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By Sarah Hunt, AZFB Communications Intern

Have you ever cooked a meal with one of your parents or grandparents and they showed you a cool trick or shortcut you didn’t know before? Well thanks to Southwest Family Citrus, we have a whole series of them for you! Make sure to check back next week for more tips.

1. Over-ripe bananas can be peeled and frozen in a plastic container until it’s time to bake bread or cake.
2. When baking bread, a small dish of water in the oven will help keep the crust from getting too hard or brown.
3. Use shortening, not margarine or oil, to grease pans, as margarine and oil absorb more readily into the dough or batter (especially bread).
4. Use a metal ice tray divider to cut biscuits in a hurry. Press into the dough, and biscuits will separate at dividing lines when baked.
5. To make self-rising flour, mix 4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons salt, and 2 tablespoons baking powder, and store in a tightly covered container.
6. Hot water kills yeast. One way to tell the correct temperature is to pour the water over your forearm. If you cannot feel either hot or cold, the temperature is just right.
7. When in doubt, always sift flour before measuring.
8. When baking in a glass pan, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
9. When baking bread, you get a finer texture if you use milk. Water makes a courser bread.
10. If your biscuits are dry, it could be from too much handling, or the oven temperature may not have been hot enough.
11. Nut breads are better if stored 24 hours before serving.
12. To make bread crumbs, toast the heels of bread and chop in a blender or food processor.
13. Cracked eggs should not be used because they may contain bacteria.
14. The freshness of eggs can be tested by placing them in a large bowl of cold water; if they float, do not use them.
15. For a quick, low-fat crunchy topping for muffins, sprinkle the tops with Grape-Nuts cereal before baking.
16. Dust a bread pan or work surface with flour by filling an empty glass salt shaker with flour.

Find more cooking tips on Fill Your Plate’s blog!