All of us – some of us all the time, some of us from time to time – spoil ourselves and our loved ones with sweet things – pastries and desserts. We follow a recipe or improvise on the basis of familiar basic ingredients. But I think most hostesses don’t think about why the same butter or eggs are in the dough and what their specific functional purpose is. Do you want to understand? Then read on.
All the basic ingredients that are used in baking can be roughly divided into the following categories:
Stabilizers,
Softeners,
Sweeteners,
Softeners, Sweeteners, and Leavening agents,
Flavoring ingredients,
Thickeners.
Many products, like eggs and butter, can perform several functions at once. But more about that later.
Stabilizers
Stabilizers are products containing protein (proteins). Protein helps products hold their shape after removing them from the oven. Products in this category include flour, eggs, and starches.
Flour contains a protein called gluten. It is especially important in yeast baked goods. When kneaded, gluten takes the form of long, elastic strands that stretch well and do not tear. This allows the dough to retain the gases produced by yeast fermentation and provides a porous, homogeneous structure to the finished baked goods. The longer we knead the dough, the stronger the gluten strands become and the more stable the structure of the bread or rolls.
Starches are among the stabilizers due to their good absorption properties. In a liquid environment, the starch granules increase in volume and swell even more when heat treated and build up a stable structure. Starch in baking can be used both in its pure form (potato and corn) and in some flours.
Egg protein is a stabilizing ingredient in the preparation of various biscuits, soufflés, meringues and other dishes prepared by foaming liquid and semi-liquid products.
Softeners
These are ingredients that make baked goods tender and not dry. Primarily, these include cooking fats: butter and vegetable oils, lard (lard) and hydrogenated shortening (oil-fat mixture). During kneading and heat treatment, the fat particles surround long strands of gluten and shorten them (hence the English name for such components: shortening – from English and French short).
Not only fats have similar properties, but also products with a high fat content – cream, sour cream, fatty milk, cream cheese, peanut butter, egg yolks. By the way, the way fat is injected into the dough depends on the structure of the finished product. If the fat is rubbed into the dry ingredients (like here) or rolled into the dough (like puff pastry), the baked goods have a layered structure. If the fat is whipped with sugar until creamy and then mixed with the rest of the ingredients, you get a finely pored cupcake structure.
Sweeteners
Here it’s simple: sugar, powdered sugar, sugar, corn and maple syrup, molasses or honey give dishes a sweet taste. But their functions are not limited to this. For example, sugar affects the structure of some muffins, and sugar syrup gives stability to the texture of meringues, that is, in fact, it is also a stabilizer. In addition, sugar, syrups, and honey retain moisture in baked goods and keep them from staling too quickly.
Leavening agents
As the name implies, their main function is to create a friable texture by releasing carbon dioxide through a chemical and/or thermal reaction. As a result of the action of leavening agents, small cavities (pores) are formed in the bodies, which are fixed during further heat treatment. There are three types of leavening agents in cooking: chemical, organic and physical.
Chemical leavening agents that are used most often are baking soda and leavening agent. I have a separate article on my blog about them, so I won’t describe them here.
Organic leavening agents are yeast (there is an article about them too) and sourdough, which acts almost on the same principle as yeast.
The physical leavening agent is the steam that is released during heat treatment: it forces the voids in the dough that are already there to expand. Biscuits and soufflés as well as puff pastry (e.g. croissants) are based on this effect. In the latter case, steam penetrates between the layers of dough and causes them to separate and rise.
Flavor ingredients
Here the range of products is very wide – from vanilla to chocolate chips, nuts and fruit puree. The properties of the dough – its texture, baking speed, etc. – The properties of the dough – its texture, baking speed, etc. – are not usually affected by the addition of any flavor components.
Thickeners
Thickeners are used to give creams, sauces and puddings a thicker, more viscous consistency. Most often eggs, gelatin and starch-containing products are used for this purpose.
