baking

Process of cooking by dry heat, especially in an oven.

Baked products include bread, cookies, pies, and pastries. Ingredients used in baking include flour, water, leavening agents (baker's yeast, baking soda, baking powder), shortening (fats, oils), eggs, milk, and sugars. These are mixed together to create dough or batter, which is then transferred to a pan or sheet and heated. Leavening agents produce gas that becomes trapped in the dough, causing it to rise. Shortening makes doughs more easily workable and the final product more tender. Egg whites are used to produce a light, airy texture, and yolks contribute colour, flavour, and texture. Milk is used for moistening and flavouring and sugars for sweetening and aiding fermentation.

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▪ cooking

Introduction

      process of cooking by dry heat, especially in some kind of oven. It is probably the oldest cooking method. Bakery products, which include bread, rolls, cookies, pies, pastries, and muffins, are usually prepared from flour or meal derived from some form of grain. Bread, already a common staple in prehistoric times, provides many nutrients in the human diet.

History

      The earliest processing of cereal grains probably involved parching or dry roasting of collected grain seeds. Flavour, texture, and digestibility were later improved by cooking whole or broken grains with water, forming gruel or porridge. It was a short step to the baking of a layer of viscous gruel on a hot stone, producing primitive flat bread. More sophisticated versions of flat bread include the Mexican tortilla, made of processed corn, and the chapati of India, usually made of wheat.

      Baking techniques improved with the development of an enclosed baking utensil and then of ovens, making possible thicker baked cakes or loaves. The phenomenon of fermentation, with the resultant lightening of the loaf structure and development of appealing flavours, was probably first observed when doughs or gruels, held for several hours before baking, exhibited spoilage caused by yeasts. Some of the effects of the microbiologically induced changes were regarded as desirable, and a gradual acquisition of control over the process led to traditional methods for making leavened bread loaves. Early baked products were made of mixed seeds with a predominance of barley, but wheat flour, because of its superior response to fermentation, eventually became the preferred cereal among the various cultural groups sufficiently advanced in culinary techniques to make leavened bread.

      Brewing and baking were closely connected in early civilizations. Fermentation of a thick gruel resulted in a dough suitable for baking; a thinner mash produced a kind of beer. Both techniques required knowledge of the “mysteries” of fermentation and a supply of grain. Increasing knowledge and experience taught the artisans in the baking and brewing trades that barley was best suited to brewing, while wheat was best for baking.

      By 2600 BC the Egyptians (Egypt, ancient), credited with the first intentional use of leavening, were making bread by methods similar in principle to those of today. They maintained stocks of sour dough, a crude culture of desirable fermentation organisms, and used portions of this material to inoculate fresh doughs. With doughs made by mixing flour, water, salt, and leaven, the Egyptian baking industry eventually developed more than 50 varieties of bread, varying the shape and using such flavouring materials as poppyseed, sesame, and camphor. Samples found in tombs are flatter and coarser than modern bread.

      The Egyptians developed the first ovens. The earliest known examples are cylindrical vessels made of baked Nile clay, tapered at the top to give a cone shape and divided inside by a horizontal shelflike partition. The lower section is the firebox, the upper section is the baking chamber. The pieces of dough were placed in the baking chamber through a hole provided in the top.

      In the first two or three centuries after the founding of Rome (ancient Rome), baking remained a domestic skill with few changes in equipment or processing methods. According to Pliny the Elder, there were no bakers in Rome until the middle of the 2nd century BC. As well-to-do families increased, women wishing to avoid frequent and tedious bread making began to patronize professional bakers, usually freed slaves. Loaves molded by hand into a spheroidal shape, generally weighing about a pound, were baked in a beehive-shaped oven fired by wood. Panis artopticius was a variety cooked on a spit, panis testuatis in an earthen vessel.

      Although Roman professional bakers introduced technological improvements, many were of minor importance, and some were essentially reintroductions of earlier developments. The first mechanical dough mixer, attributed to Marcus Virgilius Euryasaces, a freed slave of Greek origin, consisted of a large stone basin in which wooden paddles, powered by a horse or donkey walking in circles, kneaded the dough mixture of flour, leaven, and water.

      Guilds (guild) formed by the miller-bakers of Rome became institutionalized. During the 2nd century AD, under the Flavians, they were organized into a “college” with work rules and regulations prescribed by government officials. The trade eventually became obligatory and hereditary, and the baker became a kind of civil servant with limited freedom of action.

