Baking Tip: No Mess, Easy Scooping

I’m all about the easy in my house, especially when it comes to my life in the kitchen.  As much as I love to cook and bake, that doesn’t mean that I want to or enjoy spending hours longer in the kitchen slaving over a dish than what I have to.  I have other things I want to do, too, like read or practice Spanish or run to the gym even.  That’s where Life Hacks are my friend.

And this?  This is one of the more genius moves.

 

When I make muffins of cupcakes or cookies or pretty much anything with a batter that I want to divide into even size pieces – which means meatballs when I’m being fancy – I use my cookie scoops.  Every household should have them.  Personally, I have them in three sizes.  I have the tiny ones for truffles, medium size for cookies and meatballs and the like, and the big ones for muffins and cupcakes.  Especially when baking, it’s important to have your items the same size so the don’t burn, and these make it so much easier.

When I’m scooping batter, my scoop becomes a mess.  The batter sticks to it, it doesn’t come out evenly, and I’m not as exact in my measurements as I may want.  Or… that used to be the case.  Now I have the perfect Life Hack that makes this not just easy but no mess, too.  All you need is some nontick cooking spray, your muffin tin, and your scoop.

Over your sink (to catch the mess of the overspray) lightly mist your scoop with the nonstick spray.  I was startled by my cat when doing this one, so you can see that I have more in here than I need, but it’s ok.  Shhh, I just let it drip out a bit.

Step 2?  Scoop out your batter just as you normally would and release each dollop into your awaiting tin.  Notice how not just the first one comes out beautifully but ever single one does.  The nonstick coating remains on your scoop through the whole process.  Even after scooping all my thick brownie cupcakes, the scoop only had a little bit of batter on the very edge.

Now?  I know I’m scooping even amounts and my brownie cupcakes will turn out evenly, lessening the likelihood that one child or another will argue over who has the bigger cupcake tomorrow.  Super easy, super simple, and – I think – super genius!

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