Baking Tips

A few tips for baking in general:

• If you need to make something vegan, there are plenty of substitutes for eggs. My favourite is a snack cup of unsweetened applesauce. I've heard banana also works.
• Parchment paper is wonderful. So is a silicone alternative (less waste!).
• Baking stones are also great, if you don't mind cleaning them carefully. Keep in mind that they're porous and absorb liquid. My family made croissants on one every year for Christmas, and now it drips butter.
• If substituting cocoa for flour, do up to half the amount of flour, and double the cocoa. For example, 1 cup flour would become 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup cocoa.
• If something's just a but too runny or sticky, refrigerate it for a bit. Or add flour. Depends on the circumstance. Don't add flour to icing.
• Typically, I use whole wheat flour for all of my cookies and muffins. If I'm specifying something else, there's a reason. For example, shortbread cookies aren't usually supposed to taste like bran, but it'd be the strongest flavour.