      During the early Middle Ages, baking technology advances of preceding centuries disappeared, and bakers reverted to mechanical devices used by the ancient Egyptians and to more backward practices. But in the later Middle Ages the institution of guilds was revived and expanded. Several years of apprenticeship were necessary before an applicant was admitted to the guild; often an intermediate status as journeyman intervened between apprenticeship and full membership (master). The rise of the bakers' guilds reflected significant advances in technique. A 13th-century French writer named 20 varieties of bread varying in shape, flavourings, preparation method, and quality of the meal used. Guild regulations strictly governed size and quality. But outside the cities bread was usually baked in the home. In medieval England rye was the main ingredient of bread consumed by the poor; it was frequently diluted with meal made from other cereals or leguminous seeds. Not until about 1865 did the cost of white bread in England drop below brown bread.

      At that time improvements in baking technology began to accelerate rapidly, owing to the higher level of technology generally. Ingredients of greater purity and improved functional qualities were developed, along with equipment reducing the need for individual skill and eliminating hand manipulation of bread doughs. Automation of mixing, transferring, shaping, fermentation, and baking processes began to replace batch processing with continuous operations. The enrichment of bread and other bakery foods with vitamins and minerals was a major accomplishment of the mid-20th-century baking industry.

Ingredients

      Flour, water, and leavening agents are the ingredients primarily responsible for the characteristic appearance, texture, and flavour of most bakery products. Eggs, milk, salt, shortening, and sugar are effective in modifying these qualities, and various minor ingredients may also be used.

flour

      Wheat flour is unique among cereal flours in that, when mixed with water in the correct proportions, its protein component forms an elastic network capable of holding gas and developing a firm spongy structure when baked. The proteinaceous substances contributing these properties are known collectively as gluten. The suitability of a flour for a given purpose is determined by the type and amount of its gluten content. These characteristics are controlled by the genetic constitution and growing conditions of the wheat from which the flour was milled, as well as the milling treatment applied.

      Low-protein, soft-wheat flour is appropriate for cakes, pie crusts, cookies (sweet biscuits), and other products not requiring great expansion and elastic structure. High-protein, hard-wheat flour is adapted to bread, hard rolls, soda crackers, and Danish pastry, all requiring elastic dough and often expanded to low densities by the leavening action.

Leavening agents (leavening agent)

      Pie doughs and similar products are usually unleavened, but most bakery products are leavened, or aerated, by gas bubbles developed naturally or folded in. Leavening may result from yeast or bacterial fermentation, from chemical reactions, or from the distribution in the batter of atmospheric or injected gases.

Yeast

      All commercial breads, except salt-rising types and some rye bread, are leavened with bakers' yeast, composed of living cells of the yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A typical yeast addition level might be 2 percent of the dough weight. Bakeries receive yeast in the form of compressed cakes containing about 70 percent water or as dry granules containing about 8 percent water. Dry yeast, more resistant to storage deterioration than compressed yeast, requires rehydration before it is added to the other ingredients. “Cream” yeast, a commercial variety of bakers' yeast made into a fluid by the addition of extra water, is more convenient to dispense and mix than compressed yeast, but it also has a shorter storage life and requires additional equipment for handling.

      Bakers' yeast performs its leavening function by fermenting such sugars (sugar) as glucose, fructose, maltose, and sucrose. It cannot use lactose, the predominant sugar of milk, or certain other carbohydrates. The principal products of fermentation are carbon dioxide, the leavening agent, and ethanol, an important component of the aroma of freshly baked bread. Other yeast activity products also flavour the baked product and change the dough's physical properties.

      The rate at which gas is evolved by yeast during the various stages of dough preparation is important to the success of bread manufacture. Gas production is partially governed by the rate at which fermentable carbohydrates become available to the yeast. The sugars naturally present in the flour and the initial stock of added sugar are rapidly exhausted. A relatively quiescent period follows, during which the yeast cells become adapted to the use of maltose, a sugar constantly being produced in the dough by the action of diastatic enzymes on starch. The rate of yeast activity is also governed by temperature and osmotic pressure, the latter primarily a function of the water content and salt concentration.

Baking soda

      Layer cakes, cookies (sweet biscuits), biscuits, and many other bakery products are leavened by carbon dioxide from added sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Added without offsetting amounts of an acidic substance, sodium bicarbonate tends to make dough alkaline, causing flavour deterioration and discoloration and slowing carbon dioxide release. Addition of an acid-reacting substance promotes vigorous gas evolution and maintains dough acidity within a favourable range.

      Carbon dioxide produced from sodium bicarbonate is initially in dissolved or combined form. The rate of gas release affects the size of the bubbles produced in the dough, consequently influencing the grain, volume, and texture of the finished product. Much research has been devoted to the development of leavening acids capable of maintaining the rate of gas release within the desired range. Acids such as acetic, from vinegar, or lactic, from sour milk, usually act too quickly; satisfactory compounds include cream of tartar (potassium acid tartrate), sodium aluminum sulfate (alum), sodium acid pyrophosphate, and various forms of calcium phosphate.

baking powder

      Instead of adding soda and leavening acids separately, most commercial bakeries and domestic bakers use baking powder, a mixture of soda and acids in appropriate amounts and with such added diluents as starch, simplifying measuring and improving stability. The end products of baking-powder reaction are carbon dioxide and some blandly flavoured harmless salts. All baking powders meeting basic standards have virtually identical amounts of available carbon dioxide, differing only in reaction time. Most commercial baking powders are of the double-acting type, giving off a small amount of available carbon dioxide during the mixing and makeup stages, then remaining relatively inert until baking raises the batter temperature. This type of action eliminates excessive loss of leavening gas, which may occur in batter left in an unbaked condition for long periods.

