Follow Baking Times Carefully—But Use Other Indicators Too

Preheating the oven is essential because it creates a stable temperature. Have your oven calibrated regularly, as I do, because an accurate oven temperature is vital to perfect baking.

Follow the temperatures indicated in the recipes. Can you imagine what would happen if a cake batter were baked in a 425-degree oven instead of at 350 degrees, and a pie dough were baked at 350 degrees instead of at 425 degrees? The cake batter would form a crust prematurely before expansion and leavening, so its optimum volume would be sacrificed. The pie dough, baking in the cooler oven, would not form steam quickly for flaky expansion, and the proteins would not set soon enough, so its texture would not be at its best.