Plain classic cookies and brownies are always welcome to my table. However, it doesn’t mean I don’t look out for ways to make these goodies better come dessert night.
If you share my sentiment, you’re exactly where you should be.
In this post, I’m sharing four easy baking hacks I’ve learned in my years of baking to make your desserts extra delicious. Take your baking notes out and start scribbling these!
Add an Extra Yolk (Or Two)
As surprising as it sounds, an extra egg yolk or two in your recipe can make a ton of difference in texture and flavor. It’s an easy trick but remarkably effective!
Here’s why it works:
As you likely already know, eggs are essential in baking—from cakes, cookies, meringues, and pastries. They stabilize your baked goods by adding structure to the dough or batter.
But it does more than that, too.
See, egg yolks contain generous amounts of lecithin and fat. These egg components help enrich your cake or cookie flavor and enhance their texture, turning them into the chewy treat of deliciousness everyone loves.
Egg yolks also have an interesting ability to hold your ingredients together (yes, like glue). This feat helps create the moistest, softest, and richest dessert your guest will ever taste!
Cut Some Egg Whites In Cookies
If you love chewy cookies, cutting some of those egg whites may be the hack you’re looking for in your recipe.
See, egg whites tend to make cookies hard and cakey. So, although you can’t omit it altogether, reducing its quantity could help make your treats as chewy, fudgy, and soft as anyone would desire.
The trick is to replace the egg white with a similar amount of liquid. If you remove one egg white, swap it with one tablespoon of water or milk to account for lost moisture in the dough.
A Sprinkle of Salt to Make Your Day
If you’ve had experience baking, you know most recipes call for a pinch of salt. You need salt to enhance the flavor of other ingredients, without which would turn your baked goods flat and boring.
That said, more than a flavor enhancement, salt also helps with the browning process, controls yeast growth, and strengthens the proteins in the flour.
But here’s one trick most newbie bakers don’t know about salt: you can use it to sprinkle on your finished dessert products and boost their flavors, too!
Salt is like the yin of sugar’s yang. Naturally, sprinkling this granulated goodness will make your desserts ten times better, balancing the taste so your cookies don’t turn out cloyingly sweet.
This trick also works in desserts with lemon tarts, making the citrusy taste fresher, or in spiced honey cakes, enhancing the nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon fragrance.
You can finish any sweet dessert with a pinch of salt and make it tastier! To be clear though, I’m talking about flaky sea or coarse salt, not the iodized version on your tabletop.
Use Ice Water For Cakes!
If you’ve been looking up baking tips for moister cakes, I’m sure you stumbled upon the trick of using milk or buttermilk instead of water. And sure, it does work in making your cakes moister.
But what if I told you making your cake extra moist doesn’t even cost a penny? It’s also dairy-free, a plus for those who actively dislike milk or are lactose intolerant.
I’m talking about ice water and its effects on cakes are pretty interesting.
I’ve also just learned this trick, and apparently, cold water helps prevent the fat in your cake ingredients from melting quickly.
You want fat to melt slower when baking to facilitate leavening. The more slowly your fat dissolves the more your baked dough will rise.
Thus, ice water turns your cake lighter and softer treat better than dairy products! Simply replace the liquid needed for your recipe with ice-cold water and you’re good to go.
Final Thoughts
There you have it! Those are four of the best baking tips I’ve tried and tested to make your desserts even more heavenly.
Again, extra egg yolks, less egg whites, salt sprinkles, and ice water. Try them next time you’re planning on dessert night and enjoy!
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.