The Function of Baking Ingredients (Baking 101)

You may not have considered it this way before, but baking is a sort of science experiment, albeit a nice and beneficial one that you conduct in your home rather than a lab.

Each of the ingredients you employ has a specific purpose, interacting with one another to generate new combinations and the structure, taste, and texture of the final baked product.

While chemistry is involved in other types of cooking as well, you may typically be more flexible in contrast to baking.

If you change an ingredient in a stew, for example, it will most likely simply influence the taste. However, removing a vital element from a cake might be a recipe for catastrophe!

A Deeper Understanding

Understanding the role of the various components in baking might therefore be beneficial.

You may get a greater grasp of what is going on in the oven by studying the diverse roles of salt in baking, for example, or how different leavening agents generate distinct impacts on the outcome.

This may come in handy when debugging bakes that didn’t turn out exactly as expected, or when you need to change one ingredient for something different.

Furthermore, by properly understanding the purposes of the many components in baking, you may go beyond following instructions to creating your own, one-of-a-kind baked products.

It is worth mentioning that the components might play varied functions depending on the style of baking. Although they share many similarities, the chemistry of bread baking varies somewhat from that of cake making.

The following is an overview of the roles of the most common ingredients used in making bread, cakes, and pastries. We’ll begin with the dry components, then go on to the fats and liquids, and finally to the different leavening agents.

The Function of Flour in Baking

Everything begins with the flour. The great majority of baking requires wheat flour in different forms, and it is this component that provides the baked product shape and structure. It is the cake or loaf’s substance, giving texture and nutritional value.

Wheat flours include two proteins known as gliadin and glutenin, which when combined with water produce the protein gluten.

Gluten has the ability to create lengthy strands and even a vast matrix or web that may trap the escaping carbon dioxide gas generated by leavening chemicals during baking. The gluten matrix therefore aids in the rise of the bread, cake, or pastry and is finally put in place towards the conclusion of baking.

The quantity of protein in flour and the degree to which it is permitted to grow are crucial elements in the baked good’s ultimate texture.

A high gluten content produces the harder, chewy texture necessary for bread, while a low gluten level produces the soft, crumbly texture wanted in cakes and pastries.

Hard wheats cultivated in colder regions such as the northern United States and Canada have a greater protein content than soft wheats grown in milder climes such as the southern United States and southern Europe.

While these wheats may occasionally be used alone, millers frequently combine several different varieties of wheat to produce flour with a specified protein level and consequently unique baking qualities.

Bread Flour

Bread flour has the most protein, around 12%, and so forms a strong web of gluten, resulting in a soft, fluffy loaf with considerable volume and a chewy texture.

However, specialist bread flours or those made from particular kinds of wheat may have varying protein amounts and yield distinct sorts of bread.

A high protein bread flour, such as Canadian Manitoba Cream, will provide the most volume in a loaf, but a lower protein bread flour will yield bread with a uniquely European flavor, such as an Italian ciabatta or a French pain de campagne.

Cake and Pastry Flour

Cakes and pastries, unlike bread, need just a little amount of gluten development. If you use too much gluten, your cakes will become tough and chewy, more like a sweet bread than a cake.

As a result, cake and pastry flour are combined to have a significantly lower protein concentration, roughly 7.5%. This permits the flour to cling together and provide structure to the cake or pastry while remaining delicate and crumbly and breaking apart readily.

The inclusion of fats and sugar (see below) significantly inhibits gluten formation in cakes and pastries.

All-Purpose Flour

All-purpose flour is a cross between bread flour and cake or pastry flour. It is a blend of hard and soft wheats that yields a flour with around 10.5% protein.

This is enough to create adequate gluten in bread baking but not so much that it affects the texture of a cake or pastry. It is a compromise that does not provide the same volume as a high-protein bread flour but is a decent alternative for individuals who do not bake as often.

If cake flour is asked for in a recipe, it is best to use a bit less all-purpose flour.

Self-Rising Flour

Self-rising flour is a kind of all-purpose flour that has been enhanced with baking powder and salt.

This enables it to be used straight in cakes without the need for salt or a leavening agent. It distributes the baking powder uniformly throughout the flour, eliminating the need to sift them together before adding the other ingredients.

Because baking powder degrades with time, self-rising flour that has beyond its expiration date may have lost part of its efficacy.

Make your own self-rising flour by combining 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt in 1 cup all-purpose flour.

Whole Wheat Flour

Unlike bread flour, which is manufactured from simply the endosperm of the wheat grain, whole wheat flour is milled from the whole grain, including the bran and germ.

These components are very healthy, since they include a lot of fiber and minerals like iron and zinc. It is therefore used whole or partially in lieu of bread flour to boost the nutritious value of a loaf.

