HMPE 2103 Notes: Chapter 1-2 Overview

Chapter 1: Baking Historical Background

  • Baking is a dry heat cooking method in which foods are surrounded by hot, dry air in an enclosed surface called an oven. It is also applied to bread, cakes, pastries, fish and vegetables.
  • Grains: The most important staple food in the human diet since prehistoric times; baking is almost as old as the human race.
    • Early grain preparations involved toasting dry grains, pounding them to a meal with rocks, and mixing the meal to a paste with water.
    • Some of this paste, if laid on a hot stone next to a fire, turned into a flatbread that was more appetizing than the plain paste.
    • Unleavened flatbreads, such as tortillas, remain important foods in many cultures.
  • Ancient Greeks: Enclosed ovens heated by wood fires were in use; people took turns baking breads in a large communal oven unless wealthy enough to have their own oven.
  • Pastries: Many products made by professional bakers contained quantities of honey and oil, so these foods might be called pastries rather than breads.
    • The primary fat available was oil, which placed a limit on the kinds of pastries that could be made.
    • Only a solid fat, such as butter, enables the pastry maker to produce stiff doughs (e.g., pie doughs and short pastries).
  • After the collapse of the Roman Empire, baking as a profession almost disappeared.
  • Latter part of the Middle Ages: Baking and pastry making reappear as important professions in service of the nobility.
  • Bread Baking: Continued to be performed by professional bakers, not homemakers, because it required ovens that needed almost constant tending.
    • Oven Tender: In much of Europe, tending ovens and making bread dough were separate operations.
    • The oven tender maintained the oven, heated it properly, and supervised the baking of the loaves brought to him.
    • In many bakeries today (especially larger ones), this division of labor still exists.
    • The chef who tends the ovens bakes the proofed breads and other products that are brought to him/her and may not participate in mixing and makeup.
  • Middle Ages: Bakers and pastry chefs in France formed guilds to protect and further their art.
    • Regulations prohibited all but certified bakers from baking bread for sale; guilds could limit certification to their own members.
    • The apprenticeship system and guilds provided a way to pass baker’s knowledge from generation to generation.
  • 1400s: Pastry chefs in France formed their own corporations and took pastry making away from bakers; pastry making developed rapidly with many new pastry products.
  • European discovery of the Americas in 1492:
    • Sparked a revolution in pastry making; sugar and cocoa from the New World were available in the Old World for the first time.
    • Before this, the only significant sweetener was honey.
    • With new ingredients, baking and pastry became more sophisticated, with many new recipes developed.
  • Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Many basic pastries known today, including laminated or layered doughs like puff pastry and Danish dough, were being made.
  • Nineteenth Century: Development of modern baking as we know it.
    • After the French Revolution in 1789, many bakers and pastry cooks who had been servants in noble houses started independent businesses.
    • Artisans competed for customers on the quality of their products; the general public—not just aristocrats—could buy fine pastries.
    • Some pastry shops founded during this period still serve Parisians today.
  • Marie Antoine Carême (Antonin Carême) (1784–1833): The most famous chef of the early nineteenth century; his spectacular constructions of sugar and pastry earned him great fame and elevated the status of cooks and pastry chefs.
  • Nineteenth century: Great technical progress; automated processes enable bakers to do many tasks with machines that once required much manual labor.
    • Roller Milling: The most important advance; flour milled by rolling grain between two stones was replaced by roller milling, which is faster and more efficient.
    • This was a tremendous boost to the baking industry.
  • New Availability of Flours: North American wheat regions provided varieties higher in protein; export of this wheat to Europe promoted large-scale white bread production.
  • Twentieth Century: Advances in refrigeration, sophisticated ovens, and air transportation contributed to baking and pastry making.
    • At the start of the twenty-first century, the popularity of fine breads and pastries is growing even faster.
    • Bakers are researching methods to produce handmade sourdough breads of times past and experimenting with specialty flours for flavor.
    • Career opportunities in baking/pastry today include:
    • Restaurants and Hotels
    • Retail Bakeries and Pastry Shops
    • Large-scale Bakeries and Industrial production of baked goods

