Bread Baking
Baking Basics
Pastries and Other Desserts
Cookies and Brownies!
Things I Should Have Learning in Class Had I Been Paying Attention
100

Bread can be made with just three ingredients: water, yeast, and this ingredient which acts as a food source for the yeast. 

What is flour?

100

Unless your baking recipe specifies otherwise, this is the default temperature for ingredients in baked goods.

What is room temperature?

100

All custards are made with eggs, dairy, and this sweet ingredient.

What is sugar?

100

This mixer attachment is used when a recipe tells you to "cream butter and sugar".

What is the paddle?

100

This foodborne illness can contaminate water supplies, making flour dangerous to eat.

What is E. coli?

 

200

Instead of kneading by hand, bread dough can be kneaded in a mixer using this attachment.

What is the dough hook?

200

Both yeast and baking soda release this chemical compound when activated (but baking soda releases it much more quickly).

What is CO2?

200

Unlike pies, which have angled or sloped sides, tarts are characterized by this type of side.

What is straight sides?

200

The name of the French cookie seen here.

What are Madeleine?

200

To get their characteristic taste, pretzels must first be dipped in this chemical, known to scientists as sodium hydroxide.

What is lye?

300

Enriched dough, such as the dough used for cinnamon rolls, tend to contain both sugar and this ingredient, making the dough both sweeter and softer as well as increasing fermentation time.

What is fat (or what is butter)?

300

The number of teaspoons in a tablespoon.

What is three?

300

The French term for the dough used to make eclairs can be literally translated as "cabbage paste".

What is pâte à choux?

300

Compared to a fudgy brownie, a cakey brownie has less fat and more of this ingredient.

What is flour?

300

The dough used for cream puffs, puff pastry, and churros does not contain a leavening agent. Instead, cream puffs, puff pastry, and churros rise through water released in this form.

What is steam? 

400

Unlike quick breads, yeast breads must be both mixed and kneaded in order to develop this protein that gives bread its structure.

What is gluten?

400

This method of incorporating ingredients is more gentle than stirring, ensuring that as much air as possible is preserved.

What is folding?

400

Although it has the word "cake" in it, cheesecake is not technically a cake, but rather this combination of eggs, dairy, and sugar.

What is a custard?

400

This is the main purpose of creaming butter and sugar when making cookies, which insulates the cookies and prevents the butter from melting too quickly.

What is aerating?

400

Water boils at this temperature fahrenheit.

What is 212° degrees?

500

This process, in which yeast consumes the carbohydrates in the dough and releases CO2 and ethanol, traps air in bread dough and causes bread to rise.

What is fermentation?

500

The technique seen here, used to gradually increase the eggs' temperature and dilute the proteins, ensures the eggs don't coagulate.

What is tempering?

500

The French term used for the baking method seen here: 

What is a bain marie?

500

In addition to chemical leavening, most cookies rely on this type of leavening, achieved through the power of a mixer (or, back in the day, an arm).

What is mechanical leavening?

500

Egg proteins coagulate (or curdle) at this temperature fahrenheit.

What is 165° degrees?