Kitchen Essentials | My Midnight Baking

It’s easier than you might think to keep a baking-ready kitchen. Most of what you need are pantry staples that when stored properly will keep for a long time. The rest are what I like to call ‘dual-purpose’ items, or ingredients that are useful for everyday cooking as well as My Midnight Baking. Then there are also ‘for fun’ things, or stuff that I like to pick up when I can (usually on sale) to liven up the baking, but it’s certainly not necessary to have all of them all of the time. Most of these will also keep for a long time.

Kitchen tools is an ongoing process. I’ve found that over the years I seem to accumulate more and more of these, but what’s strictly ‘necessary’ is a different matter.

Pantry Staples

Flour (all purpose)
White sugar
Brown sugar (I prefer light brown sugar – but that’s a matter of personal taste)
Butter, unsalted (at least two sticks, and good to keep a third stick in the freezer)
Baking powder
Baking soda
Vanilla extract
Sweetened condensed milk

Dual Purpose

Eggs
Oats (quick cook or whole rolled, but not instant)
Milk*
Cocoa
Cinnamon
Salt
Lemon juice
Honey
Maple Syrup

For Fun

Chocolate chips (I like keeping both mini-chocolate chips and dark chocolate ones on hand, but again that’s a personal preference)
Sweetened flaked coconut
Raisins
Sliced almonds

Tools

Measuring cups & spoons
Large mixing bowl
Baking sheet
9” x 13” Rectangular baking pan
8” Square baking pan
9” Loaf pan
Pastry cutter – totally optional, I went for a long time without one, but now that I have it I love how easily it cuts butter into flour without creaming it
Electric hand mixer or food processor – both make easy work of creaming butter/sugar and are worth the investment.

* I use nonfat milk in my coffee, tea, cereal, whatever. But when it comes to baking, you lose some creaminess when you use nonfat. I live by myself and can’t justify being a two-milk household, so the question is where to compromise? I don’t have an answer, just thought I’d flag it as an issue…