- Baking ingredients
- Baking process
- Baking techniques
- Tips and tricks
- Volume, weight and oven temperature conversions
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Baking ingredients
FLOUR
The following names indicate types of flour. For the same type of flour there are sometimes different names (eg. ``Whole meal `` is called ``Whole wheat``, ``Whole millet``, ``Entire wheat flour`` etc., and sometimes ``Graham flour`` as this is a type of Whole meal flour). It is always best check the label for nutrients, restriction diet indicators or suggested usages.
Type of flour | Best used for… | Name comes from… |
Wheat flour | ||
White | Pastry, sauces and biscuits, cakes | Treated with chlorine |
Unbleached white | Untreated with chlorine | |
Strong white | Bread | High protein content resulting in elastic dough and strong texture and hold |
Whole meal | Most types of baking products | Made using the whole of the wheat grain (bran and wheat germ) |
Organic whole meal | Most types of baking products | Produced from organic wheat; this is wheat produced without artificial fertilizers and pesticides |
Graham flour | Bread | Named after the inventor Sylvestor Graham |
Semolina | pasta, breakfast cereals, puddings, dumplings | Derived from the Italian term ``semolino`` |
Other cereals flour | ||
Barley | Rustic flavored breads | Processed from barley |
Buckwheat | Pancakes, blinis | Processed from buckwheat |
Cornmeal | Polenta | Processed from corn |
Millet | Nutty flavored bread | Processed from millet |
Oatmeal | Biscuits and flat bread | Processed from oatmeal |
Rice | Cookies and special types of puddings | Processed from rice |
Rye | Pumpernickel, black breads | Processed from rye |
YEAST
Maximum activity for yeast cells is reached between 25°C and 35°C. Do not mix with liquids over 35°C because yeast starts to deactivate.
SUGAR AND SWEETNERS
On an average you can replace sugar 1:1 if you also eliminate 18% of the liquids and moisturizers in the recipe. E.g. in a recipe listing 300 g sugar and 200 g liquid, 300 g sugar are replaced with 300 g honey and aprox. 160 g of liquid (maning 200 g - 18%).
General bread making process
| Room temperature | Warmer | Oven temperature | Resulting in… |
| 1. Mise en place | | | Organiasin the work space, scaling, measuring |
| 2. Mixing | | | Through hydration glutenin and gliadin form gluten strings giving the dough elasto-viscous properties; the leaven agents are activated; the ingredients are distributed equally |
| | 3. Leavening | | Fermentation stage in which the yeast + sugars = CO2 and alcohol; taste starts developing |
| 4 Divisation and shaping | | | The initial bread shape; we add fruit, nuts or other ingredients |
| | 5 Resting | | …more of the fermentation; |
| 6 Final shaping | | | Pre baking shape of the bread; |
| 7. Panning | | | Bread goes on the baking sheet or pan to rest and ``recover`` |
| | 8. Last fermentation | | |
| | 9. Proofing | | … one last check to make sure bread has risen and have the needed properties |
| | | 10. Baking | Gluten coagulates and starches gelatinize, giving structure to the bread; the sugars caramelize on the surface of the dough creating bread crust; |
| 11 Cooling | | | Last of the humidity evaporates, the structure of the bread firms up, the whole product stabilizes (for a while) |
| 12 Serving | | | Slicing, plating, packaging etc. |
Baking process
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Conversions
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