I’m a Former Pastry Cook. This Is the Baking Rule I Never Follow, But Probably Should

In what feels like another lifetime (2016), I was working as a pastry cook in a French restaurant in New York City. Baking in a professional setting, I picked up many tricks to work efficiently and ensure better results. Many of these tips have stuck with me long since leaving the restaurant world (measure your ingredients ahead of time, read the recipe more than once), while some have never crossed my mind again (how to scoop ice cream into a perfect sphere—no one has time for that!). But despite my training, I’m a sucker for a shortcut. And there’s one baking “rule” I almost neverfollow, even though I probably should.

I’ll set the scene: I’m making a batch of chocolate chip cookies. The recipe calls for me to mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl before combining the two. And I just…don’t.

Separate bowls? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I don’t have a dishwasher—I am the dishwasher. So, nine times out of ten, I simply mix the wets together, then mix the dries immediately after in the same bowl (or vice versa, depending on what I’m baking).

Lazy—yes, I’ll admit it. I love to break a rule out of laziness, especially if no one will notice. That’s kind of my baking M.O.

Would I recommend this so-called hack? Um, not necessarily. As a food editor, I know that recipes are written a specific way because they’ve been tested as such to give you the best results. And if a recipe tells you to mix the wet ingredients and the dry ones separately before combining them, it’s not just to make you clean an extra bowl. It’s because, one, it allows for more thorough combining of ingredients, and two, oftentimes certain ingredients need to be added in a specific order to yield a certain result (like creaming butter and sugar for more tender cakes and cookies).

Do I take this shortcut every time I’m baking? Again, no—it’s only when I’m comfortable winging it a bit for the sake of less cleanup. If I know a recipe will become a Pinterest fail because I dumped everything into the bowl at once, I’ll take the time to mix things separately. Some types of cake recipes (like chiffon or angel food) are less forgiving, while others can handle user error and turn out just fine (hi, loaf cake). Many cookie recipes (especially ones that start with melted or brown butter) can withstand my hack. But I suppose that’s the privilege I’m afforded by doing time in restaurant kitchens: Usually, I can tell when I have wiggle room to be lazy.

Lazy—yes, I’ll admit it. I love to break a rule out of laziness, especially if no one will notice. That’s kind of my baking M.O.