Cooking Hints & Tips

I found these at the front of a recipe book that someone gave me. Some of them are good old fashioned tips that seem like they could come from Grandma, but still pretty insightful. I just wanted to keep them handy... because you never know! 

• Cream the butter: It is best to cream butter by itself before adding the sugar.
• Chocolate Cake trick: When a chocolate cake requires greasing and flouring the pans, try using cocoa instead of flour. When the cake is done, there will be no white flour residue on your cake and it adds flavor.
• Sticky spoons: Before measuring honey or other sticky ingredients, dip your spoon in oil. 
• Moist Icing: Add a pinch of baking soda to your frosting and the frosting will stay moist and prevent cracking.
• Smooth Icing: Dip your icing spatula in hot water and dry with a paper towel. The heat from the water will melt the oil in the icing making it smoother. 
• Shiny crusts: For shiny pie crusts, brush the crust lightly with milk.
• Frying: Never salt food to be fried -- it will draw moisture to the surface and cause spattering in the hot oil.
• Cooling Rack: Use double-thick paper towels to place over cooling rack to keep the rack from making imprints into the cake while cooling.
• Moist Cake: To make any home-made or boxed chocolate cake recipe moist and fluffier, add a spoonful of vinegar to the dry ingredients. You'll be amazed at the difference. 
• Low-Fat: Apple sauce is a great fat substitute for low-fat baking. Simply substitute half the fat in a recipe with an equal measure of applesauce.
• No Germs: Disinfect your kitchen sponges by placing them in the microwave for 60 seconds.