LET’S GO INGREDIENT SHOPPING! THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS…TO BAKE WITH.
I have feelings. Some loyal and strong feelings about what I buy for what I want to bake. Sometimes the brand doesn’t matter but the info on the nutritional panel is paramount. These are the ingredients I give my seal of APPROV-TRIX to and I’ll update this often if you need any further brand specificity. Let’s go shopping!
NEW BOOK /ANOTHER SLICE INGREDIENT NOTES! Chicory powder is available at health food shops. it is an instant powder that looks like this one. Looking for yoghurt powder, head to the dessert aisle at the supermarket (near where all the jelly packets are) and you will find yoghurt powder, like this brand. If you can’t find it, sub in dry milk powder.
THE BAKING AISLE
FLOUR
Plain flour to bake cakes should be lower in protein (gluten) and I am 100% loyal to Lighthouse soft plain flour. Sidebar: if you need to reduce a flour's protein (gluten) level and make it softer, sub a tenth of the flour weight with wheaten cornflour (not maize cornflour) and sift well together, like 3-4 times back and forth. Plain flour for pastry or cookie doughs, soft yeast doughs . Use a mid range protein (gluten) like Lion Plain Flour for added structure. It comes in around 9.5 % protein (gluten) so it could do cakes as well. Most generic brand flour at 10% is also pretty good. Self raising flour is Lighthouse self raising as it is a bit lower in protein (gluten) than other brands. Lion Self Raising Flour is also great. For bakers flour, anything over 11% is perfect. HOW TO GET (PROTEIN) GLUTEN SPECS...Check the nutritional panels on the side of the packet. GLUTEN is recorded as PROTEIN so look at the column titled PER 100g as that is your percentage indicator (not the per cup or serving column). If it is 8.5 g per 100 g then your gluten is 8.5%. If it is 11 g per 100 g, your gluten is 11%. 
My soft, good for cake self raising flour.
My Italian OO flour with 12% gluten I am currently in LOVE with for yeasty bakes. I'll do a separate post soon! I'll squeeze light and dark corn syrup in here between the baking aisle and SUGAR but the best place to buy them in Australia is an IGA or at The Essential Ingredient. If they are pesky to purchase, substitute glucose syrup in for light corn syrup. And golden syrup or treacle for dark corn syrup.
SUGAR
All the sugars are great at supermarkets - caster (though some have varying fineness of sugar crystals), raw caster, brown sugars (light, dark and even CSR dark muscovado). They stock coconut sugar too. Icing sugar from name brands to generic brands are great. They have baking powder, bicarb soda, fine and flaky sea salts. I like fancy sugars from Billington's that I find at fancy grocer shops, especially their light muscovado and demerara. OTHER DRY GOODS
I love a supermarket raisin over the ones I get from anywhere else. Plump for Australian dried fruit because it is errrr...plumper! Supermarket spices can be dicey. Some spices are only available as pre-ground . I do prefer to buy whole spices and grind them just before using but of course a powdered spice is okay. Better yet to get these from a top shelf spice merchant like Gewürzhaus (adore them and they ALWAYS have hard to find spices like mace. Or buy via mail order from a shop like Royal Nut Company. Vanilla has come leaps and bounds since my childhood baking days of only being able to get imitation extract (which is totally okay to use if that is your budget). I keep an eye on Heilala or Queen vanilla paste at my local supermarket and when it is on special, I'll get two. If you need the PLUMPEST vanilla beans and want to support an Australian company run by two of the nicest folks, Per and Lene, choose Divine Vanilla. They also do natural vanilla essences. Dried yeast. I confess I am using more dry yeast post shop as I don't can't carve off a chunk to take home (off the kilo block we used to buy) . Some supermarket delis carry fresh yeast it but if they don’t, use this Tandaco Dried Yeast. This is instant yeast. Active dry yeast isn't readily available in Australian shops. Steer clear of yeast labelled 'fast acting". The extra lift it brings can over proof the dough. Too fast, to furious. Buy your cocoa powder in this aisle. Choose one like Plaistowe because it says “Dutch processed” on the label. Natural cocoas are amazing and delicious but its acidity will f*** up the effacy of your leaveners. If you can see the cocoa in the packets, natural cocoa will be true brown and matte. Dutch processed will be a rich red brown. Baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar are all standard supermarket buys. Just remember to diligently pop a date on them at purchase and replace after six months as they can loose raising