baking wisdom

Here are a few common sense baking lessons from my experiences today:

Lesson 1: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now, this adage applies to lots of things. But specifically, it means I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to 1) line my lemon bar pan, 2) with parchment. Tinfoil, okay. Parchment? Totally stuck. I almost had to chuck the whole batch and remake them. Which brings us to...

Lesson 2: Lots of baking errors can be fixed. Sure, the apple cake batter I dropped all over the floor was a goner. But this week, when the cakes I was torting started to fall apart, because they were really too warm to cut, I was able to glue them together with frosting. And tonight, when I had to invert my lemon bars onto a cutting board to peel off the parchment, thereby leaving half the glaze stuck to said cutting board, I was able to easily make more glaze. No one will be the wiser. And that leads to...

Lesson 3: Save everything. I am a huge fan of both saving and recycling. I have been known to collect egg yolks when making recipes that just call for the whites (puddings and lemon curd are good uses for extra yolks!). You don't have to make yourself crazy saving every scrap of everything, but if you have, say, an extra tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, hang onto it for an extra hour or so. You never know when you'll have to make more glaze!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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