The 5 Baking Ingredients Every Baker Needs
- Flour. The first, and arguably the most important, ingredient to have on hand in a bakery is flour.
- Sugar. Sugar is another important ingredient to have on hand.
- Eggs. Eggs, like flour, are important in baking because they add structure and texture to baked goods.
- Butter.
- Leavening Agents.
What are Food Ingredients. A food ingredient is any substance that is added to a food to achieve a desired effect. The term “food ingredient” includes food additives, which are ingredients added to foods for specific technical and/or functional purposes during processing, storage or packaging.
Dry ingredients are ones that don't level out: flour, sugar, nuts, powders of all sorts including spices lumps, clumps, solids, butter, spreadable fats, and so on.
Cooking is the process of producing safe and edible food by preparing and combining ingredients, and (in most cases) applying heat. Cooking is a means of processing food, without which many foods would be unfit for human consumption.
The yeast changes the sugar in the dough into carbon dioxide gas and ethanol (alcohol). The gas, trapped in the dough, makes it rise; the alcohol produced during fermentation evaporates during baking. Dough made with baker's yeast rises slowly over a long time.
Wheat flour is composed of proteins, starch, lipids, sugars and enzymes. The two most important of these components, the starch and the protein, form the “crumb” of a baked good. When a batter or dough is mixed, two proteins in the dry flour, glutenin and gliadin, absorb water and form gluten.
Yeast feeds on the simple sugars in flour and sweeteners as it grows yeast gives off carbon dioxide making a baked product rise. Certain proteins in wheat flour combine with liquid to create this elastic substance. It develops as flour is mixed with liquid and affects the texture and the rising of baked products.
Terms in this set (19)
- Flour. Contains starch and protein.
- Liquids. Develops gluten when added to flour.
- Leavening agent. Triggers a chemical reaction that makes baked products rise.
- Baking soda. A leavening agent that reacts to acidic liquids.
- Baking powder.
- Yeast.
- Fats.
- Sweeteners.
Flour
- Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds.
- Cereal flour consists either of the endosperm, germ, and bran together (whole-grain flour) or of the endosperm alone (refined flour).
You'll quickly discover there are many more than five functions of eggs in baking and cooking.
- Structure. Eggs Add Structure To Baked Goods.
- Leavening. Eggs Help Add Texture And Fluffiness.
- Tenderizing. Eggs Keep Baked Goods More Delicate.
- Moisture. Proteins in Eggs Hold The Moisture In.
- Wash.
- Emulsifying.
- Flavor.
- Color.
Flour, baking powder, soda, cream, sugar, eggs and yeast make up the backbone of baking recipes. Flour provides the form of your baked good. The type of flour used will define taste, texture and structure of your final product. The reason this all works is because flour contains protein.
There are three main types of leavening agents: biological, chemical, and steam.
- How Leavening Agents Work.
- Yeast: Biological Leavening Agent.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: Chemical Leavening Agents.
- Steam: Vaporous Leavening Agent.
The most commonly used cake ingredients include flour, sugar, eggs, butter or oil or margarine, a liquid, and leavening agents, such as baking soda or baking powder.
Yeast, the most common one being S. cerevisiae, is used in baking as a leavening agent, where it converts the food/fermentable sugars present in dough into the gas carbon dioxide. This causes the dough to expand or rise as gas forms pockets or bubbles.
Liquid ingredients should ALWAYS be mixed separately before they've been added to the dry ingredients. Mixing the dry ingredients by themselves means you will evenly disperse the raising agents, spices, sugar etc throughout which is important for an even batter.
Moistening Ability. Whether in dough or in a cake batter, fat retards drying out. For this purpose, a 100% fat shortening will be superior to either butter or margarine.
3.Oil
- The pros: Oil combines with flour and water very easily to create a dough.
- The cons: Using oil creates a mealy, breakable dough that is more difficult to roll out and transfer into a pie pan.
- The pros: Butter has the best flavor and it forms light, lofty, flaky layers in pie crust.
