Flour and Gluten
What is flours main job in baking?
Provide Structure
What is the most obvious job of sugar?
Add sweetness
Name one job eggs perform.
Structure, binding, moisture, richness
What gas makes baked good rise?
Carbon dioxide
Cookie taste flat and boring. What small ingredients may have been forgotten?
Salt
What develops when wheat flour is hydrated and mixed?
Gluten
Name one thing sugar does besides sweeten.
Helps browning, tenderness moisture, retention, or affects spread.
What part of an egg contains most of its fat and emulsifiers?
The yolk
Which leavener usually needs an acidic ingredient?
Baking soda
A cake is dense and barely rose. What type of ingredient may be missing or inactive?
A leavener
What can happen to some baked goods when flour containing batter is over mixed?
They can become tough/chewy from excess gluten development.
What does fat do to gluten development?
It can limit it by coating flour.
What can whipped egg whites traped?
Air
Which contains both an acid an a base: baking soda or baking powder?
Baking powder
Cookies spread extremely thin. Name one possible cause.
Too much fat, warm/melted butter, too much sugar, or too little flour.
What might happen if too much flour is added to cookies?
They may be dry dense thick or crumbly.
Why might melted butter produce a different cookie than cooler/ softened butter?
Butter temperature changes spread and texture.
What is the main job of water or milk in a dough or batter?
Hydration
What does "double acting" baking powder mean?
It produces gas when moistened and again when heated.
Muffins are unusually tough. What technique mistake is a likely cause?
Overmixing
Why is gluten useful in yeast bread?
It creates an elastic structure that can trap gas and allow dough to rise.
Why would removing sugar from a cookie recipe change more than its sweetness?
Sugar also affects browning, moisture, tenderness, texture and spread.
Why can leaving eggs out dramatically change a cake?
Eggs contribute structure, binding, moisture, richness, and sometimes aeration.
Explain how yeast makes dough rise
Yeast ferments sugars and produces carbon dioxide, which becomes trapped in the dough.
A student replaces baking soda with baking powder using the exact same amount. Why might the recipe turn out differently?
They have different compositions and react differently, baking soda relies on acid in the recipe while baking powder contains its own acid/base system.