Baking Tools, Kitchenware & Home

Homecooking is a familiar territory for me in the kitchen but baking on the other hand isn’t. I first baked 10 years ago but never did get to hone my interest until COVID19 hit us — giving me time to take a step back to breathe and reconnect with the interest that I left off long time ago due to time constraint.

Working from home have indeed allowed more flexibility in multitasking between bakes while time saved on commuting to & fro work have been reinvested in bread baking & other home related tasks. I could not have asked for more.

While baking allows for exploration of many different types of tools and kitchenwares, I did not indulge in them for fear that this was just a shortlived interest. I first started repurposing items I could find at home from using a Coke can as rolling pin to cutting up cake boxes to turn them into loaf “tins” before investing in proper tools as my baking journey became a daily routine

Here, I will share my Top Must Have items for my Bakes & Home

1) PHILIPS AIR FRYER XXL (HD9654)
If you must know, I purchased this air fryer not for the purpose of air frying but rather baking. After doing careful research and understanding of how an air fryer works, I purchased it knowing that I could bake with it and it fit my kitchen top perfectly (since I do not have a built in oven at home)

The air fryer mainly works on the heat circulation coming from the coils of the air fryer (hence, air frying). So to me, as long there is a constant and even circulation of heat, I was pretty sure it could bake

While there was certainly space constraint, the XXL space was just right for all my bakes to provide to a small household. Most of my recipes shared are after trial & error in tweaking the volume & temperature. Some of my AF hacks are in this link

2) KITCHEN AID KSM150 STAND MIXER VS PHILIPS HR3705 HAND MIXER
I did not want to invest in a stand mixer as I have one stored at my parents’ place after my move to Singapore so I ended up purchasing a hand mixer with a dough hook. My initial purchase was of course a Kitchen Aid but it fused on me as the motor power on the hand mixer was unable to support dough kneading as well as I would like it to. I ended up purchasing another hand mixer which, was much cheaper (but not as pretty) from Philips with motor power of 300watts which, I read was ideal if you want to use your hand mixer to knead dough

The hand mixer have taken me through tonnes of bakes and till this day, I am still using it but mostly when I am baking cakes as I am too lazy to use my standmixer for small volume bakes. After much deliberation and seeing that I am baking on almost a daily basis, my husband decided to gift me with a KitchenAid as my arm was getting sore from all the slapping & folding plus it was time saving. If you’re not baking on high frequency, a hand mixer with a proper dough hook would actually suffice

I was definitely not used to using a stand mixer to knead my dough as I could not feel my dough readiness and struggled with eyeballing my dough readiness using the standmixer. But after a few bakes, I finally found my way around and am happy to say that I’m a convert because I save 30mins of my time at every bake not due to the kneading but more so because it allowed me to wash up my baking utensils vs previously (I could only wash after I was done kneading). The quality of the kneaded dough turned out much better as well as I do not have the strength of a machine when it comes to kneading

3) SILICONE SPATULA / ROLLING PIN & A WEIGHING MACHINE
For the love of easy dough management, I suggest that everyone to please get a silicone material spatula and rolling pin. Not only does it help with scrapping out of dough but all your tacky dough will not stick like glue onto your rolling pin! My must have would also be a scrapper as it helps tonnes when you’re working on Shokupan baking. I used to have a metal one, but it cut my hand quite deep once so I have moved to a plastic one instead — safer for a kitchen klutz like me

Another important thing in baking, accurate measurement of all your ingredients. Baking, unlike homecooking is not as forgiving when you try to eyeball or agak-agak in your ingredients

4) MEASURING SPOON/CUP & BREAD KNIFE
As I mentioned in my point above, you should not eyeball your ingredients but instead measure it to the tee so for me, I need proper measuring spoon & cups for not only my bakes but sometimes to have some form of consistency in homecooking as well

A bread knife would be ideal especially if you’re gonna be dealing with artisan bread. It provides better slicing vs your daily knife

5) BREAD STORAGE
Normally, buns and bread will last about 3 days as it does not contain nasties. Mine typically gets devoured within 1.5days so I never had to worry about bread going stale. It’s best to store in air tight containers (glass/plastic). I have multiple container sizes from Lock & Lock as some are for buns, Baos & Shokupan

6) DOUGH KNEADING SURFACE TOP
You can actually use non-stick silicone pastry mat for kneading but I have since moved to a marble kneading top because I just wanted a prettier surface to work on (haha!) but of course, I use it to cut my bread on as well instead of having to use my wooden chopping board which I use for raw vegetables

OTHER ECO-FRIENDLY ITEMS FOR ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS ONES
My husband and my in-laws are heavy advocates of recycling and not contributing to too much waste. Sometimes, even turning on the tap to its maximum would get me an earful from my husband. So here are some eco-friendly items that I am using in my household

1) SILICONE STRETCH LIDS
Silicone stretch lids are the most awesome thing ever as I do not need to waste rolls and rolls of cling wrap. They normally come in different sizes to cater to your needs. For baking, I would normally use mine to cover the mixing bowl during dough proofing and also when I’m chilling my Yudane — I use them for food storage as well when we have some leftover dishes

2) MESH TOTE & PRODUCE BAGS
One can never get enough of recyclable bags. I for one have one in every handbag, in the car, in my office drawers and well…just everywhere cause sometimes you won’t remember to grab them from home when you head out.

What I love about mesh totes is that, I don’t have to struggle trying to arrange the items just so it doesn’t fall into an awkward position in my usual recyclable bags. The mesh totes actually hold your items sturdily without you worrying that some ends might stick out awkwardly or some items may fall off due to the awkward position it’s in

It’s also a great way to reduce usage of plastics where you’re able to. Why do I use mesh produce bags? Well, while I may have bags to hold my groceries but I do not have a substitute for the plastics used to hold the tomatoes, capsicums and other smaller produce that I have to chug in the plastic bag and bring to weigh & I honestly don’t like having my small produce naked and packed along with other groceries — they need to be “compartmentalized”

3) SILICONE ICE CUBE TRAYS
I am a germ/bacteria phobe and have major OCD issues when it comes to this. As we already know, there are germs and bacteria lurking everywhere and I’ve never been comfortable with leaving consumables exposed in my refrigerator — ice cubes included. So I’ve resorted to using silicone ice cube trays with covers just so the ice I’m putting in my drinks are clean (I don’t use tap water to make my ice)

HOPE MY SHARING HELPED IN SOME WAY. MORE VISUAL SHARING HERE FOR AIR FRYER FRIENDLY RECIPES HERE & HACKS HERE