The One Step You Should Never Skip When Baking With Coconut Oil

When you've got a hankering to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies, for example, it can be easy to ignore the directive to use room-temperature eggs. Although this egg temperature makes a huge difference by helping them blend better into the batter, waiting for them to adjust to the ambient temperature can set your baking time back quite a bit. And who wants to wait when fresh cookies are in your future? However excruciating the wait may be, it's good practice to follow the recipe and let your ingredients come to room temperature when instructed to do so – this is particularly true when using coconut oil.

Unlike other oils, coconut oil remains solid until about 76 degrees Fahrenheit – on the high end of the average home temperature range of 68 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. So, depending on your personal thermostat preference, that jar of coconut oil on your shelf may be either a solid or a liquid. For many recipes, like pie crust, solid is ideal. Others require liquid. (Pro tip: When considering how to store coconut oil, think about storing half in the fridge and half at room temperature so you have both options at the ready.)

If your recipe calls for liquid coconut oil, mixing it with refrigerator-cold ingredients like eggs and milk can lower its temperature, triggering a reversion back into its solid state. This can lead to tiny chunks of solid oil dotting your formerly smooth batter. While this probably isn't a recipe-ruining situation, it may require extra-vigorous mixing to get it back to the desired texture. 

Now you know why using room-temperature ingredients is key when mixing them with liquid coconut oil. But simply knowing it's important doesn't make it any easier to wait. Thankfully, there are some tried and true ways to reduce the time it takes to bring ingredients to the perfect baking temperature.

Let's start with eggs. Simply leaving cold eggs on the counter to warm up will take about 30 minutes. However, you can cut this time in half without safety risks by placing the unbroken eggs in a bowl of warm (not hot) water. Just make sure you use them or return them to the refrigerator within two hours, per the USDA's guidelines. Your goal is a tasty treat, not food poisoning.

Milk and other liquid dairy products are even easier. Microwave them for about 15 seconds at a time, until they lose their chill. Or, pop the liquid in a saucepan and turn the burner on low. Watch it closely, as the objective is room temperature, not "a sidewalk in summertime" hot. With your ingredients at the right temperature, your coconut oil-fortified bakes will turn out perfectly.