Kitchen tips

Make your own sour cream substitute

Have you ever been caught out needing sour cream for a recipe only to find that you have none and the shops are closed. Here is an easy substitution.

Mix one tablespoon of lemon juice into a cup of evaporated milk. Leave the mixture at room temperature for 40 minutes, and you've got sour cream.

No evaporated milk in the pantry? Do not worry. Just mix three-quarters of a cup of buttermilk or sour milk with five tablespoons of melted and cooled butter.

Make fluffier pancakes using club soda

Are you and your family getting fed up with dull flat pancakes. Your family and friends will wonder what magical recipe you've stumbled across when you serve them pancakes lighter than air.

The secret is to simply substitute club soda for the recipe's liquid ingredients. The gas in the club soda makes the pancakes fluffier.

Try something new rolled sandwiches

Do you ever get bored with boring sandwiches. Here is a clever little tip to impress your friends or to give someone a treat in their lunchbox. Rolled sandwiches look like they have been made by a caterer but are very simple to make.

First, trim the crust off half a loaf of thin sandwich bread. Next, mix cream cheese with various shades of food coloring and spread a different color on each slice of bread. Stack them in groups of four or five layers. Finally, use a cheese slicer to cut dainty sandwiches as you would a jelly roll.

Simple yet effective.

Stop throwing out salad and keep it fresh

If you are fed up with buying salad only for it not to be fresh on the day you need it, or do you dread the preparation? This tip will solve your dilemma.

Make a crisp, tossed salad the day before you need it using the following;

Choose a large bowl and add lettuce, celery, cucumbers, cabbage, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, green and red peppers, carrots, and green onions. Don't add any tomatoes.

Cover the salad completely with water and refrigerate. When it's time to serve, drain the salad well and add tomatoes. Your salad will be as fresh as if you just made it.

How to make a heart shaped cake, Valentine cake

Have you ever wondered how a heart-shaped cakes are made that you see in the bakery window. Do they use a special tin? Well the answer is no and they are really a cinch to make.

You'll need two cake pans, one round and one square. Divide your cake mix between the pans and bake. Once the cakes have cooled, cut the round cake in half. Now turn the square cake on an angle so it looks like a diamond and add the half-circle pieces to each top side.

Frost with pretty pink and red icing, and you will melt the heart of any loved one.

Use a plastic shower cap when rising dough for bread

If you make your own bread and often wonder what to use to cover your rising dough use a clean, plastic shower cap. A large cap will allow enough room for the dough to rise without becoming uncovered.

The cap can be washed and used again and again.

Used coffee tins make great bread tins

If you make your own bread and would like to try something new. Save small coffee cans to bake round loaves of bread. Using your favorite bread recipe, put the dough in a well-greased coffee can.

If you’re making a yeast bread, use two cans and fill each only half full. Grease the lids, too, and place them on the cans. When the rising dough pushes the lids off, it's time to bake the bread.

Place the coffee cans - without lids - upright in the oven to bake.

Speed up bread making with fast-acting yeast.

If you make your own bread then a simple way to speed up the process is to exchange a packet of regular, dry active yeast for a packet of fast-acting yeast. True to its name, the fast-acting yeast will go right to work making those bubbles in the dough that cause it to rise.

Also, make sure all your ingredients are at room tempera­ture

How to ensure you always have golden cookies

Do you ever wonder how to always have a golden yellow glow from your baked cookies or biscuits. A simple tip is to add a teaspoon of sugar to your dry ingredients.

The sugar crystals caramelize on the crust to give the biscuits a lovely tan.

Less mess when measuring ingredients for recipes

You can create quite a mess when you are trying to be organised whilst preparing to bake your favorite recipe. It is a great idea to have all the ingredients in little bowls or plates, all weighed or measured before hand. This can just make more mess to clear up afterwards.

So instead of using bowls or plates use coffee filters to separate ingredients you've measured for a recipe. Or if you are to weigh ingredients place a coffee filer in the bowl of the kitchen scales.

You'll save yourself the trouble of washing several bowls.

