my kitchen

I have found that I am fairly inconsistent when it comes to recipe documentation (sorry). To help you con cipher my rambling tangents and instructions, I’ve provided a basic list of some of my kitchen staples, how I handle ingredients, and a few of my favorite products.

Let’s start with the accessories. 

Kitchen-Aid. the queen of mixers and my partner in crime. You’ve been helping me procrasti-bake since sophomore year of college and I couldn’t ask for anything more. Someday, my sister may move back from Europe and take you back, let’s hope that day isn’t anytime soon. The Kitchen-Aid is my go to for cakes, cookies, bars and dough. Most of my recipes utilize a stand mixer, but you can also use a hand mixer. If creaming butter isn’t involved, you can probably get away with not using an electric mixer.

Vitamix. Aside from the occasional recipe that requires a food processor, the Vitamix is my go to. It can handle everything from smoothies, to sauces, to pancake batter and everything in between. I also use the dry attachment for gluten-free flours, like almond or oat.

Sil pads. Silicone baking pads to be exact. These are the only thing I ever use for cookies. You can also line a sheet with parchment paper if you haven’t got one, but they are fairly inexpensive and make a world of difference during clean up.

Food Scale. I use my food scale mostly for personal use, and less for recipe development. However, they are also fairly inexpensive and can be important for some recipes – like pizza dough.

Ingredients.

Flour. Never sifted, rarely leveled. If the amount is super important, I will use a food scale to make sure I get the ratios just right. I’m a big fan of King Arthur All Purpose Flour.

Milk. I’m a big fan of Califia Farms. I always keep their unsweetened almond milk in my fridge and I use it in everything, unless noted otherwise. An example would be in my homemade cashew milk (duh) or something that calls for coconut milk.

Butter. I mean, er, butter substitute. All recipes will use butter at room temperature, unless noted otherwise. I keep Earth Balance in the fridge and use it mainly for cookies. I will sometimes try to substitute coconut oil or olive oil but if it says “butter” I really mean Earth Balance “buttery sticks“.

Sugar. If the recipe says sugar, it really means organic cane sugar. I also use organic brown sugar, organic coconut sugar, and organic powdered sugar in my kitchen. Trader Joe’s has a lot of these, else you can always find them at Whole Foods.

Vanilla. I have started making my own, but always use real vanilla extract. Stay away from that fake junk, even if it saves you a couple of bucks.

Cornstarch. AKA how to make cookies without eggs 101.

Egg Substitutes. While I typically bake without them, I do eat them. Eggs – that is. The recipes on this blog use a variety of ingredients for egg substitutes. They include (but are not limited to) corn starch, tofu, flax seeds, chia seeds, apple cider vinegar and bananas.