Chapter 2: Major Baking Ingredients

  • The Baking Ingredients: A. Flour

    • Flour: A powdery substance obtained by grinding grain (typically wheat) and used to make bread, cakes, and pastry.
    • Wheat flour: The most important ingredient in the bakeshop; provides bulk and structure to breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries.
    • Six Principal Classes of Wheat: 1) Hard Red Winter Wheat
      • Grown in large quantities.
      • Moderately high protein content.
      • Used primarily for bread flours.
      • Refers to the dark color of the bran and husk layers of the wheat berry.
        2) Hard Red Spring Wheat
      • Highest protein content of North American wheats.
      • Important component of strong bread flours.
        3) Hard White Wheat
      • Grown in small quantities for bread flours.
      • Used for making whole wheat flours that are lighter in color and not as strong in flavor as red wheat whole wheat flours.
        4) Soft White Wheat
      • Useful for pastries, cakes, crackers, and other products requiring softer wheat.
        5) Soft Red Winter Wheat
      • Used for cake and pastry flours.
        6) Durum Wheat
      • The hardest of the six wheat classes.
      • Used primarily for pasta (e.g., spaghetti) and other macaroni products.
    • Parts of the Wheat Kernel:
      1) Bran: The hard outer covering of the kernel; present in whole wheat flour as tiny brown flakes; removed in milling white flour.
      2) Germ: Part of the kernel that can become a new wheat plant if sprouted; high in fat, which can become rancid; whole wheat flour containing the germ has poor keeping qualities.
      3) Endosperm: The starchy part of the kernel remaining after bran and germ are removed; milled into white flour.
    • Types of Wheat Flour:
      1) Straight Flour: Made from the entire endosperm; bran and germ removed; endosperm cracked and sifted several times.
      2) Patent Flour: Milled from inner endosperm; finer particles; strong flour of excellent quality and light creamy color.
      3) Clear Flour: Portion of endosperm left after patent flour removal; darker in color and higher in protein.
      4) High-Gluten Flour: Especially high protein content; used in hard-crusted breads, pizza dough, bagels.
      5) Cake Flour: Weak or low gluten; soft, smooth texture; pure white; used for cakes and delicate baked goods with low gluten.
      6) Pastry Flour: Weak or low gluten but slightly stronger than cake flour; creamy white like patent flour; used for pie doughs, some cookies, biscuits, muffins.
      7) All-Purpose Flour: Formulated to be slightly weaker than bread flour so it can be used for pastries as well.
      8) Whole Wheat Flour: Made by grinding the entire wheat kernel (bran and germ); germ is high in fat, so keeping qualities are poorer than white flour.
      9) Self-Rising Flour: White flour with baking powder and sometimes salt added; baking powder is blended uniformly.
      10) Bran Flour: Flour with added bran flakes; can be coarse or fine depending on specifications.
    • Flour Protein Content (typical ranges):
    • Straight Flour: 13−15extextpercent13-15 ext{ extpercent}
    • Patent Flour: 11−13extextpercent11-13 ext{ extpercent}
    • Clear Flour: 17extextpercent17 ext{ extpercent}
    • High-Gluten Flour: 14extextpercent14 ext{ extpercent}
    • Cake Flour: 8extextpercent8 ext{ extpercent}
    • Pastry Flour: 9extextpercent9 ext{ extpercent}
    • All-Purpose Flour: 11−11.5extextpercent11-11.5 ext{ extpercent}
    • Bread Flour: 12−15extextpercent12-15 ext{ extpercent}

