Preheat oven: necessary, or superfluous?
Whether baking mix, frozen pizza or freshly cut out Christmas cookies: With every baking guide we will eventually stumble over the phrase "Preheat oven to ...". And dutifully, we usually do just that and do not even bring the sheet into the vicinity of the furnace when the prescribed temperature is actually reached.
But: is that really necessary? Or could we not save the long preheating time?
Preheat oven and other problems
Like everything in the kitchen, of course, the question of preheating is discussed again and again. But before you get around to the right temperature, there are many more pitfalls that you can tap into when baking:
- Estimate ingredients: When cooking, you can work great with quantities such as "a pinch". But when it comes to baking, chemistry is required - and if you do not measure the ingredients exactly, but simply throw thumbs into the bowl, the result will quickly become a disaster.
- Inaccurate measuring: This happens quickly in recipes, in which the quantities are not in grams, but in "tablespoon", "teaspoon" or "cup" are given (such as in English baking recipes). If you simply pour flour into your measuring cup, you also mix a lot of air, which falsifies the filling quantity. Therefore: Always tap the measuring container well and fill it exactly to the edge!
- Everything in butter? Too bad that butter is so hard straight from the fridge. Many of us, just make them hot in the microwave quickly, or even melt them. After all, everything is mixed afterwards in the dough and melts in the oven - right? Unfortunately, no! It really makes a big difference whether the recipe needs "cold", "soft" or "melted" butter - otherwise you'll have a totally useless batter later on.
Preheat the oven - the clear answer
Preheating the oven, in contrast to the above points, is NOT really the dramatic mistake we believe it to be. It's perfectly okay if you just put the baking sheet in the cold oven and then let it get hot - if you have a few things in mind. In the video you see what you have to look out for!
