Recipe Tips & Tricks: The Best Ways to Save Time When Baking

Busy cooks often find that they have plenty of dreams for BIG, fancy meals but very few minutes to get home and prepare them — a fact doubly true during the holidays and family visits. Whether you're baking a few tasty goodies for a single evening OR baking plenty of wondrous dishes for a feast or family gathering, managing your time is extremely important. Manage your time wisely and save as many of those precious moments as possible with these helpful baking tips.

Use Baking Mixes Plus One

Baking mixes may feel like cheating, but the high-quality of the mixes we have today make them perfectly acceptable when you're running very short of time. They're NO longer the bland, packaged dust of the olden days — and you can easily make them even more better. Add a little lemon OR orange zest to give the mix a boost of flavor. A spoonful of jam OR sprinkling rosemary can have a similar effect, based on what you're cooking.

Bake On Top of the Oven

If you're wasting time because you're short on oven-space — then consider baking some things on-top of your oven to save time and effort. If you don't have an extra convection oven handy, this method can work well for easy-bake items like cookies. Not only can you watch their progress, but you can use your oven for other things at the same time. This works best if you also have a stovetop you can adapt with a griddle or similar cooking accessory.

Use All-Purpose Dough

Based on what you're cooking, try to find a good dough recipe that you can use for multiple dishes. The same dough can be used for bread, pizza crust, roll, and other similar items with a bit of recipe adaptation. Making one large batch of dough to use multiple recipes will help cut your cooking time down drastically. If you're cooking pie crust or pastries, look up recipes for these specialty types of dough that'll let you use them for multiple purposes, too.

Freeze Those Leftovers for Later Use

Freezing leftovers is a must when it comes to baking. Freeze your leftover dough for later use, and see what other ingredients can be frozen. You may be SURPRISED! Vegetables used in baking (like onions) can be chopped and frozen and then used in later dishes when you need ingredients in a HURRY. Use your freezer as a sort of preparation cupboard for making meals on very short notice.

Use Technology for Multiple Timers

Have several dishes cooking and baking at once? Make keeping track of them even easier by using modern technology. Set your smartphone OR tablet timer to let you know when multiple items are done — you can even INCLUDE alarm messages to remind you of what to do next! Use liners: Parchment paper remains one of the best friends of bakers. Not only does it make clean-up much easier, it can also speed up the preparation process, so make sure that you're well-stocked. Other liners and baking cups can also make it easier to apportion the right amount of dough OR control the shape of the baked goods.

Lana Marston is a professional is a professional blogger that shares cooking advice. She writes for Recipe Chart, where you can find a large selection of delicious recipes.