Following a recipe doesn’t always guarantee success, in fact, there’s plenty that can go wrong between the preparation and cooking stages.
Of course, the right ingredients, techniques and tools are fundamental to crafting flavoursome dishes, but it leaves little room for experimenting.
To help people master the art of being both successful and creative in the kitchen, TV chef and This Morning star, Juliet Sear, has revealed a comprehensive toolkit for home bakers.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk as part of her partnership with Disney Home and Prestige, she claimed that setting aside “plenty of time” and choosing “simple recipes” are both crucial, but when it comes to bending the rules, there are other tricks people can try.
A good place to start for inexperienced bakers is making a British classic – the humble Victoria sponge.
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Juliet said: “Choosing simple recipes to begin with like cookies and cakes because it’s not too much to overwhelm you.
“Things like a Victoria sponge is a really simple recipe, it’s just equal quantities of every ingredient.
“With a Victoria sponge I think as long as you’ve got a delicious sponge recipe, you can keep it simple. Classically a lot of people will use buttercream but I quite like to use a chantilly cream – more of a fresh cream – which is less sugary sweet.”
Though it may seem risky to veer off-track from a traditional recipe, the TV chef reassured bakers that icing is one of the easiest items to substitute in any homemade cake.
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She said: “If you want to be a bit more health conscious you can get really great 50 percent fat creams, or you can use yoghurt frosting.
“So it depends on the style, for Birthday Cake style, which is more indulgent, use buttercream, but otherwise, fresh ingredients like fruit, yoghurt or cream are good.”
For other classic bakes like rich brownies, Juliet claimed that healthy substitutes include chocolate and fat sources. One of her trademark recipes, “Guilt Free Brownies” include black beans which help to slash the calorie content while enriching the flavour.
Made with dark cocoa powder and whole chocolate, the indulgent treats are still “super fudgy and delicious”, with just a fraction of the sugar content.
And this hack can be used in other recipes too, according to Juliet. She said: “Generally with most baking recipes I’ve tested I found that you can actually reduce the sugar by about one-third without it affecting the recipe outcome.
“Sometimes you don’t need as much sugar as the recipe says. And sometimes I think when you reduce the sugar you get more flavour from the other ingredients. For example, vanilla extract, which really balances chocolate well, a tiny bit of sea salt, and just reduce the sugar.”
Disney and Prestige’s new bakeware and accessories range is available to purchase now at Prestige.co.uk and selected national retailers.
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