It imparts a more nuanced taste to bread while being less sweet than white bread flour.

Whole wheat flour contains bran, which breaks through the gluten network in a dough during mixing, resulting in less volume and a thicker, denser loaf.

Because the germ contains more unsaturated fat, it shortens the shelf life of whole wheat flour.

Alternative Flours

There are several different flours available for baking, some of which, like rye and maize, have a long history of usage in traditional recipes.

Others, such as soy, buckwheat, oat, rice, and potato starch flours, have grown in popularity in recent years with the advent of gluten-free baking.

While each of these flours has its own unique features and nutritional profiles, they all contain a substantially lower amount of gluten than wheat flours.

As a result, their chemistry differs from that of baking with wheat flour, and they often need the inclusion of extra binding or thickening substances to enable them rise and provide structure to the product.

It is advisable to follow precise directions for any recipes that call for these flours, and keep in mind that they are seldom interchangeable with wheat flour without further adjustments.

The Function of Sugar in Baking

Sugar accomplishes much more in baking than merely contribute taste sweetness, however this is a crucial function of sugar.

Its varied forms, ranging from plain granulated sugar to the more complex caramel, honey, and molasses, each provide a varying level of sweetness to baked goods.

Sugar functions as a food for yeast in yeasted goods such as bread or vienoisserie, kicking off fermentation and assisting the product to rise. The yeasts consume the sugar and convert it to carbon dioxide, aerating the dough or batter.

However, too much sugar will impede fermentation because it sucks water out of the yeast cells, preventing them from working. As a result, very sweet doughs may take longer to rise and may need a particular yeast.

Sugar serves a vital function in minimizing gluten formation in cakes and pastries, boosting the softness of the cake. This also causes cookies to spread when baking.

Sugar’s water-binding characteristics also assist baked goods maintain moisture for extended periods of time, keeping them soft and delaying staling.

Sugar also helps to crust formation, influencing its color and taste. The crust is the hottest region of the product in the oven, when complicated chemical processes known as Maillard reactions take place.

These, together with the caramelization process, create a variety of organic compounds that, when combined, provide the delicious tastes and brown color seen in bread and pastry crusts.

And, of course, we must not overlook the importance of sugar in ornamentation. To create a beautiful look, icing sugar and pearl sugar may be dusted or sprinkled over cooked cakes and pastries, or icing sugar can be blended with water to make icing or frosting.

The Function of Salt in Baking

Salt, like sugar, has certain roles in baking. It not only provides taste to bread and cakes, but it also enhances the flavors of the other components.

Without salt, a loaf of bread or a cake would taste boring, but too much salt can overshadow the other tastes.

Aside from taste, salt strengthens the gluten network in bread dough, enabling it to capture more carbon dioxide and give the loaf bulk. A bread dough devoid of salt will be exceedingly short and sticky, resulting in thick and doughy bread.

It binds to water similarly to sugar, pulling water from yeast cells and delaying fermentation. This regulating effect is vital in bread baking because it keeps the dough from rising too rapidly and enables additional fermentation processes to take place, resulting in more nuanced tastes.

The Function of Fats in Baking

Fats are utilized in a variety of ways in baking and serve a variety of purposes. Animal fats like butter and lard, as well as plant-based oils and chemically changed fats like margarine and shortening, may be employed to varying degrees of success.

Fats often help to shorten a dough, preventing gluten formation and generating a more soft crumb.

Butter or another solid fat is first rubbed into the flour in a pastry dough to cover the individual granules with a coating of fat. This prevents the proteins in the flour from combining to produce gluten.

Before adding butter to a cake or pastry mix, cream it with sugar to trap air. This makes the cake lighter and more airy.

Butter is used in puff pastries and laminated doughs to generate layers that catch escaping steam and cause the dough to rise when cooked.

Fats are another major contributor to taste and mouthfeel in baking, and like salt, they offer their own flavor while also enhancing the flavors of the other components. Butter, in particular, offers a depth of taste that is highly valued in cakes and pastries, as well as a wonderful golden-brown appearance to pastries.

A modest quantity of fat added to bread dough may help the gluten expand, giving the loaf more volume. It also softens the crumb, but too much will interfere with gluten formation.

The Function of Milk and Other Liquids in Baking

In baking, liquids are similar to ignition keys. The proteins, starches, and leavening agents in the other components must be hydrated in order for the chemical reactions to take place; otherwise, they would just sit together in a dish as dry materials.

It is the liquid that permits gluten to develop in wheat and awakens yeast cells from their dormancy. Hydration of carbohydrates and proteins provides moisture to the finished product and activates enzymes in the flour that break down starches into simple sugars for the yeast to consume.

