It's way easier if you get a third involved

So, it's only 3 weeks into the semester and I'm putting up a tip for my weekly post. Taneasha only thinks she wants to kill me. Next week, she'll see the wicked amazing dish I made that's taking a long time for me to get all together into one post.

For now, I thought I'd show you a little trick you might like to turn when you're separating eggs.

So, there's the yolk and the white and usually a bowl for each. But, what happens if you add a third to this happy little pair?

Part of the issue with separating eggs is that sometimes the yolk breaks. Especially when you're just starting out with baking and learning new techniques. I mean, juggling a delicate sac filled with gooey fluid between two tiny fragile cups with sharp edges? Does not sound easy. That's why sometimes it's handy to get a third party involved.

So, get yourself an egg. Gently tap it on the edge of a bowl to crack it, and then carefully pry the halves apart.

You're going to want to do this over a bowl because the white will immediately start to ooze out.

Now, gently ease the halves to the right and tip the yolk into the half shell in your right hand. More white will fall into the bowl.

Tip the other way and transfer the yolk to the left half of the shell. After doing this a couple times, you'll have all the white in the bowl and nothing left in the shells but the yolk.

Dump the yolk into the second bowl.

You just separated an egg!

But, you've got three more to go! I don't know, maybe you're making ice cream or merengues or something...

Before you grab another egg, grab another bowl.

Set your bowl of white aside and start the process again over the newly introduced third bowl.

When you've got your second egg separated, you'll have one bowl with 2 yolks, and two bowls with 1 white. Combine all the white into one bowl, whichever one you want.

Now you're back to a white bowl, a yolk bowl, and an empty bowl.

Why? Well, because if, as you were passing that delicate yolk back and forth over sharp edges, you happned to break the yolk as you were working over a bowl of egg white, you'd end up with a bowl of egg white and some yolk. That's kinda the opposite of separating eggs.

Sharp edges, see:

And it can be disastrous if you're trying to collect whites to whip into some kind of delicate and frothy delightful dessert.

By having a special third bowl to hover over while you're doing the separating, you're much less likely to end up contaminating your whites with yolk. I mean, if you're separating 5 or 6 eggs and on the last one you end up with yolk in the whites bowl... you're going to have to make a lot of bread pudding (sweet or savoury) to use all that egg.

So, 3 bowls: one for whites, one for yolks, and one to separate over. Best threesome ever.

Oh no! I forgot to pull it out!

Does your recipe call for room temperature ingredients, such as eggs, butter, or milk, but you forgot to pull them out ahead of time?  Don't worry, I'll show you how to remedy the situation.

It's important to have your ingredients at the proper temperature for your recipe.  If they're too cold or too warm, they can cause all kinds of difficulties for you. 

Milk is easy.  You can just put it in the microwave to bring it to room temperature.  Be careful not to heat it too much and stir often.  Also, if your recipe calls for milk and water, you can just add hot water to the milk. 

For butter (or cream cheese), you don't want to use the microwave, because it will end up at least partially melting.  Instead, take the whole stick, in its wrapper, and place it into a bowl of warm water.  Think like cool bath water.  Leave the stick for 10 minutes, and it should be perfectly softened. 

And last but not least, the eggs.  Place your eggs into hot water for 5 minutes.  Not hot enough to burn you, but quite warm to the touch. 

     

It's impossible to plan ahead all the time.  Hopefully these tips will help when you decide you want to make cupcakes, right this instant, but all your ingredients are in the fridge.