Thursday, January 31, 2013

A lesson in baking. Preheating is important.

Recently I was at my sisters home and we were discussing her disastrous  attempt at making break apart brownies.  *L*  Yes, the kind that are already made and in a block that you just break apart and bake.  She proceeded to tell me how she put them in the oven but they just 'melted' and then burnt.

Well, what she actually said, was that she had some chicken in the oven then decided since the oven was hot she would make up break apart brownies.  She had the oven on 250, to keep the chicken warm, took the chicken out and then immediately put the brownies in, they 'melted', as I said,  and then she thought "oh I better turn it up" so then they burnt.  *L*   She's never liked baking, because almost every time she does the cookies or brownies or cake burns and never comes out right.  
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We talked about it a little longer and I discovered that she never preheats her oven.

Well, that's the problem!

Preheating may not be necessary (or at least disastrous  when baking up a casserole, but for baked goods it's an entirely different story.   Most baked goods need to be baked at a high temp for a short amount of time, otherwise the inside can cook before the outside, which means you won't have a browned top or bottom, then you try to put the pan back in to get the brown and before you know it the entire cookie, or whatever, is cooked to death.   Also think about the biscuits that have butter in them, if they are put into a very hot oven, the butter melts and steams and does what it's suppose to.  When they are put into a very low temp oven (one that is trying to reach full temp) the butter melts slowly, oozes and does not steam; it does not do it's job, so you get dense, hard, often hockey-puck like biscuits.  




Anyone can bake , and even bake well, it just takes preheating your oven , following a recipe , correct measurements. Oh and don't over bake.