If chocolate is your weakness, too, we have the recipe f…
Double-Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Get your chocolate fix on with these simple drop cookies. With cocoa powder for a rich chocolate cookie dough and sweet white chocolate chunks, there’s plenty of chocolate flavor to go around. Not to mention macadamia nuts add a little crunch, too.
New York Crumb Cake
Tender cake with buttery crumb topping is all it takes to make breakfast a hit — except maybe the cup of joe to go with it.
Perfect Flaky Pie Crust
Follow this recipe for Perfect Flaky Pie Crust and these simple, easy-to-follow steps to yield the most flaky and tender pie crust you'll ever eat. This will be your new go-to crust for all your pie-baking needs. And be sure to check out our in-depth tutorial How to Make Perfect Flaky Pie Crust for a little more info before you start.
Lemony Popovers
Our Lemony Popovers make the perfect side dish to soups and stews. These flavorful popovers are savory and satisfying.
German Chocolate Macaroons
Some cookies impress you with their good looks. Sweet, dense, and chewy, coconut macaroons impress you with their taste. This one, loaded with flavors from German chocolate cake, is sure to become a year-round favorite. More than anything, this cookie was inspired by the signature coconut-pecan frosting the cake is famous for. Sweetened condensed milk helps bind the cookie together, sweeten it, and, once reduced, decorate the outer layer as well.
Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread
What is quick bread, anyway? Some familiar quick breads are biscuits, corn bread, muffins, and these loaf breads. What they all have in common is that they use baking soda or powder to rise instead of yeast.
Banana-Spice Muffins with Streusel Topping
Muffins aren’t new to the low-fat scene—every coffee shop has them. These muffins taste great and they're the healthier option when you're craving a sweet pastry. The best part is you can make them all yourself.
Granola mini-cakes with cottage icing
Granola is big in these little cakes, adding a variety of whole grains and nuts for a hearty texture.