Basic baking equipment help needed

debtmuncher

ta zippy! will have a look at some point to see whats on offer!

PasturesNew

I've got silicone bakeware, the cheap ones from Tesco, and I find them fantastic. Nothing's ever stuck to them so far, no burnt bits. The benefits I find are:

- no need to grease them
- nothing sticks or burns
- once your cooking is out of them it's a quick wipe around with hot water and a sponge aand they're 100% clean again
- they store easily
- they don't clatter when you're putting them away or moving them about in the cupboard
- they don't rust

With metal bakeware I find they have stains on them that just don't easily go - and I don't like to scrape too hard as they're non-stick.

So for me, silicone is king.

I now have a flat square cake dish, two 1lb loaf pans, a 6-muffin tray and 12 separate muffin cases (not sure about these yet as they are thin and only used 3 of them once so far).

For a baking tray I've just got one at the moment - a round, hole-bottomed pizza one and I cover it in foil if I think what I am cooking needs a whole surface.

I have a hand blender I've never used and a Rosemary Conley Ultimate hand blender (the complete mini processing system) I've used twice.

I have a rolling pin but found it was too large for my worktop (tiny kitchen). A wire cooling tray is needed for cooling off cakes and loaves.

A Pyrex measuring jug is good (I use this to make microwave steamed sponges and microwave flapjacks).

Scales - I tried some non digital ones and couldn't do small portions easily; I bought digital ones but they don't always seem responsive enough so need another set really.

What I'd do is "make do" with the minimum, then once you've cooked something a couple of times you might then choose to buy "the perfect thing" to make it easier next time.

zippychick

debtmuncher wrote: »

ta zippy! will have a look at some point to see whats on offer!

Don't be scared to ask - the girl who gave me stuff was left it by her Mum I think, so it was no use to her, and she was glad to see it go to a good home (plus the Hm buns I made hopefully pleased her too!) :money:

SallyForth_2

With your specific list of things you would like to make for Christmas I would suggest you need.


Weighing Scales. Essential
Some sort of blender/whisk. I'd say essential
Plenty of mixing bowls of different sizes. Essential (especially the large one, if you are going to make a christmas cake or christmas pudding)
Wooden Spoons. 1 is essential, but have a few if you can.
Metal tablespoon. Not essential, you can improvise with dessert spoons.
Spatulars. Not essential.
measuring spoons. Not essential, if you have the tablespoon, and some teaspoons.
Palette knife. Not essential, but these have quite a few uses.
Sieve. I'd say essential.
Wire cooling trays. 1 essential, but a couple is better if you are having a big baking session.
Grater. Not essential if you have a food processor which can grate lemon rind, Apple etc.
Lemon Squeezer. Not essential if you are Jamie Oliver.
Pastry/cookie/candy Cutters. Not essential.
Rolling Pin. Not essential, you could use a wine bottle.
Sharp Knives/peeler. essential for peeling and chopping
Piping set. Not essential, you can improvise one with greaseproof paper.

Tins. Essential:-
Christmas Cakes or fruit cakes are normally baked in a high sided cake/loaf tins with either a loose or fixed bottom

Sponge Cakes (especially if there is going to be a filling in the middle) work best in shallow, fixed bottom tins, you need to have a matching pair ideally. Cheaper ones tend to be very shallow, so the sponge layers won't be very thick. Sponges will work in deeper tins, but are more tricky to get right without the middle sinking.

Roulades, Swiss Rolls or Yule logs are made in oblong baking trays with a shallow lip. I would recommend getting the best you can afford, because the cheaper ones sort of buckle when in the oven and the sponge ends up thicker at one end.

Pastry pies work best in tins. Fairy cake tins for mince pies (or the deeper muffin tins). Larger pies in flan or metal pie dishes. I personally haven't had much success with glass or ceramic pie dishes as the pastry doesn't seem to crisp up properly. I haven't used silicon bakewear, so can't comment.

Very soft desserts, like a cheesecake work best in the loose bottom tins.

Biscuits (I am thinking, like Ginger bread men, or Christmas Biscuits to hang on the tree), need a flat baking sheet (get two if you can as one is never big enough)

Fudge needs a decent large saucepan for boiling the suger mixture in, as it rises up and will burn in any cheapo pan. You can get away without using a sugar themometer though, as there is the "dropping blobs in vert cold water" method to see when it ready. You will need a shallow baking tin to pour the mixture in to set.

Other sweets, it depends? Peppermint creams for example are a dough made from icing suger, so you will need that sieve, rolling pin and possibly something to use as small cutters. Or, if you children have playdough/plasticine modalling accessories, give them a good wash and use to them to make your very own unqiue creations

That's my take on getting started, but you will no doubt find when you look at receipes, that someone has found an ingenious new use for a piece of bakewear, or found another novel way to make something.

debtmuncher

be careful if you have a small cooker....large trays obviously wont go in as i found out a few years ago!! when we bought the cooker i didnt realise they came in different sizes!! so ours is the smallest, patiently waiting for a few years when we can redo the kitchen with a normal size cooker lol