Today I’ll be providing you with my top 4 tips on how to organise a baking pantry. By the end of it you’ll know where your staple baking ingredients ready to be grabbed and baked with.
The other week I shared with you a list of staple ingredients that I have in my baking pantry. You can refer back to that list here. But is your baking cupboard a mess overflowing with half filled packets of flour and out of date nuts? You don’t know what’s in there and when you reach in for your caster sugar, your jar of sprinkles tumbles to the floor and sitters everywhere.
Uugh I’ve been there. The image above, that was just one of three tabs that all my ingredients lived in. Always overflowing, I never really knew what I had in there. Whether it’s in a plastic tub like the above, in a drawer, or a cupboard, being messy like this gets frustrating right? So today I’m sharing with you my 4 steps to organise those ingredients and gain control!
My Tips in How To Organise Your Baking Pantry
1. Empty out all your ingredients and do a stock check
There’s no easy way to do it other than emptying that drawer/cupboard/shelf. Give that area a good ol’ clean. I guarantee there’s spilled sugar granules, flour grains and smeared food colouring underneath all the packaging.
From there, make a list of every thing you already have. I bet you’ll be surprised at what’s hiding in the bottom of your drawer. To make life easy, refer to my list of Staple Ingredients for a Baker’s Pantry. You can simply tick off everything that you already have making it easy to see what you need to buy. This will also help you later on when it comes to storage ideas. I have a blackboard in my kitchen that whenever I’m running low on an ingredient I quickly scribble on.
TIP: Check use by dates. Your baking can be effected by using out of date products.
2. Group Ingredients Together
Now we have to organise our ingredients. Dumping them altogether back into your cupboard will only create the same problem. The easiest and most efficient way to organise is by grouping your products together.
Here is how I group mine:
- Flours
- Sugars
- Natural Sweetners
- Leaveners
- Flavourings
- Chocolate
- Dried Fruit and Nuts
You’ll find, grabbing your set of ingredients for a recipe way easier like this. I’mm all about time saving hacks and this is one of them.
3. Storage jars
So now you’ve made a list of what ingredients you already have, what you need to buy to top up your staples and you’ve organised them into groups … let’s store them.
Storage is one one the most important factors in how to organise your baking pantry. Choose a clear container that you can decant your ingredients into. Being able to see your ingredients is a sure fire way to see quickly what you are grabbing. You can see the quantity and know when you need to top up.
Here are some storage ideas:
- Glass clip top jars with a rubber seal – I use these for my larger stored items like flour and sugar (as in the image above)
- Plastic sealable containers – Light weight and cost effective
- Recycled jars – Finished with a pasta sauce jar? Soak the label off, rinse to out, dry it fully and fill with smaller items like dried fruit and nuts (as in the image above.) A great money saving tip.
We live in a rental apartment and cupboard space is low. Baking a lot I wanted all these ingredients easily accessible, so I asked my landlord if I could put up a couple of long shelves and brackets to hold them. Luckily she said yes.
I now store all my baking dry goods in glass clip top jars lined along shelves. The accessibility to them is fantastic and I can make the shelves look pretty with uniform containers and some trailing plants. I get that not everyone can fix shelves to the wall, but there are removable options out there.
4. Label your Jars
Once all your dried goods are in functional jars or storage containers, then it’s best to label the jars. You don’t want to be mixing up self raising flour and cornflour!! You might have a disastrous bake on your hands!! There are plenty of ways to label your containers whether its hand written, through a label maker, printable templates. Get creative!
Ideas for labelling:
- Hand written – cut out a rectangular piece of paper and with your best calligraphy writing write out the ingredient.
- Chalkboard labels – using a white chalkboard pen, these look great as a contrast to the ingredients inside.
- Dynamo label maker – as used on many of my jars above – this is super quick and easy to do.
- Embossing Label Maker – Remember the Motex labellers we used as a kid? I loved them back then and 30 years on I still love them! I used the black tape to label some of my jars (as seen above).
With these simple steps you can now go away and organise that baking pantry. Above anything else it will help with your productivity in the kitchen so that you can bake like an organised boss!!
I’ve included links for all my recommended storage containers, labels and label makers below:
Glass Storage Jars:
- Glass Jar with clip top lid 3 litre (Large – Ideal for flours): For UK here or for USA here
- Glass Jar with clip top lid 2 litre (Medium – Ideal for sugars): For UK here or for USA here
- Glass Jars with clip top lid 1 litre (Small – Ideal for nuts, dried fruits): For UK here or for USA here
Plastic Storage Containers:
- Plastic Storage Container with clip top lid 3.8 litre (Large – Ideal for flours): For UK here or for USA here
- Plastic Storage Container with clip top lid 2 litre (Medium – Ideal for sugars): For UK here or for USA here
- Plastic Storage Container with clip top lid 1 litre (Large – Ideal for nuts and dried fruits): For UK here or for USA here
Label Makers and Labels:
- Chalkboard Labels: For UK here or for USA here
- Dynamo Label Maker: For UK here or for USA here
- Motex Embossing Label Maker: For UK here or for USA here
Disclaimer: Some of the links above are affiliate links, which pay me a small commission for my referral at no extra cost to you! All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for supporting Emma Duckworth Bakes
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