Calling all MN bakers!

[BenWillbondsPants]

I have recently discovered a love of baking and I seem to be OK (ish) at it! So I've been trawling the net looking at recipes, equipment etc etc. Oh my, there's SO much stuff that you apparently need and all I seem to have is some bowls, spoons, cake tins, seive and a whisk. I do have a food mixer but don't use it very often.

So my questions are, dear bakers - what are your essentials which make your life easier and produce the best results?

Do you think more expensive ingredients are always better? There seems to be a massive difference in the price of flours depending on brand.

And tips? What are your best tips when you're baking?

A good set of kitchen scales. I also use an oven thermometer (that's just my preference as my oven is old)

Vanilla paste rather than essence. Makes a world of difference.

Digital scales
Good quality tins.

Practice, my favourite part as it involves eating.

Electric whisk or a stand mixer
Decent tins (thick ones spread the heat better and mean cakes rise better)
Electronic scales make life easier
A silicone spatula

Ingredients wise, yes - use vanilla extract or paste rather than flavouring. It costs more but does last forever as you need less of it.

Wilton baking tins are excellent quality and very cheap from TK Max.

Digital scales, silicone spatula and don't skimp on the ingredients like vanilla and chocolate. Know your oven- I know mine runs hot so will adjust baking temp accordingly.

Not much! Despite having plenty of tins in a variety of shapes and sizes, i use the cupcake tin and the pair of round cake sandwich tins a lot, and the rest once every 5 years if that.

Sieve, decent scales. A few bowls of any type (I use cereal bowls to weigh stuff into or beat eggs in before adding to main mix)

I adore my stand mixer, best thing I ever invested in.

Scales.
Bowl.
Whisk.
Sieve.
Spatula and spoons.
Rolling pin.
Loose bottom cake tins - 2 sandwich tins and a deep cake tin. Have a look on ebay and in charity shops as decent ones are expensive.
Baking trays.
Baking parchment , sheets or paper.
Cooling racks.

Practice some cheap easy recipes to get to know your oven before you try anything ambitious. Easy ones to start with are crumbles, fruit/Dundee cake, rock buns and gingerbread men.

Look for the BeRo recipe book.
www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Ro-Home-Baked-Recipes/dp/B005XJSNZW?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

You can download Mrs Beeton from the Gutenberg Project;
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10136

I absolutely don't think that expensive ingredients are usually better other than vanilla extraxt over essence. Aldi/Lidl flour is absolutely fine (better if you sieve it), as are all their basic ingredients - butter, sugars, dried fruit, eggs, cream cheese etc. Home Bargains is really good for caster sugar and icing sugar - cheaper than aldi/lidl. Their baking parchment is also v. good value.

Butter can be a big expense. I don't think there's anything wrong with substituting part or all of it with stork/own brand equivalent. Especially when you're practising and things may not always turn out as you would like! You can at least compare with butter in recipes and decide whether it's worth paying the difference.

Oh the BeRo book! That's literally just taken me back about 40 years to watching my mum baking in the kitchen.

There seem to be so many contraptions and I'm sure most of them are probably not necessary. I do have a lot of baking tins/cake pans etc., but not all the best quality so perhaps I need to have a clear out and just keep the best ones.

I would say invest in some washable greaseproof that you can cut to size for your various tins. Absolute basics are a couple of 7 inch round loose bottom tins, a brownie tin, couple of flat sheets and a muffin tin that will cover a lot of eventualities. Cheaper ingredients are generally fine. Stork is great for most cakes, be careful with biscuits, block stork is better or butter at that point as they need the higher fat content to hold together. If you want to branch out beyond good electric scales then some American cups are helpful. Oh plus a decent set of measuring spoons.

I'm toying with the idea of washable silicone mats for biscuits etc?

perhaps I need to have a clear out and just keep the best ones.

No, don't do that! IMO it's useful to have as many different sizes, shapes etc as possible. Personally I haven't really found that heavy-duty stuff makes much difference to the finished result. Cheaper stuff is less durable but unless it's something that I'm going to be using a lot then I don't especially mind. Having said that, I've got a tray bake tin that cost £3.50 from Argos. I use it constantly and it's still going strong after about 2 years.

I'd add an electric hand whisk for cakes and for whipping cream. Much easier than a basic hand whisk but without the faff of a stand mixer. Easy to wash and doesn't take up much room in a cupboard.

Yes I find the electric hand whisk a god send, it's only a basic one but it does the job. I tend to use the stand mixer for bigger cakes or for bread though.

Isn't it odd how much satisfaction you get out of making something yourself? Much moreso than cooking a meal I think (which I do enjoy too). I made scones last night just because I fancied it and was eating a lovely hot buttered scone within half and hour of starting to make them. Lovely.