Whether you're a pro or just starting out, you'll definitely want to keep these ingredients in your pantry. Having these staple ingredients ensures that you're ALWAYS ready to bake up some desserts!
1. All-purpose flour
All-purpose flour is essentially the base of any dessert recipe. Some recipes may call for bread flour, or fancy type 00 flour, but all-purpose flour is the most versatile of them all. Whether you're making pizza dough, cinnamon rolls or chocolate chip cookies, this is the flour you'll need.
Storage tip: It also doesn't expire very quickly, so you know that once you have some in your pantry, you can keep for months. I like to empty mine into a large air-tight container to keep it fresh!
2. Baking soda
Baking soda works as a leavening agent to help your baked goods rise. When you bake a cake, you see it rise in the oven right? Well, that's the baking soda (usually)! A chemical reaction takes place, and throughout the cooking process, little air bubbles of carbon dioxide are created, and you get desserts with a fluffy texture! Without it, you would probably have a really dense cake or hockey-puck style cookies.
Most ingredients will call for either baking soda, or baking powder-- and NO they are not interchangeable! Keeping this ingredient on-hand ensures that you are ready to go when you're craving dessert.
Storage tip: Either empty your box of baking soda into an airtight container, or seal the box into a ziploc bag to maintain freshness. Since baking soda is a deodorizer, leaving it without being sealed probably means it'll suck up all the smells in your pantry... no thank you!
3. Baking powder
Similar to baking soda, baking powder is also a leavening agent, but it just works a little differently. By keeping this ingredient in your pantry, you'll be ready to bake anything under the sun.
Storage tip: Don't buy baking powder in bulk, it usually becomes less effective after 6 months, so make sure that you buy small quantities! So for the first time, you'll maybe want to skip the Costco size!
4. Granulated white sugar
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Most desserts, if not all of them, require the addition of white sugar. Granulated white sugar is the most versatile of sugars, has a long shelf-life and usually goes on sale as well. I typically like to stock-up when it goes on sale and keep it in my pantry so I never run out!
The other wonderful thing about white sugar is that it can double as brown sugar in recipes too! This little trick went viral on our TikTok, but all you need to do is add one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of white sugar, and that will give you brown sugar!
Storage tip: Keep your sugar in a cool, dry place to prevent it from clumping up.
5. Brown sugar or Molasses
Until this TikTok went viral, I had zero clue that brown sugar was such a hot topic! Brown sugar is a crucial ingredient when baking, but not just any brown sugar. You want to stock up on the old-fashioned brown sugar. This one is typically moist, packs nicely, and can be purchased in a light or dark variety. When baking, coconut sugar, raw cane sugar, or any other dry sugars are NOT a replacement. Brown sugar offers great texture and flavour to recipes, and is often crucial to the success of your bakes.
Storage tip: When kept in your pantry, it often goes hard very quickly. To avoid this, you can purchase either a brown sugar softener (a clay disk that is stored with the brown sugar to keep it moist), or you can make your own like I do by adding one tablespoon of molasses to one cup of white sugar.
6. Chocolate chips
I love making cookies, and usually they involve some sort of chocolate. That's why chocolate chips are a must have in my pantry. These usually have a long shelf-life, can be used for so many recipes, and often are a yummy little snack too! You can choose to buy any kind, but I usually like to have milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips on hand (the Kirkland brand is my fave!).
Storage tip: Keep your chocolate chips in a cool, dry place to avoid any accidental melting. You may also see a white coating on your sugar, don't worry about it, its called "fat bloom" and is totally normal. It happens because the milk fats or cocoa butter in the chocolate migrate to the surface.
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