Sugar Cube (2 page)
Authors: Kir Jensen
I really do love my tiny pink food cart. I love that it gives me my own space, outside of my house, where I can craft tasty little treats for the very appreciative food lovers in my town. I love that I can afford to own it without signing my life over to a bank or charging my customers outrageous prices. And I love that I don’t have to share it with anyone. It’s all mine. There’s no one else there bumping into me or running off with my pans. It’s my domain, like an artist’s studio, where I have space to create.
My cart has all of these great things going for it
because
it’s small. But “small” also means “challenging.” First of all, weathering the seasons can be a serious problem. Unlike an actual building with, say, central heat, air-conditioning, and insulation, my cart is out there in the elements. In winter, it’s so cold I can’t get my butter to soften. In summer, it’s so hot that turning on the oven feels like an act of insanity. An even more constant issue is limited workspace. The cart is just eight feet wide and fourteen feet long. Tiny, right? Well, once you put the oven, racks, sink, and counter in there, it feels a whole lot smaller.
To cope, I follow several major rules that, really, everyone should follow no matter what size his or her kitchen.
FIRST:
Don’t be a slob
.
This is the rule they beat into you at cooking school: Work clean, and your product turns out clean. No matter how slovenly you may be in the rest of your life, you can’t be a slob in the kitchen. Not only is it unsanitary, but you’re also more likely to make mistakes. This is especially important when your kitchen is minuscule. I absolutely must clean up as I go, or I literally won’t have room to cook.
SECOND:
Be prepared
.
Before I do any mixing I get
my mise en place
ready: I measure out all my ingredients and have them prepped. This way I can make sure that I have everything I need and that it’s all at the right temperature. There’s no room to stop midrecipe and put everything aside for a while. And there’s no room in my cart, or my budget, for mistakes. In baking you usually get only one chance to add your ingredient at the right time. If you miss it, you’re screwed.
THIRD:
Stay focused
.
If I have several things on my baking agenda, I don’t have room to start one recipe until the other is finished. As much as I want to multitask, I can’t. And that’s a good thing because it means I can focus properly on that particular recipe and am less likely to forget a step or make a mistake.
FOURTH:
Master your domain
.
Making sure that I have all the tools I need and that they’re all organized in a logical way keeps me baking efficiently—and also saves me from going nuts. No one wants to crisscross the kitchen dozens of times to fetch this and grab that when cooking. It’s exhausting, annoying, and can create problems when making things that rely on crucial timing.
No matter what size your kitchen, if you love to bake, you should try to create a baking station. This could be a corner of the kitchen where there’s a good smooth work surface, an outlet for your mixer or food processor, and a cupboard at least a portion of which you can dedicate to common dry ingredients like flour, sugar, and baking spices. If there’s a drawer, reserve it for your whisks and spatulas, or get an extra utensil crock just for these baking tools so they’re all in one place.
Everyone’s kitchen is different, and only you can organize yours in a way that works best for you. Just think about how and when and where you typically use your tools, and let that be your guide. If you have a large kitchen and the stove is far from the area where you typically mix your doughs, you might need two sets of certain tools, like whisks and spatulas, so one can stay near the stove and one can stay near the baking station. It’s not overkill if it means you’ll be able to bake more efficiently and enjoy doing it. As for which tools and ingredients you need, turn the page to get my picks for the absolute essentials no kitchen—no matter how small—should be without.
Airtight containers:
Sturdy plastic airtight containers in all sizes are essential for keeping your treats from going stale or getting freezer burn.
Blender:
Sometimes food processors fail where blenders succeed, especially when it comes to smoothies, milk shakes, and recipes with lots of liquid. Sometimes they do a better job at puréeing, too.
Brush:
You’ll need at least one pastry brush for brushing the tops of cupcakes with flavorful syrups or brushing piecrusts with cream or egg wash. I prefer natural-bristle brushes, because they’re gentler on your delicate treats and they can soak up and distribute liquid better. Be sure to clean them well and air-dry thoroughly after use, so they don’t retain flavors and odors or mildew.
Cheesecloth:
This loose-mesh fabric is great for lining sieves and colanders to strain out tiny particles. It is available in small packages at kitchen supply stores.
Colander and fine-mesh sieve:
A colander with large holes is useful for rinsing fruits. A fine-mesh sieve or strainer is essential for straining out small particles to make the smoothest custards and curds. You can also use it as a sifter, which is what I do, thereby eliminating the need for another piece of kitchen equipment. To help push the dry ingredients through, just stir them with a whisk.
Cooling racks:
These give you a place to put your just-baked cookies, so they can stop cooking and start cooling. Racks that stack on top of each other are great because they use up less counter space. It’s also good to have a metal heat-safe rectangular rack that can fit on a rimmed baking sheet for making things like candied bacon; it lets the air circulate for even cooking and allows the fat to drip off.
Food processor:
There are so many uses for food processors, from making biscuits and pie dough to grinding nuts into flour. No kitchen should be without one. If you ask me, Cuisinart is best. Get one with the biggest capacity you can—at least 9 cups but 14 cups is even better—so it has plenty of room to handle any recipe.
Graters:
Rasp-style graters (Microplane is my choice) are the best. They enable you to remove the flavorful zest on citrus without digging into the pith, they easily grate nutmeg, and they shred the tough fibers of ginger like nobody’s business. Don’t bother getting a whole set; you need just two. Get the “classic” grater for most jobs, like grating ginger or chocolate, and one with slightly smaller holes for more delicate jobs, like zesting.
Ice-cream maker:
Homemade ice creams and sorbets are such wonderful treats, but if you don’t have an ice-cream maker, you’ll be shut out of making this whole category of desserts. You don’t have to spend top dollar on a fancy professional model. The Cuisinart ice-cream maker is a solid, affordable, no-fail choice. KitchenAid also makes a special bowl and attachment for its stand mixers.
Ice-cream scoops:
I use a 1-ounce (2-tablespoon) size for most drop cookies and a 2-ounce (
1
/
4
-cup) size for muffin and cupcake batter. I’m a huge fan of ice-cream scoops for portioning out cookie dough, truffles, and even cupcake and muffin batter. With little effort on your part, they enable you to be precise, so everything bakes at the same rate and looks uniform and professional. You can get half a dozen sizes at most restaurant supply stores.
Kitchen scissors:
Keep a separate pair of sharp scissors just for kitchen tasks like trimming the edges of pastry or snipping fresh herbs. Those dirty, gummed-up scissors you use for opening packages don’t belong near your desserts.
