Calling all bakers!?!


Question:

Calling all bakers!?

I've heard so many times that baking is a science. Can someone explain to me the chemistry behind baking?

Like the functions of the different ingredients used in a recipe. What does adding eggs do to the mixture? Why do we have to add salt to a sweet pastry recipe? What is the chemistry function of milk in baking? What does shortening do?

Stuff like that.. :)


Answers:
That is a very detailed question. Since we cannot email the answer to you... this answer will be very long --
Cooking and Baking Tip No. 1: Yeast Bread Basics
Most bakery products are made with yeast, baking powder, or baking soda. If you're following a cooking and baking recipe that calls for yeast, here's what you should know:

Yeast feeds on sugars and starches in the dough. When it grows, it produces carbon dioxide, which makes your dough rise with bubbles.

Too much heat, sugar, or salt can kill the yeast, so follow recipe instructions carefully.

For yeast to grow, it needs a warm (but not hot) environment. This is why recipes often call for warm milk or water.

Yeast bread recipes usually call for some sugar, to feed the yeast, and salt, for taste and to help control the yeast's growth.

Bread-machine yeast and rapid-rise yeast are specially formulated for the bread machine. They become active more quickly and can be mixed in with other dry ingredients.

When using a bread machine, be sure to add the ingredients in the order recommended by the manufacturer or in the recipe.

In a bread machine, the mixing and rising take place inside the machine. The baking can also be done in the machine. Or you can press the "dough" cycle and when the first rise is over, the machine will stop. You can then take the dough out, put it in a pan, let rise, and bake in the oven.

Cooking and Baking Tip No. 2: Quick Bread Basics
Quick breads are breads, such as muffins and biscuits that are quick to make because they don't involve kneading or any rising time. Usually, baking powder or baking soda is added to the dry ingredients to create bubbles in the batter or dough as it bakes.

Here's how they work:
Baking soda is combined with an acid -- like cream of tartar, buttermilk, yogurt, or vinegar -- in the batter. Bubbles are produced from the carbon dioxide gas that results in allowing the dough or batter to rise as it bakes. Baking soda reacts immediately when moistened, so it's usually mixed with the dry ingredients before liquid ingredients are added.

Baking powder contains the acid (cream of tartar) and the baking soda together. Once moistened, they react to produce the bubbles of gas.


Eggs: --
The reason most often sited was the recognition that eggs worked as binding (thickening) agents. How did that begin? The food historians do not venture into this territory. Possibly it was a discovery based on trial and error. Many foods and cooking methods (leavened bread, roasted meats, and yogurt) were "invented" this way.

Functions of shortening. Shortening acts as a lubricant in the dough, making the dough more pliable, prevents stickeness, and reduces the amount of dusting flour necessary during the make-up process. When shortening is used, the dough expands more easily and smoothly. In the baked product it makes the crust more tender, improves the keeping quality and produces a crumb that is soft and chewey. Because of the cutting effect on the bran in whole wheat flour, it is almost impossible to produce a loaf of whole wheat bread with acceptable volume without using shortening in the formula.

Functions of milk are many. It has a stabilizing effect on fermentation, preventing wild fermentation. It improves crust color because of the lactose sugar it contains. The lactose sugar is not fermentable by baker's yeast. It also improves texture, crumb color, flavor and taste, and keeping quality of the baked loaf. If non fat dry milk is used in bread it must be heated to a high enough temperature during the drying process to destroy bacteria which weakens the gluten in the dough. Milk dried by the vacuum drying process must be properly heat treated prior to being dried otherwise considerable difficulty can be expected during mixing and fermentation of the dough.

Hope this helps! ~-~

As far as I know they put salt in baking recipes to enhance the flavors. I never put in salt though. I am very sensitive to it and taste it in baked goods so I always leave it out.

http://www.baking911.com/howto/how_bakin...
this is a very interesting article for you to find out the answers to all you questions on baking

goodluck

Wow- that′s a loaded question, and you′re already getting lots of good answers.
My mom gave me the "Joy of Cooking" a few years ago. Although I already had a shelf full of cooking books, I loved (and still enjoy) reading it. It will answer all of those questions you have, and more. It tells you the "WHY" and "ABOUT" of things, not just what to do. It gives some more general information (eg. about cuts of meats, differences in protien-amts. of flour in parts of Canada etc) and still makes it interesting!! Or you can skip those parts and get to the recipies (EVERYTHING is in it). So I can definately recommend that!
Good luck!

Eggs...provide structure. Eggs are primarily protein; when proteins are heated they coagulate/get solid. Eggs can also provide leavening/rise (especially when beaten or whipped) by trapping air pockets which expand when heated.

Leaveners...produce air pockets, create light product
air - incorporated during mixing
steam - released by liquid ingredients when heated
yeast - produce CO2 during fermentation
baking soda - produces CO2 when mixed with an acidic ingredient
baking powder - produces CO2 when mixed with a liquid, and again when heated

Salt.....serves many different functions, the most prevelant being to enhance other flavors (ie. that little bit of salt makes the pastry taste sweeter...unless you're uber sensitive to salt). It also inhibits yeast production/fermentation and encourages gluten formation.

Shortening...is so named because it shortens gluten strands, which results in a more tender product -- flaky or crumbly. It also contributes moisture and has a slight preservative effect (as does sugar). It can also provide flavor, if you're using butter or specialty oils.

Gluten....is formed when liquid is added to flour and agitated/mixed, creating long, elastic strands. Gluten is a tricky one to explain...bagels have high gluten formation, muffins and cakes very low; to give you some idea of it's effects.

Milk....moistens, enriches, and shortens gluten strands (thanks to the fat content -- if a recipe calls for whole milk or cream don't sub low or nonfat, or your end product may be tough)




The consumer Foods information on foodaq.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007 FoodAQ - Terms of Use - Contact us - Privacy Policy

Food's Q&A Resources