Learning Objectives
Discuss basic baking ingredients and how these ingredients interact with each other.
Explain the different categories of ingredients, such as stabilizers and liquefiers.
Discuss the role of gluten in flour and baked goods.
Describe different types of shortening agents and fats, as well as their role in baking.
Explain types of leavening -- like mechanical and chemical -- and how leavening ingredients differ.
Discuss the role of sweeteners in baking, as well as types of sweeteners and their properties.
Describe the types of thickeners, their properties, and their role in baking.
Define emulsion and explain how it relates to baking and pastry.
Discuss tempering chocolate and how it is used.
Discuss healthy concepts in baking and the different types of special diets for whom products might be designed.
- . If the total amount of fat added to a dough or batter equals no more than 3 percent of the weight of the finished dough or product, it acts to increase the elasticity of the proteins in the flour, thereby helping the bread or other product to expand during baking
Although sugar has a tendency to tighten up a mixture when it is first incorporated, by its nature it attracts moisture, a characteristic that causes it to ultimately loosen or liquefy a batter or dough.
Furthermore, when used in the correct proportion, sugar can help to maintain the elasticity of the gluten strands present in a dough or batter. With maximum elasticity, the gluten can expand more easily so the item is more efficiently leavened, allowing for the proper development of volume and the creation of a moist and tender crumb.
- Temperatures at or above 105°F/41°C will also slow fermentation. Yeast dies at 138°F/58°C.
With these leaveners, an alkaline ingredient—the baking soda or baking powder (which also contains an acid and a starch)—interacts with an acid. The alkali and acid, when combined with a liquid, react to produce carbon dioxide, which expands during baking, leavening the dough or batter.
As sodium bicarbonate reacts with an acid, it breaks down and releases carbon dioxide, which is captured in the dough or batter and causes it to rise (leaven) as it is baked
The foaming mixing method requires that eggs, eggs yolks, or egg whites be beaten to incorporate air until they form a foam. This foam is then added to the batter, folded in so as to disrupt as few of the air bubbles as possible and maintain the volume of the foam. The air trapped in these bubbles then expands during baking and causes the product to rise.
- The creaming method of mixing blends fat and sugar together to incorporate air. The creamed mixture is then combined with the remaining ingredients, and as the product bakes, the air trapped during the creaming process expands and leavens it.
When fructose and dextrose are bonded together, they form a disaccharide, or double sugar, called sucrose—that is, table sugar.
. Typically, in a bakeshop or pastry kitchen, sugar will be dissolved in water through the introduction of heat, which facilitates the dissolving and incorporation of more sugar.
Crystallization occurs as the particles in solution collide with one another; hence agitation is a key contributor to the process.
- The more saturated, or “densely packed,” a solution, the more likely and more easily it will begin to crystallize.
- A seed is anything, from whole sugar crystals to air bubbles to a skewer (as when making rock candy), that will act as a surface for the sugar crystals to adhere to and grow on.
- See Table 4.1 for more starches
As the mixture cools, the proteins join together to form a three-dimensional web (much as in coagulation) that holds in the moisture. This system is called a gel.
Gelatin is also used commercially in the production of ice cream, as it interferes with formation of ice crystals.
An example of this is a cooked egg white, which changes from a transparent fluid to an opaque solid
A temporary emulsion is one that will separate into two distinct layers in a short period of time
- To encourage the formation of the beta crystals, some additional, already tempered chocolate (known as a seed) may be added to the mixture.
- All chocolate you buy is in temper, if it has been properly stored since its time of manufacture