Baking for Dummies Read online

  Chapter 17

  Storing Your Creations

  In This Chapter

  Wrapping foods to maintain freshness

  Knowing when you need to refrigerate

  Freezing frosted or unfrosted cakes

  Taking good care of your cookies

  Okay, so you’ve baked your cakes, cookies, pies, and breads, and now you’re wondering what to do with them. You want them to stay fresh and tasting good, but maybe you’re not sure how long something will keep or what the best method for storage is.

  There are many ways to store something. The most important thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want your baked things to sit in the open. Baked goods will dry out if they’re left out; foods such as slices of bread or cakes can get dry and stale in just a few hours. If you know that your baked goods will stick around for a few days, you may want to keep them refrigerated or even frozen. This chapter offers some advice on storage and the best ways to keep your treats fresh.

  Wrapping

  No kitchen is complete without a supply of plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and waxed paper. If you go to the trouble of baking something special, you need to be able to store it properly. Foils and wraps can keep air away from your creations, which will dry them out and make them stale. Home-baked items don’t have preservatives, so it’s up to you to store everything properly so that it will last until tomorrow. However, like many tasty treats, it may not last that long. . . .

  Plastic wrap

  Plastic wrap seals bowls, wrap cakes, and covers containers. I like plastic wrap because you can see though it and know what you’ve stored. Plastic wrap has a number of other advantages, too:

  It is nonreactive, which means that it won’t react with acidic or alkaline ingredients, making it good for storing just about anything.

  It is microwave safe.

  It creates airtight seals over bowls and other containers.

  Find the brand of plastic wrap you like best. It should cling to itself, and you should be able to pull it tightly without ripping it.

  Under no circumstances should plastic wrap be put in the oven or over a hot item that just came out of the oven. It will melt immediately and is not good for you to breathe or ingest.

  Aluminum foil

  Aluminum foil is a great tool in the kitchen because it won’t cling to items like plastic wrap can. Unlike plastic wrap, aluminum foil can be used in the oven for baking. Foil is also better for wrapping and stabilizing loose or irregularly shaped items like cookies on a paper plate or unfrosted cakes because you can mold it to whatever shape you need it to be. Because aluminum foil molds to itself, you can create an airtight seal with it. And it works well in the freezer. You can write directly on the foil so that you know what you’ve wrapped. The one drawback to aluminum foil is that it can’t be used in the microwave.

  Waxed paper

  In the old days before plastic wrap and foil, there was waxed paper. Cooks used it for everything from storing leftovers to keeping cakes fresh in the ice box. Waxed paper is underutilized these days for storage, in my opinion. The waxy paper offers a breathable seal for your baked goods, so they stay fresh but don’t get soggy-moist. Waxed paper is very useful in the kitchen because you can use it to line baking sheets and pans and place it between layers for storage. It’s also safe for the microwave and for wrapping items (as long as an airtight seal is not required).

  Foil foils messy cleanup

  If you’re using a baking sheet to catch drips from a pie or overflowing cake pan, place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the baking sheet. All the burned-on mess will drip onto the foil, not the baking sheet, making cleanup a snap.

  A sheet of waxed paper can act as a movable part of your kitchen counter or a bowl you don’t need to wash. Spread out a sheet on your counter and sift ingredients onto it, or use it to hold breadcrumbs or other coating.

  Plastic ware

  I’m a big fan of plastic ware. I find it to be perfect for everything from packing lunches to holding leftovers to storing everything I’ve baked. Sealable plastic containers make great storage items because the airtight seals keep your baked items fresher longer. Clear plastic allows you to see what you’ve stored (which is a great memory aid), and they’re generally spacious and can hold many items.

  Know that sturdy plastic ware will more than likely outlive you, so don’t skimp on quality when you purchase it. Look for sturdy containers with good lids that offer airtight closure. Be sure that the lids fit well and you don’t have to struggle every time you want to seal it. If you have a microwave, you may want to choose microwave-safe plastic ware.

  Now, you can buy inexpensive reusable plastic containers that make me want to bake and share with everyone. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are perfect for storing large and small items and giving, without worrying about getting them back.

  Tins

  Decorative tins can serve as both holder and wrapping if you like to give baked goods as gifts. They’re also great items to recycle, so you can use them many times and for many different purposes. Keep a few things in mind, though, when you choose decorative tins:

  Tins generally don’t have airtight seals. Baked items won’t stay as fresh for as long in tins as they do when stored in plastic containers.

  Tins don’t have as much holding capacity as plastic containers. So you may want to pack two dozen cookies in a decorative tin but find that you can fit only one dozen! If you have many cookies to store, tins aren’t the best choice.

  Tins are great if you want to give a sampling of cookies or brownies to a friend, but if you want to send a few dozen cookies as a care package, send them in a plastic container instead. That way, you can be sure they’ll be fresh when they arrive.