  • B. Sugars

    • Sugars: A white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative.
    • Purposes of sugars in baking:
    • Add sweetness and flavor.
    • Create tenderness and fineness of texture by weakening gluten structure.
    • Give crust its color.
    • Increase keeping qualities by retaining moisture.
    • Act as creaming agents with fats and as foaming agents with eggs.
    • Provide food for yeast.
    • Kinds of Refined Sugar:
      1) Regular Granulated Sugar (Table Sugar): The most familiar and commonly used.
      2) Caster Sugar: Finer than regular granulated sugar; ideal for cakes and cookies due to uniform batter and ability to support higher fat content.
      3) Sanding Sugar: Coarse; used for coating cookies, cakes, and other products.
      4) Confectioners’ or Powdered Sugars: Ground to fine powder with a small amount of starch (~3%) to prevent caking; coarseness varies: 10X (finest), 6X (standard), 4X and 2X (coarser); also called icing sugar due to importance in icings.
      5) Brown Sugar: Mostly sucrose (about 85−92extextpercent85-92 ext{ extpercent}); contains varying amounts of caramel, molasses, and impurities; darker grades have more impurities.
    • Liquid Sweetening Agents:
      1) Molasses: Concentrated sugarcane juice; by-product of sugar refining; remains after most sugar is extracted.
      2) Corn Syrup: Made by converting cornstarch; helps retain moisture; used in some icings and candies; mild flavor; not as sweet as sucrose.
      3) Glucose Syrup: Resembles corn syrup; colorless and nearly tasteless; thicker; used like corn syrup; often preferred for purity; substitute with light corn syrup if unavailable.
      4) Honey: Natural sugar syrup high in glucose and fructose; flavor varies with source; flavor is major reason for use; can be expensive.
      5) Malt Syrup (Malt Extract): Used primarily in yeast breads; provides food for yeast and adds flavor and crust color; malt is extracted from sprouted barley.

  • C. Fat/Shortening

    • Any fat used in baking to tenderize the product by shortening gluten strands; white, tasteless, solid fat formulated for baking and deep frying.
    • Major functions of fats in baked items:
    • Tenderize product and soften texture.
    • Add moistness and richness.
    • Increase keeping quality.
    • Add flavor.
    • Assist in leavening when used as creaming agents or to give flakiness to puff pastry, pie dough, and similar products.
    • Fats Used in Baking: 1) Butter: Consists of about 80% fat, ~15% water, ~5% milk solids; available salted and unsalted.
      • Unsalted butter is more perishable but preferred for baking for fresher taste.
      • Salted butter may require reduction of salt in the formula.
        2) Margarine: Made from various hydrogenated animal and vegetable fats; 80-85% fat, 10-15% moisture, ~5% salt/milk solids/other.
      • Types:
        • Cake Margarines or Bakers’ Margarines: Soft and good creaming ability; used in cakes and many products.
        • Pastry Margarines: Tougher, more elastic, waxy texture; puff pastry margarine (puff pastry shortening) is very tough; pastry products may rise higher with margarine than with butter.
          3) Oils: Liquid fats; not often used as shortenings in baking because they spread through a batter/dough too much and shorten too much; used mainly in chiffon-type cakes.
          4) Lard: Rendered hog fat; valued for flaky pie crusts due to plasticity.

  • D. Milk and Milk Products

    • Fresh Liquid Milk:
    • Whole milk: 3.5% fat; 8.5% nonfat milk solids; 88% water.
    • Forms of milk:
      • Pasteurized milk: heated to kill bacteria, then cooled.
      • Raw milk: not pasteurized; not often used; generally not allowed to be sold.
      • Certified milk: disease-free herds under strict sanitary conditions; may be raw or pasteurized.
      • Homogenized milk: fat dispersed so cream doesn’t separate.
    • Whipping cream: Fat content 30-40% (light whipping 30-35%, heavy whipping 36-40%).
    • Fermented Milk Products:
    • Buttermilk: Fresh liquid milk, usually skim, cultured; called cultured buttermilk to distinguish from traditional liquid left after butter making.
    • Sour cream: Cultured with lactic acid bacteria; about 18% fat.
    • Yogurt: Milk cultured by special bacteria; custard-like; may have added milk solids; some flavored/sweetened.
    • Evaporated Milk: Milk (whole or skim) with ~60% of water removed; sterilized and canned; cooked flavor.
    • Condensed Milk: Whole or low-fat milk with ~60% water removed and heavily sweetened; canned or bulk.
    • Dried Milk: Whole milk dried to powder; poor keeping qualities due to butterfat; Non-fat dry milk (skim milk solids) available in regular and instant form.

