10 Pantry Ingredients to Level-Up Your Baking

I’ve been baking all my life, and developing my own recipes for the last 15 years, and during that time have learned and developed a few tricks and secret ingredients to level-up homemade treats, taking them from good to downright extraordinary.

I’m not one for keeping secrets, so I’m here to spill the beans on these 10 (no longer) secret ingredients that will make your bakes look and taste more like professional, bakery-made treats. Plus, they can all be stored in the pantry for months and even years.

You may have noticed one or more of these ingredients listed as optional in many of my recipes. While their omission won’t necessarily cause the recipe to fail, they are included in the recipe for a reason, usually to level-up the recipe by enhancing the flavor, texture, and/or appearance.

Sometimes I’ll utilize a few of these secret ingredients together at once (like my next-level brown butter chocolate chip cookies which feature dry milk powder, instant espresso powder, flaky sea salt, AND good chocolate). While one of these things on its own might not be super apparent in the final product, together they make for some of the best cookies I’ve ever made (and I don’t say that lightly!)

Just a heads up that some of these ingredients won’t be available in your local supermarket, so it does take a bit of foresight and planning to acquire them online or from a specialty baking supply store (and I’ve included links to the products I use where appropriate). But they are all long lasting and shelf stable in your pantry, so they’ll keep beautifully for a year or more, giving you plenty of opportunity to put them to good use!

(Note this post contains affiliate links.)

Flaky Sea Salt

The perfect finisher for cookies and brownies, a sprinkle of large flake sea salt adds a perfect hint of salt (which helps enhance your other flavors) and makes for a gorgeous appearance too.

My favorite flake salt is Maldon brand; the flakes are large but also thin and delicate so they won’t break your teeth (I generally avoid salts labeled ‘coarse sea salt’ for this reason).

Honorable mention: fleur de sel, which has a unique briny flavor reminiscent of the sea. It’s particularly good paired with caramel!

Dry Milk Powder

Dry milk powder adds flavor, boosts moisture, and increases browning capabilities without adding any extra liquid. Add to buttercream frostings to add structure without sweetness. Add some when browning butter to double the milk solids that brown (aka the flavorful part) without actually needing more butter. Add to ice cream bases to bind excess water and reduce crystallization. This is probably one of my most used secret ingredients by far.

I personally prefer whole milk powder, but you can usually find non-fat dry milk powder in the grocery store.

As an added bonus, you can mix this with water to make… you guessed it! Actual milk! Useful in emergencies or in a pinch if you find yourself without any milk in the refrigerator.

Honorable mention: buttermilk powder. When you want that buttermilk tang but actual buttermilk would affect the texture. When added to regular american buttercream, it makes a great alternative to cream cheese frostings (I’ve never been a fan of cream cheese frosting, but buttermilk frosting I can totally get behind). Also, because keeping buttermilk on hand all the time is never something I remember to do.

Glucose Syrup

This invert sugar is a pastry chef’s best friend. I like glucose syrup better than corn syrup for preventing crystallization in caramels and cooked-sugar candies, as well as for reducing crystal size in ice creams and improving the texture and sheen of chocolate ganaches.

Since glucose syrup has a lower water content than other invert syrups like corn syrup or honey, it performs better in recipes like mirror glazes. It’s also less sweet than granulated sugar, so adding it won’t make things taste overly sweet.

Tip: definitely use a scale to measure this ultra-sticky stuff! It’s hard enough to get out of the container as it is (lightly oiling the spoon helps) let alone scrape out of a measuring cup too. With a scale you can just pour it straight into the mixing bowl or pot you are using.

Honorable mention: Golden syrup. This British staple has a much more elegant flavor than corn syrup, and it’s made from sugar cane rather than corn. It will work 1:1 in most recipes that call for corn syrup, as long as the slight amber color isn’t an issue (in a mirror glaze for instance, I’d use glucose syrup just to keep the color completely neutral).

Citric Acid

Citric acid is a common ingredient if you do any sort of canning, but I use it often in candy making (like my sour strawberry gummies), as well as in drink syrups and beverages; I even made homemade pixie sticks once! It can also be helpful to keep certain fruit garnishes like apples from browning (mixed with water then brushed onto the fruit).

