Snickerdoodle Also known as cinnamon butter cookies What is a Snickerdoodle? Snickerdoodle, or cinnamon butter cookies, are drop cookies which are characterized by having a cracked surface and can be crunchy or soft depending on the baking time, thickness and shape they are given before baking. If the spooned or scooped soft [...]
Dough Mixing What is dough mixing? Dough mixing is a process in which flour and water are mixed until gluten is developed, a result of the enhanced interaction between dispersed and hydrated gluten-forming proteins. It's quite different from batter mixing due to differences in their respective formulations—specifically, the proportion between dry and [...]
Baker's Percent What is Baker's Percent? Baker’s percent is a mathematical method widely used in baking to calculate the amounts of macro, minor and micro ingredients. It's based on the total weight of flour a formula contains. Instead of dividing each ingredient’s weight by the total formula weight, bakers divide each ingredient [...]
Water Also Known as H2O What is Water? Water is a basic component of living matter and is essential to cooking and baking processes. In baking, it helps with hydration of gluten and starch molecules and dissolving salts, baking powder, sugar and others. At room temperature, it is an odorless, colorless, tasteless [...]
Gluten Hydration What is Gluten Hydration? Gluten hydration is an essential step in baking because it helps activate wheat gluten proteins. In water, gliadin and glutenin proteins interact to establish bonds and form small protein strands. This is the basis for how a cohesive viscoelastic gluten matrix is developed. It's essential for retaining [...]
Straight Dough Also known as no time dough or rapid dough processing What is Straight Dough? Straight dough is a breadmaking system or method in which all ingredients (dry and liquid) are placed in the mixer and the dough is then mixed to full development. Unlike the sponge and dough system, where [...]
Mixing What is Mixing? Mixing is one of the most critical and important operations in a bakery. The mixing stage allows “inert” dry and liquid ingredients to create a very reactive and dynamic system that can be then processed and transformed into value-added products. Foams, cake batter emulsions, colloidal suspensions and doughs [...]
Autolyse What is autolyse? Autolyse is a process in which a portion of (or total) water and flour in a bread formula are pre-blended and set to rest for a period of time. This resting period gives the dough special processing characteristics and improves the overall quality of the baked goods. [...]
