Basics Of Baking

The Basic Idea Of Baking

Baking has a long history; the first people known to have made bread were the ancient Egyptians in the year 8000 BC. Since then baking has come along way, in colonial times breads were not as sweet as they are today, this is largely due to baked products containing corn syrup with high fructose content and honey.

A bakers dozen often found in bread rolls is a long tradition of bakers. This tradition dates back to the 13th century when bakers who short changed their customers, faced severe punishments, such as having their hand or fingers chopped off. It become tradition that bakes added 13 pieces to their dozen, to guard against punishment incase a piece was lost stolen or ruined along the way.

Modern bakers often work for large baking companies or in their own shop. In the larger companies there are machines that do most of the work for the bakers, and the baked products are often transported to places like supermarkets or convenience stores.

Smaller bakeries are usually family run businesses, and make types of products that their clientele desire, this may be bread and pastries like pies or cakes. Smaller businesses sell their products to the local community.

The act of baking is described as cooking food in an oven with dry heat. This heat is applied evenly throughout to oven to create breads, deserts, pies, tarts, cookies and an array of different sweet or savory edibles. 

The heat that comes from a bakery oven changes the structure of the food and causes the outside to lightly brown giving it an enticing appearance, and locking in the moisture of the food to make it appetizing. The browning on baked goods is caused by the sugar in the ingredients of baked goods caramelizing. Baking is an art and takes time and practice to get them perfect. If the food is over cooked it will be burnt on the outside as well as loose its moisture inside.

There are many ingredients used in baking some of the more commonly known ones are butter or margarine, this is used for flavor and as a mixing agent, to add moisture in the cooking and stop sticking. Flour is the most common ingredient and the main ingredient of any baked product. Sugar is another common baking product and this is used as a sweetener and to create caramelization on the surface of the baked product.

Yeast is an important ingredient used in baking, especially when baking bread as it makes the bread rise and become fluffy and soft. Eggs are often used in baking, as they are well known for their binding properties.

Baked products are best eaten very soon after they are cooked as they are known to become stale over time, this has little to do with moisture being lost in the baked product, it mainly occurs because of the reaction of starch and water over a period of time.