Home kitchens can get chaotic, no matter how big or small. This is especially true for bakers who love to linger near the oven, whipping up pastries and pies all day. Baking is one of those things where precision matters, and the chaos doesn’t help when carefully measuring out ingredients or whipping egg whites. A little organization in your home kitchen can go a long way, especially for baking utensils often scattered in various cabinets.
To make baking in your kitchen smoother and simpler, start by organizing your tools. Dedicate a cabinet to store baking sheets if you have a lot of them, and arrange them by size. Instead of having all your cooking utensils in one place, separate the ones you most often use for baking — like a rolling pin, scale, or icing tips — and store them in their own drawer closest to the cabinet with your baking sheets. You’ll find yourself running fewer circles around your kitchen when whipping up a cake. You’ll also enjoy the satisfaction of a well-organized kitchen, even behind cabinet doors.
Why mise en place matters
Mise en place is a French term commonly used in the kitchen and culinary world. It translates in English to “set up,” but in French, it essentially means “everything in its place.” Mise en place is helpful whether you’re making a simple appetizer or constructing a multi-layer cake. While it’s a good idea to set yourself up in the kitchen no matter what meal you’re cooking, it’s especially useful when baking.
Mise en place refers to your tools, but it also includes ingredients. Organized kitchen storage for your cooking utensils will make it easier to pull out all the tools you need for a given recipe without fiddling through a never-ending drawer of wooden spoons and spatulas. It also makes it easier to set out all your ingredients before you actually start the cooking process. Doing this will help ensure you don’t miss an essential ingredient, and having your tools easily accessible will make the process smoother and more enjoyable overall. You’ll be baking like a pro, and it’s sure to show when your pastry hits the plate.
