Sugar Is Just for Sweetness
Every pastry chef has heard this one countless times, and it drives them absolutely crazy. Sugar is the key ingredient to sweeten baked goods, however, sugar has other roles as well and it is very important to a dessert’s texture, color, and consistency. Sugar enhances the flavor of other key ingredients like butter, vanilla, and chocolate. When it comes to texture, sugar helps baked goods’ moisture since it attracts water, and affects how a cookie spreads when baked.
The science behind sugar’s role goes way beyond just making things taste sweet. It’s literally acting as a structural engineer in your baked goods. Therefore, next time you think of omitting sugar from a recipe, think about an alternative that won’t ruin your dessert! Professional pastry chefs know that reducing or eliminating sugar isn’t just about adjusting sweetness levels – it’s about fundamentally changing how the dessert will behave during baking and how it will taste and feel in your mouth.
Room Temperature Ingredients Don’t Really Matter
This myth makes pastry chefs want to throw their mixing bowls across the kitchen. Room temperature isn’t listed next to ingredients for fun. There’s science and legitimate reason behind the importance of temperature. Which brings me to my #2 tip in my 10 best baking tips: if a recipe calls for room temperature ingredients, use room temperature ingredients. There is no way around this and if you use, say, cold butter or cold eggs when they should be room temperature—your recipe won’t live up to its potential. And it most certainly won’t taste the way it should.
The science is actually pretty fascinating when you dig into it. When at room temperature, eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients form an emulsion which traps air. While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy baked good. Add cold eggs to creamed butter and sugar, and what do you get? A bowl of syrupy egg and stiffened chunks of butter. Not good. The temperature difference literally destroys the delicate structure that professional bakers work so hard to create.
All Ovens Are Basically the Same
Professional pastry chefs know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Different types of ovens are sometimes designed to run slightly cooler or hotter than their settings indicate. This is why experienced bakers always use oven thermometers and get to know their equipment intimately. What works perfectly in one oven might be a complete disaster in another, even if they’re supposedly set to the same temperature.
The reality is that every oven has its own personality and quirks. Some run hot, some run cold, some have uneven heating patterns, and some have hot spots that can burn one side of your cookies while leaving the other side undercooked. Professional kitchens often have multiple ovens, and pastry chefs know exactly which one is best for specific tasks. Home bakers who understand this principle and adjust accordingly will see dramatically better results in their baking.
You Can Substitute Ingredients Freely
This is probably the most dangerous myth that pastry chefs encounter, and it’s one that can turn a perfect recipe into a complete disaster. A little more sugar here, a little less baking soda here, and then you wonder why your baked goods did not turn out like you expected them to be! Baking is not like cooking a savory dish; adding or removing some spices here and there will not turn your dish into a disaster. On the contrary, small tweaks can play a significant role in negatively changing the texture, the density, the flavors, and a lot of different factors of baked goods.
Remember, baking is a combination of science and art! Professional pastry chefs understand that each ingredient has a specific chemical purpose in the recipe. Flour provides structure, eggs bind and leaven, sugar tenderizes and adds moisture, and fats create tenderness and flavor. When you start swapping ingredients without understanding their roles, you’re essentially conducting a chemistry experiment with unpredictable results.
Microwaving Butter Is Fine for Softening
While technically you can let the butter soften in the microwave, however, it won’t give you the same results like softening the butter the traditional way. Next time you are planning to do some baking, make sure you prepare your ingredients beforehand and take the butter outside of the fridge 30 minutes before you start mixing your ingredients. The microwave method might seem convenient, but it often results in partially melted butter that can ruin your entire recipe.
Professional pastry chefs know that properly softened butter should give slightly to pressure but still hold its shape. If you try to use the microwave to soften that butter, be extremely careful as the slightest bit of melted butter can ruin your entire creaming process. When butter melts even slightly, it can’t trap air properly during the creaming process, which means your cakes will be dense and your cookies will spread too much. The few extra minutes of patience required for proper softening is always worth it.
Salt Doesn’t Belong in Desserts
This myth drives pastry chefs absolutely crazy because salt is actually one of their most important secret weapons. Why does salt even matter in a dessert? Salt plays an important role in balancing out the flavors of baked goods. When adding a lot of sugar to your ingredients, salt helps cut down on the extra sweetness. Don’t worry, you won’t even taste it!
Professional bakers understand that salt doesn’t just balance sweetness – it actually enhances all the other flavors in the dessert. It’s like turning up the volume on everything else. A tiny pinch of salt can make chocolate taste more chocolatey, vanilla more aromatic, and caramel more complex. Most people eating a well-made dessert will never consciously taste the salt, but they’ll definitely notice if it’s missing because everything will taste somehow muted and flat.
Pastry Chefs Are Just Fancy Bakers
This misconception really gets under the skin of professional pastry chefs because it completely misunderstands what they do. The jobs of baker and pastry chef differ significantly. A baker is more of a generalist who bakes a wide variety of sweet and savory items including bread, rolls, pies, cakes, and more, while a pastry chef specializes in desserts and might also make non-baked goods like custards, sauces, and chocolates.
Any culinary role that contains the word “chef” is typically an advanced one. Chefs are supervisors and leaders in the kitchen, and the pastry chef is no exception. A Pastry Chef is both an artist and a scientist, blending creativity with precision to perform their sweet alchemy. They specialize in crafting baked goods, pastries, and desserts, differing from general chefs by their specialized training in the chemistry of baking. The level of precision, creativity, and technical skill required is completely different from basic baking.
Baking Is Just Following Recipes
This final myth probably frustrates pastry chefs more than any other because it completely underestimates the complexity of what they do. The art of pastry can be intimidating for a lot of people. Perhaps there are just too many rules to follow. And perhaps these rules could be tested and broken? Join me on a short journey to relieve your anxiety and build your confidence around the subject of baking.
Whether crafting a delicate choux pastry or tempering chocolate for confections, consistency and timing are paramount. Not only does the chef need to perform tasks with exactness, but they must also do so at a pace that aligns with service demands. Innovation is at the heart of any thriving pastry kitchen. Pastry chefs are continually conceptualizing and experimenting with new recipes. The development process is iterative, involving multiple rounds of testing to refine taste, texture, and appearance. True pastry mastery comes from understanding the science behind the recipes and knowing how to adapt, modify, and create new combinations while maintaining perfect technical execution every single time.
