The 5 Essential Ingredients for Baking, Explained

For having just a few ingredients, dough is a pretty complex thing. Understanding a few fundamentals will educate your technique.

1. Flour

CAKE AND PASTRY FLOURS

These have a lower protein content, meaning they contain less gluten, giving them a more delicate crust. Think cakey, not crispy.

ALL-PURPOSE AND BREAD FLOURS

These are higher in gluten. Think pizza dough, pasta and baguettes.

HOW TO MEASURE FLOUR

Always transfer your flour from the bag to another container to aerate it. It has probably traveled across the country to get to you with literal tons of flour on top of it. You’ll get the most accurate volume measurement from fluffed flour. A cup of flour scraped out of a packed bag could actually be a cup and a half if it isn’t fluffed up. King Arthur Flour is my all-around favorite. It has been around since 1790 and is a fully employee-owned company; even more important, they are passionate bakers consistently delivering a superior product.

HOW TO FLOUR YOUR SURFACE

Use a sifter or a shaker, or hold a handful of flour in your hand and shake it like dice.

When you’re kneading dough, you want as little flour as possible to avoid offsetting the recipe, but go for the flour when you’re rolling because you do not want that baby to stick to the counter! You can always brush off any excess; flour not mixed into anything and cooked just tastes bitter and sad.

2. Salt

If you forget salt, the dough will taste a bit flat and stale.

KOSHER SALT

I prefer kosher salt for almost everything I make, whether sweet or savory. Kosher refers to the size of the crystals. It’s the salt that’s packed onto a kosher slaughtered animal to draw out impurities. Remember this if you ever buy a kosher chicken or turkey! They’ve already been salted.

TABLE SALT

Table salt is too fine: the crystals are much smaller, so more salt will fit in the teaspoon, making things ultimately too salty. If your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of salt but all you have is table salt, then reduce the amount to 2⁄3 teaspoon or it will be too salty.

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3. Butter

There is no industry standard for how much salt actually gets added to butter, so always use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of seasoning.

EUROPEAN-STYLE BUTTER

I like to use this butter because it has a higher fat percentage, resulting in a more tender final product.

CULTURED BUTTER

This butter is made with a soured cream that can have a slightly tangy flavor. It is great for toast, but the expense and flavor impact rule it out for baking with me.

Butter actually coats the strands of gluten, keeping them short and hindering their development, which keeps your baked goods tender and...

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