Entrapped air and vapour

      Angel food cakes, sponge cakes, and similar products are customarily prepared without either yeast or chemical leaveners. Instead, they are leavened by air entrapped in the product through vigorous beating. This method requires a readily foaming ingredient capable of retaining the air bubbles, such as egg whites. To produce a cake of fine and uniform internal structure, the pockets of air folded in during beating are rapidly subdivided into small bubbles with such mixing utensils as wire whips, or whisks.

      The vaporization of volatile fluids (e.g., ethanol) under the influence of oven heat can have a leavening effect. Water-vapour pressure, too low to be significant at normal temperatures, exerts substantial pressure on the interior walls of bubbles already formed by other means as the interior of the loaf or cake approaches the boiling point. The expansion of such puff pastry as used for napoleons (rich desserts of puff pastry layers and whipped cream or custard) and vol-au-vents (puff pastry shells filled with meat, fowl, fish, or other mixtures) is entirely due to water-vapour pressure.

shortening

      Fats (fat and oil processing) and oils (oil) are essential ingredients in nearly all bakery products. Shortenings have a tenderizing effect in the finished product and often aid in the manipulation of doughs. In addition to modifying the mouth feel or texture, they often add flavour of their own and tend to round off harsh notes in some of the spice flavours.

      The common fats used in bakery products are lard, beef fats, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. butter is used in some premium and specialty products as a texturizer and to add flavour, but its high cost precludes extensive use. Cottonseed oil and soybean oil are the most common processed vegetable oils used. Corn, peanut, and coconut oils are used to a limited extent; fats occurring in other ingredients, such as egg yolks, chocolate, and nut butters, can have a shortening effect if the ingredients are present in sufficient quantity.

      Breads and rolls often contain only 1 or 2 percent shortening; cakes will have 10 to 20 percent; Danish pastries prepared according to the authentic formula may have about 30 percent; pie crusts may contain even more. High usage levels require those shortenings that melt above room temperature; butter and liquid shortenings, with their lower melting point, tend to leak from the product.

      Commercial shortenings may include antioxidants, to retard rancidity, and emulsifiers, to improve the shortening effect. Colours and flavours simulating butter may also be added. Margarines, emulsions of fat, water, milk solids, and salt, are popular bakery ingredients.

      Fats of any kind have a destructive effect on meringues and other protein-based foams; small traces of oil left on the mixing utensils can deflate an angel food cake to unacceptably high density.

Liquids

       water is the liquid most commonly added to doughs. milk is usually added to commercial preparations in dried form, and any moisture added in the form of eggs and butter is usually minimal. Water is not merely a diluent or inert constituent; it affects every aspect of the finished product, and careful adjustment of the amount of liquid is essential to make the dough or batter adaptable to the processing method. If dough is too wet it will stick to equipment and have poor response to shaping and transfer operations; if too dry, it will not shape or leaven properly.

      Water hydrates gluten, permitting it to aggregate in the form of a spongy cellular network, the structural basis of most bakery products. It provides a medium in which yeast can metabolize sugars to form carbon dioxide and flavouring components and allows diffusion of nutrients and metabolites throughout the mass. Water is an indispensable component of the baking-powder reaction, and it allows starch to gelatinize during baking and prevents interior browning of bakery products.

      Water impurities affect dough properties. Water preferred for baking is usually of medium hardness (50 to 100 parts per million) with a neutral pH (degree of acidity), or slightly acid (low pH). Water that is too soft can result in sticky doughs, while very hard water may retard dough expansion by toughening the gluten (calcium ions, particularly, promote cross-linking of gluten protein molecules). Water sufficiently alkaline to raise the dough pH may have a deleterious effect on fermentation and on flour enzymes. Although strongly flavoured contaminants may affect the acceptability of the finished product, chlorides and fluorides at concentrations usually found in water supplies have little influence on bread doughs.

Eggs (egg)

      The differences between yolks (yolk) and whites must be recognized in considering the effect of eggs on bakery products. Yolks contain about 50 percent solids, of which 60 percent or more is strongly emulsified fat, and are used in bakery foods for their effect on colour, flavour, and texture. Egg whites, containing only about 12 percent solids, primarily protein, and no fat, are important primarily for their texturizing function and give foams of low density and good stability when beaten. When present in substantial amounts, they tend to promote small, uniform cell size and relatively large volume. Meringues and angel food cakes are dependent on egg white foams for their basic structure. Although fats and oils greatly diminish its foaming power, the white still contributes to the structure of layer cakes and similar confections containing substantial amounts of both shortening and egg products.