  Storing at Room Temperature

  Chances are if you live with roommates or have a family, you won’t have to worry too much about anything freshly baked hanging around too long. From the first sniff of anything baking, you’ll have an audience in the kitchen, waiting for the treats to be cool enough to sink their teeth into. In those cases, as long as you want the items to be consumed right away, most freshly baked items are fine if you leave them on a plate for a while.

  Cookies

  Most cookies, cakes, and pies can sit on the counter for the better part of a day (about 12 hours) before they need to be stored. If they need to be stored in the refrigerator, the recipe will say so. Otherwise, most cookies can be stored in an airtight plastic container on the kitchen counter for up to three days.

  Cookie jars are cute, but unfortunately, most of them don’t have an airtight seal. If you have a high turnover for your cookies (meaning that they’ll float out of the cookie jar within a few days), a cookie jar is fine to use. If you don’t put them in an airtight container, you run the risk of the cookies turning stale faster. If you love the cookie jar but still want to keep your cookies fresh, store them in a sealable plastic bag in the jar.

  Cakes

  As long as your cake doesn’t contain custard, raw egg, fresh whipped cream, or meringue topping — all of which require refrigeration — most cakes can be stored at room temperature for several days.

  To store your cakes, you can purchase a cake keeper, which is a large plastic cake holder with an airtight lid that fits on top. I find cake keepers very useful, because I can fit a cake on a serving plate on the base of the cake keeper, snap on the lid and, even if the plate slides around, it doesn’t damage the frosted sides of the cake at all. You can also use a cake dome, usually a metal or plastic cover with a lid that you place over the cake itself. The dome doesn’t provide an airtight seal, but if the cake will sit for just a few days, that shouldn’t matter.

  If you don’t have either a cake keeper or a cake dome, you can invert a large mixing bowl over the cake. Just make sure the bowl is large enough that it won’t smash down the top of the cake or touch the sides. A bowl is slightly more difficult to lift, because it doesn’t have a handle, but
it does provide an adequate cover.

  Another way to prevent the cut surface of a cake from becoming stale while it’s being stored is to press a piece of waxed paper or aluminum foil against the cut surface.

  If you will be traveling with your cake and its appearance is important to you, pack some extra frosting and your frosting spatula (and pastry bag, if necessary) with you. That way, if you reach your destination and find that your cake has suffered some nicks and bruises, you can fix it up in a jiffy and people will be none the wiser.

  Pies

  Whole fresh fruit pies can be kept on the kitchen counter, covered, for about a day. Store any leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator. I have a large sealable plastic container that I use to store pies. My 9-inch pie plate fits perfectly in the container, and the lid is high enough that it doesn’t damage my crust. It’s a great container to use in the refrigerator because I can store items on top of the container (and maximize fridge space) without my pie picking up other flavors or getting bumped around in the fridge.

  Bread

  Bread can be stored at room temperature, sealed in a plastic or paper bag, for several days. Homemade bread tends to lose its freshness faster at room temperature, so you may want to keep it in the refrigerator even if you plan to use it up within a day or so.

  If you don’t eat a lot of bread, freezing is an excellent way to keep bread fresh. Then you can defrost what you need and warm it briefly in a toaster oven. Just be sure to wrap the bread tightly in freezer plastic (which is different from regular plastic wrap), foil, or freezer-plastic bags.

  Keeping Things Cool

  Many baked goods, such as cookies and breads, can be stored at room temperature. However, some items must be kept in the refrigerator to ensure that they won’t melt or spoil. If you aren’t sure whether you should refrigerate items, refrigeration won’t harm them, so go ahead and wrap them up and keep them in the fridge. Note the time of year, too. In the winter and fall, items can stay at room temperature longer than in the summertime, when even pies should be stored in the refrigerator to ensure that they don’t mold or go bad.

  If you’re traveling with a cake or pie that needs to be refrigerated, keep it in the air-conditioned part of the car with you. Don’t put it in the trunk. If you don’t have air conditioning, keep it in a cooler (if it fits), or you can double-box the cake and surround it with ice packs (one box to hold the cake, and the other box to hold the ice packs around the boxed cake).

  Baked goods that should be chilled

  All cheesecakes must be stored in the refrigerator, as should cakes, cookies, and pies that contain custard, raw egg, fresh whipped cream, or meringue topping (although they will weep a little from the cold). Any cake can be stored in the refrigerator, unless otherwise specified in the instructions, to extend its freshness. If you keep a cake in the refrigerator, be sure that it’s well covered either in a cake saver or with a cake dome or bowl placed over it (see the earlier section “Storing at Room Temperature”).

  If you place a cut cake uncovered and unwrapped in the refrigerator for more than a few hours, it will most likely pick up refrigerator flavors, the icing will harden, and the cake will dry up and become stale.

