It’s likely that you enjoy accumulating baking ingredients if you adore baking. You may make a batch of cookies, a layer cake, muffins, or a dozen buttermilk biscuits whenever you want without having to go to the shop for ingredients if you keep a pantry stocked with a range of flours, sugars, leavening agents, and extracts. Following a few storage tips will help keep those ingredients fresh and usable. For the finest tips on maintaining your baking essentials, continue reading.
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How to Store Your Baking Staples
All-purpose flour
All-purpose flour should be kept dry and cool in an airtight container. Here, the key phrase is “airtight.” Folding the top of a bag is not enough to keep it closed once you’ve opened it. To prevent pantry bug infestations, your best option is to move the flour—still in the bag if you choose, or decanted, provided it is labeled—to a container with an airtight lid. All-purpose flour doesn’t need to be kept in the freezer or refrigerator; in fact, a dry atmosphere is preferable for long-term storage.
Shelf-Life: Six to 12 months
Other Flours
All-purpose flours have a longer shelf life than other flours, such as whole-grain wheat flours and several alternative grain flours. You should be careful to store such flours in the refrigerator or freezer rather than the warmer pantry since the oils in the grains are more likely to turn rancid. Once more, it’s imperative to keep them airtight and properly seal them.
Keep a close eye on the bags’ stamped expiration dates because of their shortened shelf life. Compared to all-purpose flour you buy at the same time, you’ll want to use them up sooner. Nut flours are no different. You should store both in the freezer in airtight containers since their oils can cause them to go rancid.
One to three months is the shelf life.
Granulated Sugar
It is recommended to keep sugars in an airtight container at room temperature. Although lumps of granulated sugar are possible, they are easily broken up with a fork or whisk.
Shelf-Life: Indefinite to two years
Brown Sugar
You will need to soften brown sugar before measuring and using it in a recipe since it is particularly prone to stiffening. To soften the sugar from its solid state, try putting a thin apple wedge or a little piece of bread inside the sugar container and sealing it for the night. The moisture from the apple or bread will transfer to the sugar.
Another option is to place the brown sugar in a glass dish and microwave it alongside another glass bowl that is filled with water. In less than a minute, the moisture from the water should help soften the sugar when you microwave it on high; check every 20 seconds to make sure you’re not overdoing it.
Duration of Shelf Life: 4–6 months
Sugar from Confectioners
Confectioners’ sugar, commonly known as powdered sugar, is acceptable at room temperature, as long as it’s in an airtight container. Though it has cornstarch added in as an anti-caking agent, you may want to give it a vigorous whisk or sift it through a sieve, before measuring to get rid of any lumps.
Shelf-Life: Indefinite to two years
Baking Soda
When you need a teaspoon or two for a baking recipe, don’t use an opened box of baking soda that you’ve placed in your refrigerator; that opened box is meant to absorb odors, so let it do its job. Baking powder and baking soda should be kept at room temperature, away from heat and light. It’s preferable to decant baking soda into an airtight container rather than using it from an opened box.
How to Store Vanilla Extract
Despite being opened, extracts like vanilla or almond should not be kept in the refrigerator; instead, they should be kept at room temperature, away from heat and light.
Shelf-Life: One year (opened), two years (unopened)
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