Handle The Heat » Recipes » Savory Recipes
Here is a collection of the very best savory recipes! Pizza, bread rolls, pretzels, burger buns – you’re bound to find your new favorite recipe for Sunday night family dinner or for your next potluck.
Here are my most popular baking science articles that will teach you must-have skills you can apply to just about any of these savory recipes.
The easiest ingredient to mis-measure is flour. That’s because it can be so easily compacted into a container or measuring cup without you even realizing. Too much flour results in dry, dense, and even crumbly desserts. Check out my article for How to Measure Flour here.
I highly recommend avoiding dark colored nonstick pans as well as most glass pans. I use light colored aluminum for just about everything!
Dark metal pans will dry out the edges of your desserts, often before the center can cook through. Glass or ceramic baking pans will take LONGER to bake most recipes, and can even result in gummy textures.
If you’re curious about all my recommended baking equipment and tools, check out my Magic of Baking Course.
Here at Handle the Heat, we believe butter, eggs, flour, and sugar are magical specimens and should never be replaced (unless medically necessary due to an allergy/intolerance).
We highly recommend making all recipes exactly as written. If you do decide to substitute an ingredient(s), just know the final result won’t be the same in texture and/or flavor.
This free cheatsheet contains a breakdown on each type of yeast, tips for making bread ahead of time, easy bread recipes, and more!
Step into my kitchen and bake these easy recipes step-by-step with me.
Download our free Make-Ahead Baking Guide printable for tips on how to prepare all kinds of recipes from breads, cake, cupcakes, pies and more ahead of time!
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Active dry and instant yeasts can be substituted for one another at a 1:1 ratio. Active dry yeast will take about 15 to 20 minutes longer to rise than instant yeast. To encourage active dry yeast to start its activity without having to proof, just use very warm water in your dough mixture (120-130°F).
For any traditional dough making where you’re kneading by hand or with a machine and allowing the dough to rise, this 1:1 ratio will work.
Active dry and instant yeast may not be interchangeable when using a bread machine since they use higher temperatures to raise dough. When baking in the bread machine and substituting instant yeast for active dry, reduce the amount of instant yeast by 25%.
You may also want to use the specific yeast called for in recipes with very long fermentation times (typically active dry in those cases).
Once the dough is risen, press it down to deflate it slightly. Use a bench scraper to section the dough into 12 equal pieces. Don’t worry if they’re not perfectly equal in size. However, if you’re a perfectionist you can actually weigh the entire mass of dough, divide that number by 12, then portion each piece perfectly by weight.
As you’re shaping each piece into a round, make sure to pinch the dough into one central point to create a tight ball. This will help the rolls rise beautifully. Don’t flour your work surface when shaping the rolls because you want some resistance to roll them into taut balls.
You can make focaccia bread ahead of time by letting the dough hang out in the fridge, covered, for a few days before shaping. The longer it ferments, the more flavor will develop. Allow to come to room temperature before shaping and allowing to rise for the second time.
In a well-vented area, place a plastic or glass container (do not use metal) on top of a few pieces of parchment paper to protect your counter from splashes.
Carefully sprinkle the lye into the water. Use a heat-safe silicone spatula to carefully stir the lye to dissolve. The lye is dissolved when the water looks clear (the container will feel warm to the touch – this is normal).
Dip a shaped pretzel into the lye bath for about 30 seconds. Remove and let drip off then place on the prepared greased parchment lined baking sheets.
If you wind up making pretzels often, you may want to avoid using the same glass container each time. Lye is corrosive and will eventually weaken the glass. Your best bet is a dedicated high-quality plastic container.
After the dough has fermented in the fridge, you can freeze the dough in freezer-safe plastic containers for up to 1 month. Defrost the dough overnight in the fridge, then allow it to sit at room temperature as directed above before shaping.