Functions of Ingredients
- Provides fibre (especially if wholemeal)
- If Self-Raising, makes mixtures rise.
- Thickens sauces.
- Forms the bulk of bread, pastry and cake mixes.
- If wholemeal, provides colour and texture.
- Gluten in flour produces a stretchy dough.
- Provides carbohydrate, Vitamin B, calcium and iron.
Your Guide to Working with Different Types of Pastry Dough
- Types of Pastry. There are numerous types of pastries that you can experiment with.
- Puff Pastry.
- Short Crust Pastry.
- Short Crust and The Art of Blind Baking.
- Pate Sucrée (aka Sweet Shortcrust Pastry)
- Phyllo (Filo) Pastry.
- Rough Puff Pastry.
- Choux Pastry.
Explanation: Sugar keeps baked goods soft and moist, and it does a lot more than just satisfy our crave. It creates tenderness, deepens color and flavor, and adds crunch.
The factors are:
- Baking temperature (higher = crispier);
- Baking time (longer = crispier);
- Moisture (less = crispier).
- Acidity (pH) also inhibits the Maillard reaction but this is not normally a concern in bread.
9 Essential Ingredients Every Baker Needs
- Flour. Basic flour.
- Leaveners. Eggs, Yeast, Baking Powder, Baking Soda | Photo by Meredith.
- Sugar. Syrup, Honey, Molasses, White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Powdered Sugar | Photo by Meredith.
- Salt. Basic salt.
- Dairy. Basic dairy.
- Fats: Oil and Shortening.
- Extracts and Flavorings.
- Spices.
Here the strands become more settled in their new form and so the dough becomes easier to shape, roll and fold, and will not shrink in the oven. A little lemon juice can also aid gluten relaxation and help stop discolouration of pastry during handling.
Pastry chefs use a combination of culinary ability and creativity for baking, decoration, and flavoring with ingredients. Many baked goods require a lot of time and focus. Presentation is an important aspect of pastry and dessert preparation.
SOFT PIES. Similar to custard pies; also have eggs to firm the pie when baking in unbaked pie shell. Example is Pecan Pie.
It prevents overbaking/cooking.Overbaking your bread, cake, and cookies will give them a bitter taste and unsightly appearance, while overcooking meat will make them lose juiciness and tenderness. Make sure that your oven's set at the right temperature before you put anything into it.
There are some common ingredients that all the best
bakers share…and they're simple to adopt.
Bakers need to be organized and detail-oriented.
- Organization.
- Communication.
- Attention to Detail.
- Composure Under Pressure.
- Curiosity and Creativity.
- Patience and Dedication.
In baking any cake, fat (like butter, oil, yogurt, and sour cream) plays a big role in keeping the baked cake soft and moist, mostly because of its ability to retain moisture. Both chocolate and yogurt are acidic in nature and react to leavening agents in the batter, contributing to a good rise and sturdy structures.
Creaming Butter & Sugar. Whisking butter and sugar together is one essential tip to make the cake spongy, fluffy and moist. Whisk butter and sugar for long until the mixture becomes pale yellow and fluffy because of incorporation of air. The process is known as creaming.
There are two types of physical leaveners: air and steam. Air is often incorporated into batters when butter and sugar are creamed together. Briskly whisking butter (or another solid fat) with sugar traps small pockets of air within the fat. Air can also be used as a leavener when whipping egg whites or cream.
Pie – a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients.
Leavening agent, substance causing expansion of doughs and batters by the release of gases within such mixtures, producing baked products with porous structure. Such agents include air, steam, yeast, baking powder, and baking soda.
Milk is used in baked products to improve texture and mouthfeel. The protein in milk also gives a soft crumb structure in cakes, and contributes to the moisture, colour and flavour of a baked product.
Self-rising flour is flour with the baking powder and a bit of salt already added. It's a staple in many Southern recipes; it's traditionally made from a softer, lower protein version of all-purpose flour, which is what grows there.