power. It's always awful to bake a flat cake and realise your powder has run out of puff! SALT. You know I love salt in my baking. I buy large salt flakes for sprankling and use a fine sieve friendly table sea salt for baking with. Olsson's and I love their consistent grain and flake sizes. They also do a kosher salt which is medium grained and milder/less harsh than table or cooking salt. You'll see it pop up in US recipes. To convert, use a little more kosher salt than you would table salt. I don't love the clumpy quality of cooking salt. And of course, Maldon is great too for large flakes. THE CONFECTIONARY AISLE For chocolate, head to the confectionary aisle. The chocolates in the baking section are usually compound which means they have added sugar. They are fine if that’s all you can get your baking mits on but in the confectionary aisle you’ll find chocolates that have cocoa solid specificity (numbers like 70% or 50%). You will find milk and white chocolates that are as close to commercial standards like Whittakers (best white and milk chocolate), Green & Black, Lindt and some supermarkets are producing an in-house fancy Belgian chocolate range. Most supermarket minimum cocoa is 70% which is totally usable in lieu of 60% in cakes BUT if you want to drop the bitterness a little, sub in a little milk chocolate. There is a formula if you want to go slight baking nerd (I love you!) if I really want to regulate the cocoa intensity of the chocolate. For 100 g of 60% cocoa chocolate, I’d use 80 g of 70% cocoa dark chocolate and 20 g of 33 % cocoa milk chocolate. Toggle this further if you have 85% cocoa chocolate - you might want to use half and half. Working shown below...hope it makes sense! 80% x 70% cocoa solids + 20% x 33% cocoa solids (good milk chocolate) = 56% + 6.6% = 62.6 % cocoa solidsTHE CHILLED AISLE
BUTTER
Unsalted Butter I am a die hard fan of Aldi’s Pure Valley unsalted butter. It comes in 500 g blocks. Great price and good all- rounder for buttercreams and doughs. If I am baking a butter cake that needs longer shelf life (and I can push the $$$ boat out), I will buy cultured unsalted butter from a small producer like Lardass (best name and our most beloved butter supplier at Beatrix Bakes). Cultured butter gives extra moistness to the baked crumb and have always improves a cake’s shelf life. Alternatively I love like KerryGold . If you accidentally picked up salted butter, use it but increase the sugar a smidge and omit any extra salt in the recipe. Salted butter can affect pastry crusts considerably as it has a higher water content than unsalted so do keep that in mind. Still usable - just can get melty a little quicker. Salted butter will always have a less disruptive presence in a cookie dough. CREAM
Check those nutri panels carefully for the best whip! 35 % FAT + NO THICKENERS If I am making a liquid based custard, butterscotch or a baked custard (as in a tart) i.e. doesn’t need a stable whipped structure I buy pouring cream that has a 35% fat percentage listed on the side. Small producers like Lardass also have briliant cream! Off topic, it also makes a great runny cream to blanket a scoop of apple crumble. For whipping in stable swathes and billowy scoops, look for 35% TO 45% FAT + THICKENER (EITHER GELATINE OR VEGETABLE GUM). A few years ago you could get a brilliant 45% fat cream with no additives. This, alas is no more. Bulla Dollop Cream is a good all-rounder. If I can’t get the whipping percentage I want, I’ll blend a low percentage cream with some mascarpone like a 3 parts cream: 1 part mascarpone ratio and whip it up. TOO HIGH IN FAT? Yep, the one time it can be a bad thing. A double cream where the fat is 50%, can whip a bit too stiff but you can drop the fat percentage and make billowy swathes by whipping the reverse ratio of above: 2 parts low fat cream and 1 part high fat. OTHER DAIRY
These dairy products need no brand specificity. Just be aware of the fat %. Yoghurt should be full-fat and natural/unsweetened. Sour cream is always the full-fat variety. Buttermilk can be the white and creamy looking commercial type OR the true runnier, pale yellow tinged natural type - they both work fine. Ricotta: I like to get this from a deli or the deli section rather than the plasticky fridge wrapped ones. Mascarpone can be differ in thickness across the brands so if it is cement like thick, massage in some cream with a stiff plastic spatula to soften it slightly. If it is too thin and a loosey goosey texture, whip it up by hand. Chilled but not dairy are Copha, used to soften the set on chocolate. If you can't find Copha, I'll use an odourless coconut oil like this one. Lard is for European specific baking like cannoli doughs and pastis de nata. Nat x
Text by ©Natalie Paull 2024 ©Beatrix Bakes 2023