Science of Baking
This single-celled organism consumes sugars and produces carbon dioxide gas and alcohol, causing dough to rise.
What is yeast?
Meaning "burnt cream" in French, this classic custard dessert features a rich vanilla base topped with a layer of hardened, caramelized sugar.What is crème brûlée?
What is crème brûlée?
Professional bakers always measure dry ingredients by this metric (weight) rather than volume for accuracy.
What is mass/weight? (ex. grams, ounces)
This handheld tool with a wheel handle and flexible wire loops is used to incorporate air into egg whites or smooth out batters and lumpy sauces.
What is a whisk?
Chocolate consists primarily of two components derived from cocoa beans: cocoa solids and this rich plant fat.
What is cocoa butter?
When proteins in flour combine with water and are worked through mixing, they form this elastic network that gives bread its structure.
What is gluten?
This high-moisture French pastry dough is cooked on the stovetop before baking, using steam to puff up into hollow shells like cream puffs and éclairs.What is choux pastry (or pâte à choux)?
What is choux pastry (or pâte à choux)?
In Bakers’ Percentages, this core ingredient is always set at exactly 100%.
What is flour?
This narrow, flat metal spatulas—featuring a distinct bend in the handle near the blade—gives bakers control and keeps their knuckles clean while smoothing frosting over cakes.
What is an offset spatula?
At approximately 240°F (115°C), boiled sugar syrup reaches this candy stage, used as the foundation for fudges, Italian meringue, and fondants.
What is the soft ball stage?
Unlike baking soda, this chemical leavener contains both an acid and a base, requiring only liquid and heat to activate.
What is baking powder?
Made by repeatedly folding butter into dough through a process called lamination, this pastry yields hundreds of flaky, buttery layers.
What is puff pastry (or pâte feuilletée)?
If a bread formula calls for 1,000g of flour and 65% hydration, this is the exact weight of water needed.
What is 650 grams?
Made of silicone or woven fiberglass, this non-stick oven mat lays inside a sheet pan to eliminate the need for parchment paper or pan grease.
What is a silicone baking mat (Silpat)?
This process of heating, cooling, and re-warming chocolate controls the crystallization of cocoa butter to give finished chocolate a glossy shine and crisp snap.
What is tempering?
This non-enzymatic browning reaction occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars at temperatures around 300°F (150°C).
What is the Maillard Reaction?
This shortbread-like French tart dough contains sugar and egg, resulting in a rich, crisp, and cookie-like crust that resists soaking up filling moisture.
What is pâte sucrée?
Water boils at 212°F at sea level, but at higher altitudes, the boiling point of water does this, requiring adjustment to bake times.
What is decreases/gets lower?
This cone-shaped bag, fitted with decorative metal or plastic tips, is used to pipe frostings, choux paste, or whipped creams.
What is a pastry bag or piping bag?
White chocolate differs from dark and milk chocolate because it contains no cocoa solids, only cocoa butter, dairy, and sugar. (True/False)
What is true?
When starch granules absorb liquid and swell upon heating, eventually bursting to thicken a mixture (like in pastry cream), this process has occurred.
What is gelatinization?
This delicate Italian dessert is made by layering coffee-soaked ladyfingers with a sweetened mascarpone cheese mixture and dusting with cocoa powder.
What is tiramisu?
To scale a recipe up or down, bakers divide the desired yield by the current yield to find this single number, which is then multiplied by every ingredient weight in the formula.
What is the Conversion Factor or Yield Factor or Recipe Conversion Factor?
This specialized piece of commercial bakery equipment maintains precise warm temperatures and high humidity levels to encourage shaped yeast doughs to rise right before baking.
What is a proofing cabinet or proof box?
The white, cloudy film that forms on old or improperly stored chocolate—caused by either cocoa butter or sugar separating to the surface—is called this.
What is bloom (fat bloom / sugar bloom)?