Save time when measuring ingredients for cakes, bread etc

If you do a lot of baking, you can use this tip to better organise your measuring of ingredients for recipes. When you buy flour and sugar in bulk, separate them immediately into one-cup portions (Or pounds, kilos).

Store the portions in resealable plastic bags and keep them in a cool, dry place.

The next time it comes to make your favorite recipe you will not be slowed down by measuring the most common ingredients.

Cake stuck to the tin or pan after baking?

You may have baked your cake to perfection, but what do you do if the cake is stuck to the bottom of the tin or pan? First of all don't panic. Generally speaking all that is happening is the sugar and oil have hardened against the side of the tin and are holding the cake solid.

You need to heat the bottom of the pan to soften the hardened sugar and oil that are making it stick. You can do this by filling a large bowl with hot water and dipping the bottom of the pan in it.

Or, if you have an electric stove, heat a burner then turn it off. Wait until it's warm but not hot, and place the cake pan on it for a few minutes.

Either way, your cake should slip out of the cake tin or pan easily.

Grease cake tins with solid vegetable shortening

Do you have problems with your cakes sticking to the pan after cooking. Your will find that your cakes will slip easily from their pans if you grease them with solid vegetable shortening instead of butter, which contains more water.

For best results, line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper. Don't forget to grease and flour the sides of the pans. A cake won't rise properly if the pan is greased but not floured. The flour gives the batter something to cling to as it expands.

Tip for flouring cake tins

When a cake mix recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead of flour, and you won't get a white mess on the outside of your cake.

Simple tip for greasing pans and cake tins

Greasing cake tins and casserolle dishes can be a bit of a mess. Here is a simple idea. Save the wrappers or the paper that covers the margarine in tubs and keep them in a plastic bag in your refrigerator.

The bit of margarine clinging to the paper is perfect for buttering a cake pan or casserole dish with­out getting your hands greasy

Tip for beautiful fruit pies

When you are baking fruit pies a little tip is to always use a glass baking dish. The reason for this is that metal pans can react with the acid from fruit and discolor the pie.

Just remember to reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees when using glass.

Secret to making your pastry light and flaky

If you like your pastry on pies to be light and flaky, all you need to do is add a teaspoon of vinegar into the cold water used to make the dough.

You will be amazed at the results

Make your pie crusts shine with egg white

Have you ever wondered how professional bak­ers get that glossy shine on their pies? It's really quite simple.

Beat an egg white and brush it over the crust before baking, and your pie will shine like a star.

You can also get a similar result by using milk.

Use flour to stop cookies from going flat

How often do you make cookies that involve rolling the mixture into balls and then placing them on a baking sheet for cooking. Only to see the mixture spead out like a pancake?

Try adding a thin sprinkling of flour to your cookie sheet after greasing it. The flour will keep the cookies from spreading out too much, and it will also keep chocolate chips from sticking and burning.

Be quick to cut your baked bar cookies

If you make cookies that you have to cut into bars when they have been baked, I am sure that you know that it can be real hard to get them cut neatly.

You can have perfectly cut bar cookies instead of jagged pieces if you score the cookie dough as soon as it comes out of the oven. Let it cool completely, then cut the bars along the lines you made.

Cookie cutting tips for great results

Do you want refrigerator cookies that look like you got them from a bakery?

Use a cheese slicer to cut uniform pieces from the roll.

And for angels and gingerbread men with all their limbs intact, dip plastic cookie cutters in warm oil before using.

Bake cookies that stay fresh

Do your homemade cookies turn into rocks before they can all be eaten? You can slow this down from happening by using honey.

Use honey for the recipe instead of sugar and your cookies will stay moist for longer. Note however you will need to make the following adjustment to the recipe. For every cup of honey you use, decrease other liquid in the recipe by one-fourth cup.

Make cutting cookies easy

To get perfect shaped cookies you can first chill them in the refrigerator. One really simple way of doing this is as follows:

You'll need the inner cardboard from a roll of paper towels. Cut the roll length­wise, so you can open the tube. Line the inside with wax paper, then pack your cookie dough inside. Close it up, securing it with rubber bands, and chill the dough according to your recipe.

When its time for slicing, you'll have a perfectly shaped roll.

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