When making dough that will be rolled out, don’t add all the flour the recipe calls for when you are mixing the batter. For example, if a cinnamon roll recipe calls for 2 ½ cups of flour, put only 1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups in the dough – or just enough to make the dough manageable. You will use at least the remaining amount of flour during the kneading and rolling process, dusting the surface, your hands, and the rolling pin. If you put all the flour in ahead of time, your dough will be over-floured and dry, hard to manage, and the results will be unpleasantly heavy to eat.

When making yeast doughs, use ceramic bowls for rising; ceramic or stoneware will retain heat and keep the dough warmer than metal, glass, or plastic. Frankly, if you’re mixing by hand instead of using a mixer or a dough hook, mix the dough in the ceramic bowl to begin with. Try to avoid using metal bowls for yeast dough, except when using a stand mixer with a dough hook – metal’s sensitivity to cold or heat can make yeast unhappy. (Kitchenaid has recently solved this for all of us by offering for sale ceramic mixing bowls that snap right in to the bases of its tilt-head mixers.)

We have lots of recipes that use baking powder or baking soda as the only leavening. Plan to bake these immediately after shaping, or your dough will deflate.

Allow refrigerated ingredients like milk or eggs to warm to room temperature before adding them to yeast dough – if you don’t, the chill will stop the rising in its tracks.

Before turning dough into the bowl for rising, take about four tablespoons of soft butter and smear it all over the inside of your mixing bowl. Don’t worry about washing the bowl first – just go ahead and cover the stuck-on flour mix with the butter. It will turn out fine. We like to use a nice linen kitchen towel to cover dough while rising – it keeps the dough warm, allows air circulation, and won’t drop lint or fuzz into the dough.

To cleanly cut dough in rolls (like cinnamon rolls), either use a serrated knife or a long piece of unwaxed dental floss. Loop the floss around the bottom of the roll, bring the ends up, and pull as if tying a knot. The floss will squish the dough a little, but it is a less sticky and less annoying process than trying to use a regular knife. As for the serrated knife, butter it a little before you try to cut the dough.