Biscuits Tips
Biscuits will be crisp on the outside and flaky in the center if you roll the dough thin and fold it over once before cutting out biscuits. They’ll also split open easily when you’re ready to butter them. To refreshen and heat biscuits, put them in a well-dampened paper bag, twist it closed and put in a 300º oven for about 10-15 minutes or until warm. If you want soft-sided biscuits, bake them in a pan with sides and put the biscuits close together. If you want crusty biscuits, bake them on a cookie sheet and place them apart from each other.
Coffee Grinder Dirty?
To clean your coffee grinder
Messy Mini Muffins?
Use a pastry bag or zip bag with a corner snipped off to fill your mini muffin pans.
Potatoes Sticking to your knife?
Try spraying your knife with cooking spray before and during cutting. This keeps the potato starch from building up on your knife.
Fresh herbs going bad before you can use them?
Use your microwave to dry them! 1. Wash and spin dry the herbs in a salad spinner. 2. Place leaves on a paper towel-lined plate and microwave 2 minutes. 3. Fluff the leaves and microwave another 2 minutes or until dry. 4. Be sure your leaves are completely dried out and crisp before storing in an airtight container.
Leftover Veggies?
If you have vegetables left over from a party tray, chop them up and blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes, then, you can freeze them for later use in your favorite soups!
Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
For perfect hard-boiled eggs, bring the water and eggs to a boil. Cover, remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes. Drain immediately and run under cold water to cool quickly. To speed up the cooling process, dump in some ice cubes into the pan.
Dough Booster
To aid rising when making yeast breads, rolls, or pizza dough, place the bowl of dough on a heating pad set to low.
Quick Chill
When I have stock or broth that needs to be chilled quickly, I float one or two frozen water bottles in the hot stock. Just keep clean water-filled bottles (with labels removed) in the freezer. Rinse to clean then re-freeze to use again.
Dusting Nuts
Before using chopped nuts to decorate a cake or cookies, put them in a sieve and tap out the dust (the powdery pieces) The nuts have a cleaner, more professional look, and the dust can be added to various batters for extra flavor.
Nonstick Strainer
Spray strainers or colanders with nonstick cooking spray before draining starchy pasta or potatoes. No sticking & easy cleanup!
Shake It!
Empty spice bottles are a great help around the kitchen. I remove the stickers and put new labels on them. Then I fill them with ingredients I use regularly, like cornmeal to shake in bread pans, apple pie mix, cinnamon-sugar mix, flour for rolling pins and counters, or my homemade dry rub spice mixes. They’re also great for both regular and powdered sugar. I also fill empty sauce bottles with olive oil to sprinkle on salads or to lightly coat pans for sautéing.
What are some of your kitchen tips? Let us know in the comments!
