Here’s How To Improve Your Dessert Game In A Matter Of Weeks
Desserts are serious business. Or they’re not. It’s entirely up to you how sincerely you wish to prioritize your dessert creation process, after all, satisfying your sweet tooth is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, not as if you were competing in the Great British Bake Off every single time you make a lemon tart for your family.
That said, it’s fun to get better at things too, especially in the kitchen where you get to enjoy the reward of your expanding home cookery or baking skillset near straight away. It’s amazing to bring family members, friends or colleagues over for a fantastic evening meal, but finishing that off with a spectacular dessert? Well, it can end the entire evening in fireworks, and allow people to remember their time at your place for years to come.
Or, you could just create new desserts because they’re tasty. That’s fine too. Let’s consider, then, how to improve your dessert game in a matter of weeks, and figure out exactly what values and mindset allows us to achieve with this process in mind:
Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you buy from my link I might make a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay. See the full affiliate disclosure here.
Make The Most Of Singular Ingredients
It’s very easy to watch dessert-crafting shows and to think that baking and dessert creation is a sensitive art with intense complexity. That may be true in some cases, but it’s not the whole story. In fact, making the most of singular ingredients is often the best way forward.
What does that mean? Well, allowing the best ingredients to speak for themselves and using them as a basis for each dish is key. Often, implementing this taste and texture is defined by one amazing ingredient that permeates the rest of the dish. For instance, take a look at this wonderful peach upside down cake. The beautiful cake element provides substance, texture, and delectable sweetness to the whole recipe, but it’s really based around getting the utmost out of the peach; a wonderful dessert fruit that speaks for itself. As you can see, when you optimize the flavor of one amazing ingredient, you’re sure to thrive.
Bake Simply & Well
Baking simply is often easier than you think. The old adage goes that it’s easy to learn, but hard to master. But there’s a great deal of fun and experimentation at either side of that spectrum. For instance, baking simple cookies with our children and adding ginger spice can help us create a beautiful taste that works well with hot drinks.
Alternatively, using basic cake mixture to bake a fun cake and having fun with the decorative element, adding edible decorations, using icing, internal spreads, and more can make a tremendous difference. It can also be nice to add certain elements on top of this, like perfecting the right blend for a lemon or egg custard tart. Baking simply and well means investing in a few cake holders, baking trays, baking sheets, mixing bowls, and a whisk. Then you’ll be able to get started in a humble manner, learning as you go.
Get The Sweetness Levels Right
There’s nothing more boring than a dessert that has no sweetness to it, and there’s nothing more off-putting than an overbearingly sweet dessert that we can barely keep down. This is why being mindful of where your sweetness comes from can help you balance it deftly. For instance, if using soy sauce in a savory dish, you might decide not to salt it because the sauce already has a noticeable salty taste.
The same goes for dessert. If using a thoroughly sweet fruit, you may only require a limited amount of sugar added to that. Remember, you can always add, but you can’t take away. Take it step by step, and incrementally increase your amounts should you need to. It will help you gain a sort of ‘sweet sixth sense,’ which is a fun tool in the repertoire of the home baker.
Consider Meal Pairings
Desserts are not always meals we eat alone, we tend to eat them following a more substantial and savory meal. So, just like how we might pair a given wine, it’s fun to learn how to pair certain desserts. Some tasty cookies might pair after a beautiful lunch, while a jam roly-poly is quite dense and heavy, and may be best enjoyed after a light evening meal so you don’t feel overly bloated after eating everything.
In some cases, keeping like cuisine together, such as sweetly spiced Indian biscuits after a gorgeous Indian meal can make all the difference. In the long run, you get to decide which flavor pairings you consider the most appropriate.
With this advice, we believe you’ll be able to improve your dessert game in a matter of weeks, and have fun doing so.
