Cooking: Mixing and Spreading

If you enjoy cooking, you know that many recipes call for mixing and spreading ingredients, whether you’re baking a cake, whipping up a main dish, or just making a quick sandwich. With a few tips and a little practice, you can make sure your ingredients are all mixed together, or spread evenly, no matter your level of vision.

Let’s start with mixing. One great tip for getting started with any recipe, is to begin by gathering and measuring your ingredients ahead of time.

When you’re mixing in a bowl, it can be helpful to use darker bowls for light-colored foods and lighter bowls for dark-colored foods. And choosing a larger bowl, and one with deeper sides, can help reduce any splashes or spills. A larger bowl also makes it easier to get everything into the mixture, instead of on the counter.

But just in case spills do happen, it’s a great idea to have your mixing bowl on top of a large tray, like a baking sheet with raised edges. That way, you can catch anything that misses the mark, and tip it back into the bowl.

For many recipes, the mixture will begin to feel different as it all gets blended together. If you’re adding flour, for example, notice when the batter feels smoother. And when you’re stirring sugar into liquid, notice when the grainy feeling goes away.

Using a flexible spatula to scrape around the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl is also a great way to check whether everything feels smooth and mixed. And you can feel inside the bowl with your fingers, to see whether there are still any ingredients that need to be stirred in.

You can also use your hands to finish blending a stiff mixture, like cookie dough, to toss ingredients together, like a salad and to check that you’ve got everything out of the bowl, when you’re done. It’s totally fine to use your hands when you’re cooking. Chefs do it all the time!

If your recipe calls for folding ingredients together, here’s a handy technique to make sure everything is mixed. First, add your lighter ingredients on top of your heavier mixture, in a line from left to right. Then scoop into the mixture from the far edge of the bowl to the center, then scoop toward the left side. Lift your spatula and tip the mixture back into the bowl gently. Then give the bowl a quarter turn. And repeat the motion, scooping inward from the far edge to the center, then outward to the left, and tipping the mixture back in. Once again, work all around the bowl several times to make sure everything is mixed.

Now let’s look at some tips for using a mixer. Placing a label or a tactile mark on the on-off switch, and on any commonly used settings, can make it easier to use your mixer with confidence.

For a hand mixer, it helps to place a non-slip surface under the bowl, like a damp cloth or a piece of shelf liner, to keep it from sliding away.

Once you’re ready to start mixing, here are some helpful ways to keep your ingredients from splashing out. First, touch the beaters to the bottom of the bowl, before you start, to make sure they’re all the way into the mixture. Then start the mixer on its lowest speed. And slowly increase to the speed you want, using your hearing as a guide.

Now let’s take a look at techniques for spreading your mixture, or spreading other foods. A beautifully frosted cake is always fun to present, and it’s easier to spread your frosting neatly than you might think.

One trick many professionals use is to chill the cake, or even freeze it, before frosting. That makes it easier to spread your frosting without breaking or tearing the cake, and without getting loose crumbs stuck in the icing. Have your frosting at room temperature so it can spread easily. And if it still feels too thick to go on smoothly, you can thin it with a small amount of liquid.

One great tip for a round cake is to place it on a rotating surface, like a lazy Susan. When you start spreading the frosting on top, begin in the middle, and slowly rotate the turntable, letting the steady movement do some of the work for you. And you can gently run the back of the spoon or spatula over the surface to feel for any spots you’ve missed.

The freezing technique can be helpful for other foods, too, like a pre-baked pizza crust. For a thin sauce, you can pour it in the middle and use the bottom of your ladle to spread it in a circular motion. Or use your hands and fingers to spread it out toward the edges.

If you’re working with a square or a rectangle—like layering sauce for lasagna—imagine dividing the pan into quarters. Add sauce to each of the four sections, then spread it across each section, until the surface is covered.

If you’re spreading foods on bread or making a sandwich, one great way to practice is to start with toast, which is less likely to tear.

And if you’re spreading something firm, like butter or cream cheese, it’s helpful to let it warm up and soften. When you scoop it up, once again, go ahead and use your sense of touch to check how much you have on your knife.

Thinner spreads can be easier to scoop with a spoon. This works great for getting jelly, mayonnaise, or mustard out of a jar, and you can use the back of the spoon for spreading.

One technique for covering the bread evenly is to start with the spread in the middle, and work outward. Another method is to dab your spread around the edges, then draw it toward the center. Try both, with different foods, to see what works best for you.

And while you’re spreading, create a pattern in your mind to cover the whole slice of bread, using overlapping strokes. If you have visual memory, try to picture the motion as you go. Once you’ve gone across the entire slice of bread, give it a quarter turn. Then repeat the pattern to make sure you’ve covered it completely. And be aware of how easily your knife or spoon is gliding over the bread. That can help you get a feel for how thick of a layer you’re creating, and whether you want to add more.

As always, if you need more information or you've got your own tips to share, contact a Hadley learning expert. Of course, as with anything new, give yourself time, patience and practice, and you'll get there.