For a better baking experience: Prepare and repair

I just made the Low-Carb Carrot Cake from ditchthecarbs.com. I used Xylitol as sweetener, added another tsp of vanilla (because that's almost always a good idea), and used a heaping tablespoon of "Mickey's Five-spice" instead of the other spices. The batter was quite satisfying and not very sweet, but the cream cheese frosting part of the recipe is all manner of wrong. The carb/protein ratio is really good, we could use 50/50 whole-wheat and almond flour and still be balanced. Let's see the results:


It set fine, but was somewhat dense and dry, falling apart too easily. It was not very sweet at all, possibly due to using a sweetener with a different amount of sweetening power

But what I really want to write about is the process, and how this was the most stress-free baking experience ever. I think of it as "prepare and repair". The "prepare" part is also beautifully known as "mise en place" ([mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) and basically means to have all the ingredients out and ready before starting to prepare anything. "Repair" refers to cleaning up as you go or immediately after work stops. While I didn't strictly follow this slightly more specific method (I started to melt the butter before everything was out), here's my approach:

  1. Read the recipe carefully. Some recipes have traps like heating the oven when the dough needs half an hour of resting, take unexpectedly long, or have special tool requirements. Running out of time or tools halfway through is no fun. I've been bad about that in the past.
  2. Take all ingredients out of storage and place them at the working surface, making sure there is enough of each ingredient. This step eliminates a common failure mode of mine: Not realizing that I'm missing some crucial ingredient until I'm halfway through the receipt. 
  3. Prepare oven/containers. Greasing baking pans shouldn't wait until the last minute. The oven takes time to heat up. But don't heat it up early if the dough will rest for a long time.
  4. Chop/grate/melt etc. ingredients. Except a few cases like apples where extended oxidation is a bad idea, this separates two very distinct modes of work. It also means that if for some reason you have to abort early, these ingredients can probably be saved for later.
  5. Combine ingredients. This is now often a trivial task, or if the recipe is tricky, a much easier task for not being intertwined with finding or processing ingredients.
  6. Pour into containers & bake. Enjoy the smell and get high on anticipatory dopamins!
  7. Clean up. This is the "repair" part, where the messy kitchen gets fixed back to a nice state. Put all ingredient containers away, either wash or at least rinse and place together all the dirty tools, and wipe down the surfaces. It doesn't take long, but makes a huge difference in how it feels to be in the kitchen.

Comments

  1. Pam23 March 2018 at 22:57

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  2. Pam23 March 2018 at 22:58

    In addition to taking everything out at the start, I put each ingredient container away as it's used. That way it's more obvious if I've completely forgotten to add something -- hey, why is the cinnamon still sitting here when I thought I was done mixing? -- plus it starts a little on the cleanup.

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