Bread often uses water as a liquid, while cakes typically use milk. However, they are not hard and fast rules, and they are often interchangeable in recipes.

They will produce distinct outcomes, with milk softening the crumb of both cakes and bread. It also has nutritious value in the form of protein and fat, and it helps crusts brown.

If milk is added to the liquid, white bread will have an especially white crumb. Cakes will be less rich if no milk is used, although water may be an excellent substitute in vegan baking. In general, milk has a superior taste and texture.

As water transforms to steam in the oven, liquid plays an extra function in the rising of baked items. This aids in the expansion of air pockets created by fermentation, resulting in increased volume.

Steam will be trapped between the layers of multilayer puff pastries, causing them to puff up.

The Function of Eggs in Baking

Eggs are the true multitasker of the group, performing duties comparable to those of the other components as well as ones that are unique to them.

Because egg whites and yolks have extremely diverse qualities and serve separate roles, they are basically two components in one. As a result, they are often separated in specific recipes to take advantage of their different activities.

Both portions of the egg provide nutrients to a cake, with the whites supplying protein and the yolks providing fat. Because they are 75% water, they provide liquid to the mix, hydrating the other components.

When eggs are used whole, they act as a binder for the other components, binding a cake together. They may be used to thicken batters and as a glaze on the surface of baked items to produce a golden-brown hue.

Eggs contain numerous complicated proteins that undergo alterations when they are beaten, cooked, or otherwise treated.

When you beat an egg, you combine air into it, which you may then add to a cake mix to make it light and airy. They operate as a leavening agent, giving the cake structure.

Eggs are also a natural emulsifier of fats and liquids, allowing them to be combined together without separating and resulting in a homogeneous structure in the mix.

As with other fats, the fat in egg yolks adds flavor to a cake while also enhancing texture. Egg whites provide structure by providing stability, aeration, and, as a result, volume.

Egg whites alone can be manipulated in many ways to create quite complex structures and effects in different baked goods.

The Function of Leavening Agents in Baking

Any component that aids in the rise of a dough or batter is referred to as a leavening agent. When baked in the oven, they emit carbon dioxide, which is trapped in the structure of the dough to create little pockets of air.

As the cake or loaf settles, they are cooked in place. These agents might be either natural, living creatures or man-made compounds.

Yeast

Baker’s yeast is a live microbe in the fungus kingdom. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast strain used in baking, and it has been chosen and cultivated for its rapid and efficient activity.

It is available in both dried and fresh versions, with the dried version lasting far longer than the fresh.

Yeast is activated by fluids and performs best at temperatures between 85 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit (30 and 35 degrees Celsius). It feeds on the sugars in flour, which are broken down from starches by enzymes found in wheat.

These sugars are fermented by yeast, which produces carbon dioxide, alcohol, and other organic compounds as byproducts. The carbon dioxide is trapped in the gluten structure of the dough, giving it volume and texture.

The by-products of yeast fermentation also contribute significantly to the taste and fragrance of a yeasted baked good, and the longer it ferments, the more complex the flavor becomes.

However, after the yeast has depleted its supply of sugar, it will stop producing carbon dioxide, therefore it must be put in the oven at precisely the appropriate moment to achieve a decent final rise.

The addition of salt and sugar may alter the rate of yeast fermentation. Both substances pull water from the yeast, causing it to slow down.

Doughs with high amounts of salt or sugar will need longer proving periods, greater volumes, or specific yeast strains.

During fermentation, yeast proliferate rapidly in a dough, reaching a climax after a certain quantity of sugar has been depleted. They are all destroyed during baking by the heat of the oven, but their tasty by-products remain.

Baking Soda

Baking soda, unlike yeast, is a chemical leavening ingredient that is more often employed in cakes than in bread. When sodium bicarbonate is combined with an acid component and a liquid, it generates carbon dioxide.

This carbon dioxide then aerates a dough or batter in the same way as yeast does.

Recipes that call for baking soda as a leavening agent will also call for an acidic component, such as lemon juice or vinegar.

Because the reaction happens as soon as the baking soda comes into contact with liquid, it is critical to bake it as soon as possible after mixing to keep as much of the gas in the batter as feasible.

Baking Powder

Baking powder is a more handy type of baking soda that is often used in fast breads. It mixes sodium bicarbonate with an acidic substance, commonly cream of tartar, such that the only thing required to begin the reaction is the addition of a liquid.

A moisture absorbent filler substance is also added to guarantee that the reaction does not begin early in humid settings. This is commonly a starch obtained from food, such as potato starch.

To get an airy texture, a cake or cookie mix must include enough baking powder or baking soda. If you use too much, the finished product will have a little bitter taste.

Discover the equipment you’ll need to take your baking to the next level now that you’ve mastered the basics.