Party of One: Small Batch Baking

OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE OF ONE PARTY OF ONE

A Guide to A Guide to Small Batch Baking Small Batch Baking

BY EMILY TRUONG PHOTO BY EMILY YAO

My family has a notorious history of not finishing dessert. Whenever we celebrate birthdays within my rather large extended family, we never finish more than half of the cake, no matter how many people attend. At home, as my parents phase in and out of diets and my friends have all left for college, my cookies and eclairs and brownies remain forgotten, sealed in Tupperware, until they become hard as a rock.

Recently, I’ve turned almost exclusively to baking in small batches. In the early stages of quarantine, I started halving recipes to conserve flour, but I soon fell in love with small batch baking. I find it so satisfying when a scaled-down recipe — be it midafternoon crepes shared with my sister, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies baked at 10 pm, or a mini marble cake for a virtual birthday party — turns out well.

Whether you live alone, are low on ingredients, or are tired of days of neverending batches of dessert, small batch baking is for you! Below are some tips and tricks to help scale down your favorite recipe into something with a more convenient yield.

Getting started: Getting started:

1. Start with a tried and true recipe — your grandmother’s famous chocolate chip cookies or a trusty recipe from your favorite food blogger. Take a look at the yield or if you’ll need a certain pan. Anything that’s originally made in a 9x13 inch pan can be halved to fit an 8x8 inch pan. Individually sized pies, cheesecakes, cinnamon rolls, and more can be made in muffin tins. 2. Halve all the ingredient amounts (the calculator app is about to become your new best friend). Baking relies on ratios, making it easy to scale down recipes. If your recipe uses metric units, then you’re in luck, but if your recipe uses cups instead, just remember that 1 cup = 16 Tbsp, 1 Tbsp = 3 tsp, and prepare for some light number crunching. 3. And now, time for the dreaded egg. What happens when your recipe calls for an odd number of eggs? Simple — separate the egg! Use the yolk for cookies, brownies, custard, and denser, chewier treats Use the white for cakes, muffins, and fluffier baked goods Save the other part of the egg for breakfast the next morning or use it for another small batch recipe 4. Now that you have your scaleddown proportions, follow the recipe as usual! Keep in mind that you may need to reduce your baking time if you’re using a different size pan than what the recipe calls for. Write down the new ingredient amounts so you don’t accidentally add too much flour or overload the treat with salt.

Taking it a step further: Taking it a step further:

1. If you want a miniature cake, a typical 12 cupcake recipe fits nicely into two 6 inch round pans. Halve the corresponding frosting recipe and assemble your fun-sized 6 inch cake. 2. Loaf pans are the most versatile small batch baking essential. You can fit brownies, mini sheet cakes, marshmallows, dinner rolls, and so much more in a classic 9x5 inch bread loaf pan. 3. Another essential: a measuring spoon set that includes a teaspoon measurement. These can be hard to find, but they make life so much easier.