Bread and Pastry

Introduction to
Bread and Pastry

Production
What is Baking?
• Baking is a manner of cooking food by exposing
it to direct heat or heated stones for long time
under controlled temperature. Baking is not just
limited to cakes, breads and biscuits but
practically a wide range of sweet and savory
foods such as pies, cookies, tarts and many
more.
Five Basic Ingredients required for Baking
•Flour
•Sugar
•Margarine
•Baking Soda/Powder
•Salt
Ingredients Used in Baking
• Flour − It is the basic ingredient of baking cookies, breads, cakes, muffins,
pizzas, tarts, and pastries. Its variants are self-rising flour, wheat flour, all-
purpose flour, cake flour, etc.
• Essence − It is an extract acquired from a plant or other matter used for flavoring
food. Some typical essence are almond, vanilla, saffron, lemon and rose.
• Margarine or Butter − Margarine is made of refined vegetable oil, water, and
milk. Butter is made of processing milk. These both are called shortening.
• Sugar − It is used as food sweetener.
• Eggs − They are used as leavening and binding agents and they can bring
moisture in the cakes. The chefs need to add either yogurt or applesauce in
eggless cakes.
• Baking Powder/Yeast − It is used as a rising/leavening agent that gives softness
and fluffy texture to cakes and breads. The baking powder is white fine powder
made of Sodium Bicarbonate, Potassium Bitartrate, and corn starch. The yeast
comes in two variants − dry and liquid.
Ingredients Used in Baking
• Cocoa Powder − It is used for introducing chocolate flavor to the food.
• Chocolate slabs − They are used for acquiring flakes by grating and then
using the flakes for garnishing and decorating cakes. They come in the
variety of chocolate-milk-sugar proportion. Now chocolate drops or chips
are also available in the market.
• Fruit Jams − They are used for decorating sweet baked products.
• Milk − It is used for softening batter for the cakes, breads, and cookies.
• Salt − A pinch of salt is added into batter of sweet baked products to
balance the taste of Baking powder and sugar.
Equipment Required in Baking
• Ovens − They are used as a heating chambers for baking. Direct heat large
kilns and modern electric ovens are used in food preparation units. The electric
ovens provide high degree of precise temperature control and uniform heat.
• Mixing Machine − It is used to mix all bread or cake ingredients together into
soft dough or batter.
• Tins − There are tins with various shapes and sizes used in baking. They
create the resulting baked product in attractive shapes.
• Icing Bag with Nozzles − The icing bags hold the icing. They are used in
decorating cakes in a large variety of ways using nozzles of catchy shapes and
widths. They provide a great way of filling small glasses and molds in a
sophisticated manner.
• Baking Parchment − It is a cellulose-based paper used as a non-stick surface.
It is often thin and disposable.
Equipment Required in Baking
• Knives − Bakery knives are used for cutting loafs, cakes, and handling
pieces of cakes.
• Cake Stands − They are required to keep cakes of multiple tiers. Some
of them are rotary. They provide circular motion that makes the process of
cake decoration easy.
• Spatula − They are flat tip spoons, used to fold the batter and fill the icing
bag. Spatulas often have rubber tips.
Basic Bread Fabrication
Bread fabrication is a complex process.