  Cookies

  You can store cookies in the refrigerator in an airtight plastic container for about two weeks. After the first week, they won’t be as fresh as they once were, but you can always pop them in the oven for a few minutes or even zap them in the microwave for a few seconds if you want that fresh-from-the-oven feeling. If you don’t want to be bothered, I find that a not-so-fresh cookie makes a perfect dunker in milk. It sops up lots of milk but doesn’t fall apart. Mmm.

  Pies

  Pies can be stored in the refrigerator for several days as long as they’re well wrapped (with plastic or foil) and not made with custard, cream, or meringue. You can store pies in a cake saver or just cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. After a day or two, the crust may become a bit soggy, but you can rewarm the pie in the oven if you like. If your house is quite hot in the summer, be sure to keep the pie in the refrigerator so that it doesn’t mold quickly or get too runny.

  Breads

  Because homemade breads lack the preservatives that store-bought breads have to increase their shelf life, your breads will not keep for nearly as long. To extend the life of your bread, store it in the refrigerator. I have kept bread, wrapped in a plastic bag, for up to one week without a molding problem.

  Bread, sliced or unsliced, also freezes well. You can always rewarm breads in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes to get the crust crispy and fresh again. Also, choose a recipe with some fat in it (butter, eggs, or oil). Fat acts as a preservative for breads and extends their life by several days.

  Freezing

  The freezer is a huge help to bakers because it enables you to prepare foods when you have the time. Then you can remove them from the freezer and defrost them when you need them.

  Even though most items freeze well, keep in mind that if you have the time to bake your items fresh, that’s always the better choice. Frozen goods experience an inescapable loss of moisture and tend to dry out faster after they’re brought back to room temperature for baking. Never freeze custards or cream pies.

  Always label and date items you put in the freezer. You may even want to keep a master list on the freezer door so you know what’s inside. Frozen unbaked doughs have a relatively short freezer life, so you need to know what you have on hand so that you can use it up in time.

  Cookies

  Baked cookies are pretty easy to freeze. Just stack them in an airtight plastic container with waxed paper in between each layer and freeze. You also can store cookies in sealable plastic bags. Most every cookie freezes well, but you may find that filled cookies and some bar cookies with dried fruit are a bit softer after they’re defrosted — but they’re still just as good in flavor.

  Cookie dough

  Uncooked cookie dough will last about two months frozen. Before freezing, shape the cookie dough into long logs and wrap the logs in plastic wrap. After they’re frozen, double-wrap the logs in aluminum foil or an airtight container. Be sure to label the dough. You can even slice the cookies before you freeze them to make preparing them later easier.

  The best cookie doughs to freeze are those with a lot of fat in them. If you want to experiment with different doughs, start with chocolate chip, oatmeal, or peanut butter cookies. Roll the dough into 2-inches-round x 12-inches-long logs. Slice the logs (either still frozen or refrigerated) into 1-inch slices. Bake the slices on a cookie sheet in a 350- to 375-degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes (frozen dough may take a few minutes longer). It couldn’t be any easier.

  Instead of logs, you can scoop out the cookies, freeze them on a cookie sheet, and then transfer the frozen balls of dough into a freezer-plastic sealable bag. Then just drop them onto a cookie sheet and bake as directed in the preceding paragraph.

  Bread dough

  To freeze bread dough, prepare the dough as usual but add a teaspoon more yeast to the recipe. Allow the dough to rise once, punch down the dough, and then shape it into loaves. (You can freeze the loaves in the pans you will bake them in; then remove the frozen dough from the pan and wrap it in freezer plastic until you’re ready to bake it.) Do not keep frozen bread dough for more than ten days in the freezer. Defrost the loaves at room temperature or in the refrigerator overnight, let rise a second time, and then bake as instructed.

  Rolls can be frozen in the same manner, but don’t keep them in the freezer for more than a week. Freeze the individual rolls on a baking tray for 2 hours and then wrap them in freezer plastic and store them in an airtight container. When defrosting rolls, allow them to rise in a warm area, covered, until doubled in bulk (anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4 hours) and bake as instructed.

  Cakes

  Most cakes can be frozen for up to two months. For unfrosted cake layers, cool the layers completely before wrapping them: first in freezer-plastic wrap and then in aluminum f
oil. You also can wrap the layers well and then seal them in a large freezer-plastic bag. The purpose is to create an airtight package for your cake layers. Label each item (you can write directly on the plastic bag or foil or label a piece of masking tape and stick it onto the bag or foil).

  You also can freeze frosted layer cakes. Place the frosted cake in the freezer, unwrapped (you can place toothpicks in the cake to keep the plastic wrap from touching the cake if you like, but doing so is not necessary). When the cake has frozen through (the frosting should be frozen solid), wrap the cake in plastic and then wrap it in aluminum foil.

  Cake layers, unfrosted, can be frozen for up to two months. A frosted layer cake will keep frozen for up to four months. Spice cakes should not be frozen for more than one month, to ensure that the flavor stays true. To defrost the cake, place it at room temperature, unwrapped but covered with a cake dome or cake saver lid, until you’re ready to serve it.