About This Quiz
Are you taking on a baking project? Good for you! Do you know everything that you'll need? Maybe so, but do you know what all those things are called and what their purpose is? Perhaps not. Knowing what you're working with will make your baking process so much easier and, not to mention, more enjoyable. There are so many gimmicks out there that you see on infomercials, and you're inundated with "must have" products down the aisle of pretty much every store. A lot of those things you do need, but a lot of them are just for fun. Having those gadgets will only add to the baking experience and make you want to do it more.
If you saw some of these gadgets on the shelf, but the label was missing, would you know what it is? This might be the most fun and delicious trivia game yet! It might make you want to get in your kitchen and whip something up, but you might have to run to the store first to get one of the must-have items. Do you think you can name all of these essential baking gadgets? Take the quiz now to see how many you know!
A stand mixer is an essential baking gadget. It can be expensive, but so worth the investment. It will make creating bread dough, whipping cream or egg whites and achieving the perfectly fluffy cookie dough a breeze.
The best thing about an actual candy thermometer is that it has markers right on the side with things like "soft ball" and "hard ball," which are both stages of heating sugar. Most candy recipes will have those terms in them, so having the thermometer pretty much does the hard work for you.
While most recipes will call for ingredients in cups, tablespoons or teaspoons, the ones that have you weigh out ingredients will give you a better result almost every time. Because of that, a kitchen scale will be your best friend.
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Silpats are a baker's best-kept secret. It's a silicon mat that can be washed and reused and prevents sticky things from sticking to your sheet pan. The bottoms of your cookies will be perfectly brown, and your homemade marshmallow will come out easier than ever.
OK, so it's not actually a plane like the air kind, but it is an apparatus that allows you to scrape the very fine top layer of color off of things like lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit. A lot of citrus forward recipes call for the zest, so this is a must-have.
While this serves as an excellent background for photos of your finished product, it's also great for rolling out things like pie dough. Marble holds temperature really well, so it will keep the butter in your pastry dough cold to keep those flaky layers.
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The benefit of an offset spatula, especially when frosting cakes, is that your hand is further away from the surface. With this method, you run less of a risk of messing up your frosting by brushing it with the side of your hand. It's also great for getting into the corners of high-sided baking pans.
For any dough that needs to be thinned out to a specific thickness, a rolling pin is really the only solution. There are substitutions you can use in a pinch, but none will do the job as accurately as the classic rolling pin.
Incorporating butter with flour for pastry dough is called "cutting." You don't want to do this step by hand because your body heat will melt the butter and your pastry dough won't be flaky.
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You might be wondering how this is different than a Silpat. Parchment paper is cheaper, for one, but it's also more practical for simple baking like brownies and loaf cakes or bread. A Silpat wouldn't be ideal for these types of baked goods.
Having a flexible scraper made of hard plastic will make your life so much easier when you need to ease bread dough out of the bowl or if you want to make sure you get every single last drop of batter into your cake pan.
Squeezing the handle and trigger of a traditional sifter gets your workout in so you can eat more of whatever it is you're baking. It works differently than other mesh strainers in that there's a mechanism that forces lumps through the mesh to ensure powdery perfection.
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Getting those perfect letters on a birthday cake or the fluffy balloons in the corner like they do at bakeries is made much easier with a pastry bag. They come in tons of sizes and are best utilized with a variety of tips for different styles and patterns.
A serrated knife is able to get through the initial crust of a cake of brownie without crushing it. This will lead to cleaner cuts and hopefully more even layers. Heating up the knife ahead of time will also help with the precision.
If it's not in your budget to get a stand mixer or if your recipe doesn't require one, a hand mixer is a great option. You have complete control of where the mixer hits and you can move the bowl around as well. Your arm might get tired, though.
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These are essentially mini ice cream scoops that are used to get cookie dough or cupcake better out of the mixing bowl and onto a pan. The most important aspect of it is getting all of the baked goods the same size.
A cooling rack is designed to let air flow underneath of whatever it is that you're cooling so that the bottom isn't sitting in its own heat. This will cause soggy and gummy bottoms, which is not ideal.
