Small kitchen tips may not seem like a big deal at first, but they can truly be game-changers when you’re cooking or baking at home. Sometimes it’s the tiniest adjustment that makes your cooking life easier, saves a recipe or makes you feel like a pro.
For example, you can keep herbs fresh longer by wrapping them in a damp paper towel and storing them in a resealable bag in the fridge. Or when measuring sticky ingredients, like honey or peanut butter, coat the spoon with a little oil first so they slide right out. And if your brown sugar hardens, pop a slice of bread in the container overnight and it will soften up.
One kitchen frustration I've run into more than once? When I mix cinnamon into a liquid, like the egg mixture for French toast, the dried spice tends to clump into stubborn little lumps instead of dispersing evenly. It doesn't totally ruin the dish, but it would be so much better without those annoying clumps.
But recently, I saw an Instagram post from Cook’s Illustrated, the food magazine known for its rigorous recipe testing, that shared a tip from a reader that promises to fix this spicy problem. It was so simple that I knew I had to try it.
And yes, it really works. Here's what you need to know, plus some bonus tips and tricks for cooking with cinnamon from a pastry chef.
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Why Cinnamon Clumps—and the Surprising Fix
To test this trick, I mixed some cinnamon with vanilla extract in a small container (left) and then added it to my French toast custard mixture (right). No clumps!Courtesy Angel Albring
Cinnamon clumps because of its unique structure. It’s made of fine, fibrous particles that naturally repel water. (If you want to get scientific about it, the word is "hydrophobic.") When you sprinkle the ground cinnamon directly into liquid, those particles stick together instead of dispersing evenly. That’s why French toast batter often ends up with little “cinnamon islands” floating on top instead of an even blend.
The clever Cook’s Illustrated reader suggested a simple fix. Just mix the cinnamon with the vanilla extract before whisking it into your wet ingredients.
And yes, it works! I gave it a try in my own kitchen, and the cinnamon did disperse instead of clumping. It's all thanks to the alcohol in the extract, which helps wet the spice. I make French toast with milk and eggs, so I poured the cinnamon vanilla mixture into buttermilk to see if the cinnamon clumped once it hit the milk and it didn't!
This little experiment got me wondering if there were other cool cinnamon tricks I needed to know about, so I reached out to Katherine Fiorello, pastry chef for Patrick Properties Hospitality Group (PPHG) in Charleston, SC, to see what she had to say.
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Fiorello was more than happy to share more about how the pros keep their cinnamon clump-free (and other cool tips) with Parade. She and her team make desserts and pastries for all four of PPHG’s venues, including more than 350 weddings each year. With that kind of volume, she knows a thing or two about working with spices.
She reveals she's never tried the trick with vanilla extract, but she understands the science behind it. The alcohol in the vanilla acts as a dispersing agent, coating the cinnamon particles and helping them spread more evenly in the liquid.
Fiorello uses cinnamon in many other ways, though, and she has a lot of great advice to share.
Her first tip is straightforward: always sift. “I mix my cinnamon with the dry ingredients and sift—always sift,” Fiorello explains. “It gets any clumps out and creates a lighter texture.”
2. Mixing matters
She emphasizes that the order of mixing also matters. “You can add the cinnamon whenever you want in the recipe, as long as it’s with the dry ingredients," she shares. "Always start with dry ingredients in a batter, like a cake and end with dry.”
Beyond technique, Fiorello is also particular about the type of cinnamon she uses. “I prefer to bake with Ceylon cinnamon, because it is the real cinnamon and it's better quality and more natural,” she explains.
Ceylon, also known as "true cinnamon," is milder than Cassia, a less expensive type of cinnamon. Ceylon is milder, sweeter and typically more finely ground than Cassia cinnamon and is also typically more expensive, because it's not as available as Cassia cinnamon and it's more labor-intensive to produce. Many grocery store cinnamons are Cassia, so you'll need to do a little research to find Ceylon cinnamon, if you want to give it a try.
4. Be generous
If you think you’re adding enough cinnamon, think again. Fiorello says that the number one issue she finds with home bakers is that they don’t add enough cinnamon. "Add a little more than is called for, especially when using more than one spice in a recipe,” she recommends.Whether you’re making French toast, a batch of muffins or a special pan of cinnamon rolls, cinnamon deserves a little extra attention. From a simple vanilla extract trick to Fiorello’s expert tips on sifting and choosing the best cinnamon, there are plenty of ways to improve your spice life.
Sometimes, the tiniest change in your technique makes all the difference.
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Source:
• Katherine Fiorello, pastry chef for Patrick Properties Hospitality Group (PPHG) in Charleston, SC
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