Baking Tips & Tricks

Fluff your flour before measuring

Stir the flour in the bag or bin to loosen it, then spoon it lightly into the measuring cup and level with a knife edge — don't scoop straight from the bag. Scooping packs flour down and can add up to 20% extra, which is the most common cause of dense, dry baking.

No bread flour? Use all-purpose

All-purpose flour works fine in place of bread flour in home baking; the crumb will be a touch less chewy. To get closer to bread flour's texture, stir in about 1 tsp vital wheat gluten per cup of all-purpose flour, if you have it.

No cake flour? Make your own

For every cup of cake flour called for, measure 1 cup all-purpose flour, remove 2 tbsp, and replace it with 2 tbsp cornstarch. Sift together a couple of times to combine.

No brown sugar? Make your own

Blend or stir 1 cup granulated sugar with 1 tbsp molasses (use 2 tbsp for a dark brown sugar). It'll be a little drier than store-bought but works the same in baking.

Salted vs. unsalted butter

Unsalted is the safer default since it lets a recipe's own salt measurement do the controlling. If salted is all you have, it's fine to use — just cut back the recipe's added salt by roughly 1/4 tsp for every 1/2 cup of salted butter used. Recipes on this site do that math for you when you toggle to salted.

Cold ingredients make flaky pastry

For biscuits and pie dough, keep the butter, the liquid, and even the bowl cold. Butter that's still in small solid pieces when it hits the oven melts there, releasing steam that pushes the layers apart — butter that's already soft or melted can't do that.

Getting a fluffier interior on rolls and buns

Shape dough balls by tucking the edges under and pinching them together on the bottom, so the top stays smooth and taut — that tension helps the dough rise up instead of spreading out. Proof somewhere warm and free of drafts, and avoid working in too much extra flour while shaping.

Chewy vs. crispy cookies

More brown sugar relative to white sugar means more moisture, which means chewier cookies; chilling the dough also firms the butter and reduces spread for a thicker, chewier result. For crispier, flatter cookies, use more white sugar, flatten the dough balls before baking, and bake a couple of minutes longer.

Is my yeast dead?

Stir it into warm (not hot) water with a pinch of sugar and wait 10 minutes. If it doesn't get foamy and bubbly, the yeast is dead — start over with a fresh batch rather than hoping it'll still work.

Why is my bread dense?

The usual suspects, in order of likelihood: too much flour packed into the measuring cup (see the fluffing tip), not enough kneading to build gluten structure, yeast killed by water that was too hot, or not enough rise time. Dough is ready to shape when a poked finger leaves a dent that springs about halfway back.