A sheet pan can either be rimmed or not, but either way, it is what you will bake cookies or sheet cakes on. They're designed to keep everything level for even baking and come in a variety of sizes ranging from quarter sheet to full sheet.
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Cheesecakes usually have a delicate and crumbly graham cracker crust so a typical cake pan won't really work. With a springform, you can release the sides of the pan and get the cheesecake out in full, so you don't have to dig around in a container for a piece of cake.
Mixing bowls are essential. They are big enough to combine all of your ingredients without them spilling all over your counter but small enough that you can hold them to pour your batter into the proper pan.
Measuring cups won't work for ingredients in smaller amounts. Things like salt, baking soda and powder and the like will require something smaller like measuring spoons. They will range in measurements from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon.
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Silicon spatulas are far more flexible than their plastic counterparts. They can get into the tight spaces that a scraper cannot to make sure that your batter or mixture isn't missing any key ingredients that got left behind in your measuring tools.
A traditional pie plate will have built-in fluted edges for that desirable and decorative crust. It can be deeper or more shallow, depending on which kind you get, but all of them are designed specifically for pie baking and serving.
A cake stand was once only used by professionals, but now the everyday home baker has discovered this magical item. It brings the cake more up to eye level so that you can get a better look at it and have a better vantage point for decorating.
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You can get a pastry brush with hair like bristles, or a silicon kind that looks like sea anemone. This will lightly apply your egg wash to the surface of whatever needs it without drowning it.
Pot holders are made of materials that protect your hands from the heat when taking things out of the oven. The other options will work, but you won't regret having specific pot holders.
When do you stop kneading? When has it risen enough? When is it done baking? A bread machine literally does all of this for you. You'll still have to measure or weigh out all the ingredients though.
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Shaped to fit right inside a half of a lemon or lime and ridged to get through the membrane in between the individual pieces, a citrus reamer is the most efficient way to get the most juice out a piece of fruit.
Basically, you shove your cookie dough into the tunnel, put the pushing piece on top, and squeeze the handle. That will force the cookie dough out of the patterned disk at the bottom and leave you with beautifully shaped cookies.
Any recipe you follow has been carefully thought out and tested. There will be a specific time you'll need to bake your item, and you should stick to that, at least at first. Once you get comfortable baking, you might be able to adjust things based on your oven and texture preferences.
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Pie weights are an actual thing made of steel or ceramic. But pro tip. Dried beans work just as well! Just make sure you line the raw crust with parchment paper before putting the weights in so it doesn't dent and stick to your crust.
A wooden spoon is an all-purpose utensil, but it comes in especially handy for batters can that can be easily over mixed. You won't be able to get out all the lumps, which is actually a good thing.
Having plenty of kitchen towels on hand will make your baking experience so much better. You can quickly wipe up a rogue batter or an egg white that didn't want to stay in the shell. Keep a damp one for getting up flour before it cakes to your surfaces.
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Mise en place is a French expression that translates to "everything in its place" and means that all of your ingredients and equipment are measured out and ready to go for when you need them.
They come in paper, silicon or foil, but no matter what kind you buy, cupcake liners will elevate your cupcake process. Not only do they prevent the batter from sticking, but they also add a decorative touch.
An egg white and a yolk come as a package deal, but that doesn't mean they always need to be used together. You can separate them in your hands, but that grosses a lot of people out. Getting a slotted egg separator will solve that problem.
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When you cut biscuits, you don't want to squish the sides. If you do, they won't rise in those perfect layers you love. Regular cookies cutters aren't always sharp enough to do this, so a specific biscuit cutter is needed.
Trivets are often made of ceramic and have little feet on them to further get a hot pan off your table. These are perfect if you plan on serving hot apple pie or if you're too impatient to take your cookies off the sheet pan.
A huller is designed to get the top leaves and part of the core out of the strawberry, so you're only utilizing the freshest and most juicy part of the berry. This isn't a necessity, but it is the easiest and safest way to accomplish the task.
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Whisk wipers are somewhat of a new gadget, but how did we ever live without them? It gets all of the remaining batter or mixture off of your whisk to avoid it getting dry and making the whisk impossible to clean.