Citric acid adds a similar acidic punch as lemon juice but without altering the flavor: 1/4 teaspoon is about equal to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Instant Espresso Powder

I add instant espresso powder to anything chocolate to amp up the chocolate flavor. It dissolves instantly and completely so there’s no grittiness whatsoever. Note this is NOT the same thing as instant coffee powder, which is not as strong; be sure you get one that specifically says espresso.

Use 1/2 teaspoon or so in cakes or cookies will enhance and deepen the chocolate flavor without adding a noticeable coffee flavor. If you want to taste the coffee, however, you’ll want to use more like a teaspoon or two.

Guar Gum

Guar gum is my favorite method for stabilizing whipped cream (like the whipped layer in my chocolate banana cream pie), and also improving the texture of homemade ice creams (particularly those without eggs like my popcorn-infused ice cream). A little goes a long way, you should rarely ever need more than 1/4 teaspoon in anything.

Vanilla Bean Paste

More intensely flavored than vanilla extract, plus you get the little specs like you would with whole vanilla beans. Vanilla paste is actually the whole bean ground up, so it’s significantly more flavorful than extract too. You can usually replace this 1:1 for extract in most recipes, though I find it more intensely flavored so will often do 3/4 teaspoon per teaspoon of extract as called for.

Honorable mention: vanilla bean powder. When you want to add vanilla flavor without liquid, like hot drink mixes, or delicate white frostings where you don’t want the brown extract affecting the color.

Good Chocolate (& Cocoa!)

My favorite brands for baking/coverture chocolate are Callebaut (a good all-purpose chocolate in handy callet shapes, no chopping required), Valrhona (good but pricey), and Republic de Cacao (best tasting, a lovely fruity dark and their white chocolate is the best I’ve ever tried.)

For cocoa powder, Valrhona is far and above the best. Cacao Barry extra brute is a good alternative that’s a bit more affordable. I rarely buy cocoa in the grocery store anymore, and I almost never use natural cocoa powder, I just prefer the flavor and color of Dutch Process cocoa in my baking.

Some of my recipes call for black cocoa, which is extra Dutched for an even darker color. Keep in mind black cocoa is much stronger in flavor and lower in fat, so you don’t want to use all black cocoa or your bakes will end up dry. I usually sub in a tablespoon or two of the regular Dutch cocoa to give the bake a deeper color. Guittard Cacao Noir Dark is what I use though it’s a bit harder to find (I bought a 5 pound bucket years ago and it’s still going strong!)

Leaf Gelatin

For the clearest final product and cleanest flavor, sheet/leaf gelatin is the way to go. It doesn’t have that weird barnyard-y smell that powder gelatin often does (ew), and it is completely crystal clear, which, for something like a dark chocolate mirror glaze or a fruity gelatin cheesecake topping, makes a huge difference.

1 sheet of leaf gelatin equals about 1 teaspoon of powdered gelatin (so 3 sheets per tablespoon).

Instead of ‘blooming’ the gelatin like you do with the powdered stuff, you just need to soften it in cold water (I cut it into smaller strips first). Let it soften for 5 minutes or so, then squeeze out the excess water and add it to your warm mixture until dissolved.

I like Perfecta brand gelatin (Gold strength, or 200 bloom, is what I usually use, though I did opt to use the stronger Platinum strength in my peach gummies for extra setting power).

Freeze-Dried Fruit

Freeze-dried fruit has literally zero moisture, so it’s perfect for adding intense fruit flavor without affecting the texture. I love using ground-up fruit powders for frostings (where extra liquid would cause the frosting to break), in confections like marshmallows, chocolates and meringues, and it’s also one of my favorite ways to flavor my amaretti cookies.

I usually buy my freeze-dried fruit at Trader Joe’s and then grind it in a coffee/spice grinder myself, but there are pre-ground freeze dried fruit powders available too (note freeze-dried fruit powder is different than dried fruit juice powder, they’re not the same thing).