baking ingredients, eggs, flour, butter
Getty ImagesIt's fair to say most of us love a freshly baked dessert, but is also fair to say most of us are always short on time. Which begs the question: Are there any legit shortcuts that'll help speed things up? Or, because baking is such a precise art, will you just end up shooting yourself in the foot?

Our friends over at The Stir asked some baking experts about the most popular shortcuts home cooks tend to take, and it seems the answer is decidedly the latter.

And though we're loathe to admit it, about half the KitchenDaily editors have tried this first shortcut and learned the hard way it doesn't work....

Shortcut #1: Melting butter for a recipe that calls for softened butter.

The Problem: Stephanie Petersen, a pastry chef and cooking instructor, says melting butter is a no-no because warming it to room temperature enables the fat to remain solid. "This fat will hold air whipped into it during creaming. This adds to the texture of the finished product," she says. "If that step is skipped, generally you will have a cookie or muffin that isn't as light as it could have been."

Shortcut #2: Bringing eggs to room temperature in water.

The Problem: Peterson says eggs will whip most dramatically when warmed to room temperature on their own instead.

Hope Jones, owner of Hope, Faith & Gluttony Bakery in Long Island City, New York, asks why you need warm eggs in the first place. "If you are whipping them into a foam/meringue or [have another] need for the protein in them to be warm (which helps hold the whipped form better along with 'cooking' them with sugar), then yes, warm is better but not always necessary," she notes. Instead, Jones says you can put your bowl of cracked eggs over a warm-water bath and beat them until they are room temperature.

Head over to The Stir for six more baking faux pas as well as shortcuts that really do work!