Once started, it cannot be interrupted, as
timing is very important for bread
making.
Stages in Baking a Bread
• Weighing Ingredients
During this stage, the chef assembles all the required ingredients and
weigh them properly to ensure a good quality final product.
• Preparing Ingredients
The chef selects an appropriate flour and sieves it. The chef also
prepares yeast mixture by adding right amount of water of right
temperature into the dry yeast.
• Mixing the Ingredients
Mixing the ingredients is not as simple as it sounds. There are various
factors that need consideration such as room temperature, flour
temperature, speed of machine, the timings of adding various ingredients
like margarine, sugar, yeast etc.
• Bulk Fermentation
During bulk fermentation, the yeast acts on sugar in the flour and releases
carbon dioxide and alcohol while it respires. The gas makes the flour dough
rise and the alcohol brings flavor to the bread. The longer the fermentation, the
more intense the aroma.
• Folding/Degassing
Folding a dough is superior to simply punching it down. Folding involves
gently kneading the dough into parts and new rolls. Degassing is a very
important piece of the bread jigsaw. It removes some of the carbon dioxide
and redistribute the food for yeast so that the yeast can resume to their meal.
• Dividing
A large dough is divided into several smaller portions to make loaves or
buns.
• Benching
At this stage, the dough is kept for a while so that the gluten can rest and shaping becomes
easy. This time is not more than a few minutes.
• Shaping
At this stage, the baker shapes the bread for various looks such as loaves, buns, bagels,
baguette, rolls, sticks, and other various shapes. Shaping affects the physical form of the bread.
• Proofing
Once the dough is made into a desired shape, the baker keeps it for the final fermentation
before it enters the oven. Proofing affects the chemical form of the bread.
• Baking
The baker preheats the oven and keeps the doughs into it under a controlled temperature.
• Cooling
In this stage, the baker takes out the bread and sets on the racks for exposing it to the air for
cooling. Some breads such as baguette are eaten at room temperature. The bread is thus ready
to be consumed.
Types of Cakes
• Butter cakes
They contain fat such as butter. It starts with beating sugar and butter together until the sugar dissolves
partially and then adding dry and wet ingredients alternatively. The resulting cake is light and rich with
moisture. For example, Pound cake made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
• Layer Cakes
They also contain butter and can be made by arranging layers of different butter cakes. For example,
Golden cake, Birthday cake.
• Sponge cake
They do not contain fat or leavener such as baking powder. The preparation starts with whipping eggs
or egg whites such that it becomes fluffy with air. Dry ingredients are sifted and folded in gently. During
baking, the air expands to rise the cake on its own. It gives extremely light and spongy but less moist cake.
• Angel Food Cake
It contains egg whites and no egg yolks. Preparation starts with beating egg whites until they are firm
and adding dry ingredients gently. This cake is very white and delicate. It is often paired with addition of
fruits. It is cooled by inverting it on the cooking rack.
Types of Cakes
• Genoise
It is a kind of sponge cake made with whole eggs. In the preparation, eggs and sugar are
combined and whipped in the pan kept over simmering water. They are sliced into thin horizontal
layers and stacked with alternate layers of cream/frosting and slices to create layered cake. For
example, Swiss roll.
• Flourless Baked Cake
It does not contain flour. All ingredients are folded gently and poured into a pan that is kept in a
larger pan which is partially filled with water. This water bath is arranged to reduce effect of strong
heat from oven to this delicate cake. For example, cheese cake.
• Flourless Unbaked Cake
They are chilled instead of baking. The bottom is often crusted with a layer of cake and on the top
of it whipped cream and egg white is added. For example, Chocolate mousse.
Pastry
It is a dough often used for preparing both, sweet
and savory meals. It contains flour, shortening like
butter or oil, sugar, water, and salt. A filling is put inside
the pastry and it is baked to get resulting food with
crispy coat. There are various pastries made such as
short crust pastry and puff pastry. For example, pastry
is used for pies, puffs, croissants, and tarts.
Pastes, Creams, Fillings, and Sauces
Pastes
Pastes are the compound of fruit pulp, lemon juice, and sugar.
The bakers often add light spices such as cinnamon or cardamom,
which go well with the sweet taste. Some widely used pastes in
bakery are −
• Apple paste
• Banana paste
• Coconut paste
• Guava paste
• Mango paste
Creams
Their texture changes as per the amount of butterfat they contain.
The higher the butterfat contents, less whipping is required to get thick
cream.
• Half and Half/Single Cream − It contains around 15% fat. It cannot
be whipped as it contains proportion of cream and milk as 50:50. It
goes well with coffee or on cereal.
• Whipping Cream − It contains around 30% fat and it is thick enough
to be whipped.
• Double Cream − It contain around 48% fat. It cannot get whipped
well.
Fillings
The fillings have a strong foot in the domain of desserts, cakes,
and other bakery products. The fillings provide delicate flavor and
aroma. A perfect filling has a good spreading ability and consistency.
Some of the widely used fillings are −
• Chocolate filling
• Coffee fillings
• Almond filling
• Cashew nut filling
• Hazelnut filling
• Peanut filling
Sauces
Various sweet sauces often known as dessert sauces are
used with cakes and desserts that take them to the next
heights. They contribute flavor and moisture to the dessert. The
dessert sauces are made by combining cooked fruit pieces,
sugar, and liquid caramel or light alcohol such as wine.
Some popular ones are crème Anglaise, classic caramel
sauce, chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce, raspberry sauce,
blueberry sauce, butterscotch sauce, and fruit curds.

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Introduction to

Bread and Pastry

Bread fabrication is a complex process.

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