Art of Baking: The Science Behind Baking

Art of Baking: The Science Behind Baking

Have you even wonder, why does mixing up butter, sugar, eggs and flour result in cakes, cookies, breads, pastries?



When we're talking about baking, it’s the time for some chemical reaction moments, and it’s all about art and science. The process involves both chemical science and physics. For instance, the reaction of leavening agents and the browning reaction between proteins and sugars are examples of chemical science, whereas heat transfer during baking and the incorporation of air through whipping are principles of physics.

Baking relying on a few fundamentals of principles. While there are thousand of recipes available, we can read them and understand them more easily if we know the fundamentals and understand what's happen behind the scene of baking. How we manage to transform the raw ingredients such as butter, sugar, egg and flour to an edible food can be very complicated yet interesting.

In a recipe, we can identified the information of wet ingredients, dry ingredients, leavening agent, flavoring, heat(oven temperature), and mixing methods(whisk egg).

So, let's explore the principles behind baking and understand why it matters.

1. Wet ingredients
Wet ingredients such as butter, eggs, yogurt, and milk provide moisture to the mixture. These wet stuffs are essential to activate the dry ingredients and act as a medium for chemical reactions such as emulsification to happen. The right proportion of wet ingredients allowing the batter to react effectively and influencing the consistency of the final product.

2. Dry ingredients
Dry ingredients such as sugar, flour, corn flour and salt provide structure to the final product. The gluten in flours helps dough or batter to hold its shape. Sugar help to enhance the flavor and maintain the moisture of the baked goods.

3. Leavening agents
The common examples of leavening agents in baking are bicarbonate soda (baking soda) and baking powder. These leavens helps to react with the acidity in the batter and provide gas that help to rise the batter when heated.

4. Flavoring
For most recipes, flavoring are those that has strong aroma and enhance the flavor of baked goods. It's considered an optional ingredient since its main purpose is to offer diverse options and cater to different customer preferences, alongside the original flavor. In the market, flavorings generally categorised as natural and artificial. This includes extracts, spices, and fresh herbs.  

5. Heat
Heat is an essential element in baking as it's help the magic happened, transforming raw ingredients into something edible. It dried up the moisture in the batter and allow chemical reactions such as Maillard reaction to occur. This process break down proteins and sugars in the batter, forming new bonds. Additionally, it altered the proteins in flour to form gluten which structured the baked goods. Heat also modifies the proteins in eggs, contributing to a firmer texture in the final product.
Tip: 
Always preheated oven before putting the batter into it.
Different oven has their 'temper', it is advisable to use an oven thermometer to test and understand the actual temperature in our own oven.

6. Mixing methods
Different mixing methods can be used to combine the wet and dry ingredient and allow air to incorporate into the batter, providing a light and airy batter.
Creaming - Beating butter(fat) and sugar until light and fluffy to incorporate air into the mixture helps in rising.
Whisking - Incorporating air into ingredients to lighten up the mixture especially beating a meringue(whipped egg white and sugar mixture). 
Folding - Used to mix delicate batter to avoid the deflating of beaten air in the mixture. Commonly is use when combining butter mixture and the meringue(egg mixture).
Rubbing in - A technique that use finger tips to careful rub cold butter(fat) into flour until mixture resemble breadcrumbs. It’s often used for pastry, dough and scones.
Sifting - Sifting dry ingredients mostly flour, to ensure free of lump and help aerate the batter, creating a lighter baked good.
Tip:
Over mixing can result in a tough final product; under mixing can cause the product to collapse, resulting in dense texture.

By understanding and applying these principles, we can be better equipped to create consistently successful baked goods, whether we're making bread, cakes, cookies, or pastries!

Reference: https://www.thetravelinglocavores.com/the-6-principles-of-baking/