Small Batch Baking

In some cases, maybe, but baking in small batches is rarely that simple. In the test kitchen we quickly discovered that it’s a different way of baking altogether, where times, ingredients, and sometimes temperatures need adjustment. The ratio of leavener to flour can change when you decrease the volume of a batter, cookies may burn more easily when there are two in the oven instead of ten, and don’t get us started on halving a recipe that only calls for one egg! We suggest you rely on recipes that are tailored to small batch baking instead of going it alone.

One of the great things about small batch baking is that it’s very pantry friendly, so hopefully you’ll never have to buy a special ingredient, but if a recipe calls for half-and-half and you’re a heavy cream household, or brown sugar and all you have is granulated, worry not. We spent time in the test kitchen coming up with substitutions and equivalents for all the most common dairy products and baking ingredients.

Often the answer is your freezer! The number of things that we could preserve in the freezer surprised even us: egg whites will whip up fine after thawing, buttermilk, cream cheese, and yogurt are still great for baking after being in the deep freeze, citrus zest, nuts, and ginger retain all their flavor, and of course butter—a freezer should never be without a few spare sticks.

We think so! Treating yourself and your loved ones to a sweet treat is always worthwhile and truly one of the simple pleasures of life. And for our small batch recipes we’ve focused on streamlined techniques and timesaving tips so the desserts come together with very little effort. As a bonus if you have a toaster oven on your counter you can make a lot of these recipes without even turning on your oven.