  • E. Eggs

    • A whole egg consists of a yolk, a white, and a shell; contains a membrane around the shell and an air cell; two chalazae hold yolk centered.
    • The yolk:
    • High in fat and protein; contains iron and several vitamins; color varies from light to dark yellow depending on chicken diet.
    • Egg White: Primarily albumin protein; clear and soluble when raw, white and firm when coagulated.
    • Stages of beating egg whites:
      1) Frothy stage: Large uneven air bubbles form and fine bubbles develop close to each other.
      2) Soft peak stage: Whites stand in peaks but bend over.
      3) Stiff peak stage: Peaks stand stiffly, sharply, with uniform white color and shiny appearance.
      4) Dry stiff peak stage: Peaks stand stiff and sharp, not shiny, speckled with white spots.
    • Functions of Eggs in Baking:
      1) Structure: Egg protein coagulates to provide structure (important in high-ratio cakes where sugar/fat weaken gluten).
      2) Emulsifying of fats and liquids: Yolks contain natural emulsifiers for smooth batters; contributes to volume and texture.
      3) Leavening: Beaten eggs incorporate air; trapped air expands with heat to aid leavening.
      4) Shortening action: Fat in yolks acts as shortening; important when fats are limited.
      5) Moisture: Eggs are mostly water; moisture should be counted in total liquid; adjust formula if yolks replace whole eggs due to different moisture content.
      6) Flavor
      7) Nutritional value
      8) Color: Yolks impart yellow color to dough/batters; yolks brown easily and contribute to crust color.

  • F. Leavening Agents

    • Leavening: Production or incorporation of gases in a baked product to increase volume and create shape/texture.
    • Biological Leavener:
    • Yeast: Requires sugar, starch, warmth, and moisture to produce carbon dioxide; transforms sugar/starch into CO₂ and alcohol via fermentation.
    • Forms of Yeast:
      1) Fresh yeast (compressed yeast): Moist, perishable; preferred by professional bakers.
      2) Active dry yeast: Dry, granular; must be rehydrated in ~4x weight warm water (about 110°F / 43°C) before use.
      3) Instant dry yeast: Dry, granular; does not require dissolution in water before use; absorbs water quickly.
    • Chemical Leavener: Release gases via chemical reactions. 1) Baking Soda: Sodium bicarbonate; releases CO₂ when moisture and an acid are present; heat not required for reaction (gas releases faster with heat). 2) Baking Powder: Mixture of baking soda + acid + starch to prevent lumping; provides standard leavening power.
      • Classification:
        • Single-Acting Baking Powder: Requires moisture to release gas; used immediately after mixing.
        • Double-Acting Baking Powder: Releases some gas at cold temperatures, but requires heat for full reaction; allows mixing ahead of time.
    • Natural Leavener: Air
    • Air is incorporated into a batter primarily by creaming and foaming; air expands during baking to leaven.
    • Methods of air incorporation:
      1) Creaming: Beating fat and sugar together to incorporate air; important in cake and cookie making; some pound cakes/ cookies leavened almost entirely by creaming.
      2) Foaming: Beating eggs (with or without sugar) to incorporate air; foams from whole eggs used to leaven sponge cakes; angel food cakes, meringues, and soufflés rely on egg white foams.

  • G. Salt

    • Plays an important role beyond flavor:
      1) Salt strengthens gluten structure and makes it more extensible, improving bread texture.
      2) Salt inhibits yeast growth; important for controlling fermentation in bread doughs and preventing growth of undesirable wild yeasts.