What is baking?

Baking is a term commonly applied to the practice of making a wide range of food products.

Baking is used to prepare bread, biscuits, meats, cakes, pastries, crackers, cookies, vegetables etc for eating.

The transition from raw materials to baked product is most often referred as being a change from foam to a sponge.

The ancient Egyptians developed the art of cooking leavened dough in molds – the first loaf pans. The molds were heated and then filled with dough, covered and stacked in a heated chamber.

As people became more skilled at baking and leavening techniques and a great variety of ingredients became available, these baked goods began to assert their individuality and gradually earned names of their own.

Baking begin with its most elementary ingredient: wheat flour. Its special properties allow bakers to produce an astonishing array of products from pastry to cakes and cookies.

A gluten structure allows dough to hold steam or expanding air bubbles, so that yeasted dough can rise and puff pastry can puff.

Air temperatures of 150 – 250° C are used in baking bread and meat. The wet product is heated by the hot air or hot combustion gases until the surface layer is dried forming a crust at 100° C.
What is baking?