Baking tips

Celebrity chef Ina Garten has been helping cooks find their way around the kitchen since the late 1990s with her massively successful Food Network show, Barefoot Contessa, and 10 cookbooks. The Ask Ina section on Garten’s website features some of her best tips, including:

1

Embrace your freezer There’s nothing quite like a hot scone for breakfast, brunch or afternoon tea. Pre-cut and freeze the dough and you’ll always have a few unbaked scones ready to pop in your oven for guests. Chocolate-chip cookie dough also freezes well. Roll into balls, stick ’em in a freezer bag and pop in the oven whenever you crave warm cookies.

2

Throw your sheet pans in the dishwasher

To keep her sheet pans looking brand new, Ina scrubs them with a Brillo pad and then runs them through the dishwasher. She recommends using parchment paper to avoid mucking them up further.

3

Transporting dessert

If you’re bringing dessert to a family gathering, choose a sweet treat that travels well, like brownies. If you’re going to transport something in a baking dish, such as an apple crisp, place a damp towel under it to keep it from sliding around in the trunk of your car.

4

Master the dreaded pastry bag

Instead of avoiding recipes that involve a piping bag, follow Garten’s sage advice to master this skill. Make a batch of whipped cream (“store bought is fine”) and pipe it onto a cutting board until you’re comfortable using this baking tool.

5

You don’t need fancy chocolate chips

While Garten’s been known to use pricey ingredients, she relies on Nestle and Hershey’s chocolate chips.

6

And don’t skimp on cocoa powder

She’s partial to Pernigotti.

7

Stop using table salt Garten uses Diamond kosher salt in all of her recipes, including in her baked goods. She says it has a milder flavour than table salt, which she thinks tastes metallic.

8

Serve your meringues pronto

It’s perfectly normal for the meringue on your lemon meringue pie to deflate after a few hours, so serve it soon after you make it.

9

It’s OK if your cheesecake doesn’t look perfect Garten says all baked cheesecakes look lightly browned around the edges, making them look “perfectly done.” And if yours cracks in the baking process, just cover it with berries.