      Egg products are available to bakers in frozen or dried form. Few commercial bakers break fresh eggs for ingredients because of labour costs, unstable market conditions, and sanitary considerations. Many bakers use dried egg products because of their greater convenience and superior storage stability over frozen eggs. Processed and stored correctly, dried egg products are the functional equivalent of the fresh material, although flavour of the baked goods may be affected adversely at very high usage levels.

Sweeteners (sweetener)

      Normal wheat flour contains about 1 percent sugars (sugar). Most are fermentable compounds, such as sucrose, maltose, glucose, and fructose. Additional maltose is formed during fermentation by the action of amyloytic enzymes (from malt and flour) on the starch. Glucose and sucrose are the sugars most frequently added to doughs and batters. The action of yeast rapidly converts the sucrose to fructose and glucose (i.e., invert sugar). Invert sugar can also be added.

      Sweetening power is an important property of added sugars, but sugars also provide fermentables for yeast activity. Crust colour development is related to the amount of reducing sugars present, and a dough in which the sugars have been thoroughly depleted by yeast will produce a pale crust.

      Doughs with high concentrations of dissolved substances retard fermentation because of the effect on yeast of the high osmotic pressure (low water activity) of the aqueous phase. Sugars constitute the bulk of dissolved materials in most doughs. For this reason, sweet yeast-leavened goods develop gas and expand more slowly than bread doughs.

Yeast-leavened products

Breads and rolls

      Most of the bakery foods consumed throughout the world are breads and rolls made from yeast-leavened doughs. The yeast-fermentation process leads to the development of desirable flavour and texture, and such products are nutritionally superior to products of the equivalent chemically leavened doughs, since yeast cells themselves add a wide assortment of vitamins and good quality protein.

White bread

      Satisfactory white bread can be made from flour, water, salt, and yeast. (A “sourdough” addition may be substituted for commercial yeast.) Yeast-raised breads based on this simple mixture include Italian-style bread and French or Vienna breads. Such breads have a hard crust, are relatively light in colour, with a coarse and tough crumb, and flavour that is excellent in the fresh bread but deteriorates in a few hours. In the United States, commercially produced breads of this type are often modified by the addition of dough improvers, yeast foods, mold inhibitors, vitamins, minerals, and small quantities of enriching materials such as milk solids or shortening. Formulas may vary greatly from one bakery to another and between different sections of the country. The standard low-density, soft-crust bread and rolls constituting the major proportion of breads and rolls sold in the United States contain greater quantities of enriching ingredients than the lean breads described above.

Whole wheat bread

      Whole wheat bread, using a meal made substantially from the entire wheat kernel instead of flour, is a dense, rather tough, dark product. Breads sold as wheat or part-whole-wheat products contain a mixture of whole grain meal with sufficient white flour to produce satisfactory dough expansion.

Rye bread

      Bread made from crushed or ground whole rye kernels, without any wheat flour, such as pumpernickel, is dark, tough, and coarse-textured. Rye flour with the bran removed, when mixed with wheat flour, allows production of a bread with better texture and colour. In darker bread it is customary to add caramel colour to the dough. Most rye bread is flavoured with caraway seeds.

Potato bread

      Potato bread, another variety that can be leavened with a primary ferment, was formerly made with a sourdough utilizing the action of wild yeasts on a potato mash and producing the typical potato-bread flavour. It is now commonly prepared from a white bread formula to which potato flour is added.

Sweet breads

Ingredients

      Sweet goods made from mixtures similar to bread doughs include “raised” doughnuts, Danish pastries, and coffee cakes. Richer in shortening, milk, and sugar than bread doughs, sweet doughs often contain whole eggs, egg yolks, egg whites, or corresponding dried products. The enriching ingredients alter the taste, produce flakier texture, and improve nutritional quality. Spices such as nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, coriander, and ginger are frequently used for sweet-dough products; other common adjuncts include vanilla, nuts and nut pastes, peels or oils of lemon or orange, raisins, candied fruit pieces, jams, and jellies.

Danish dough

      Although various portion-size sweet goods are often called “Danish pastry,” the name originally referred only to products made by a special roll-in procedure, in which yeast-leavened dough sheets are interleaved with layers of butter and the layers are reduced in thickness, then folded and resheeted to obtain many thin layers of alternating shortening and dough. Danish doughs ordinarily receive little fermentation. Before the fat is rolled in, there is a period of 20 to 30 minutes in the refrigerator, allowing gas and flavour to develop. Proof time, fermentation of the piece in its final shape, is usually only 20 to 30 minutes, at lower temperatures. When properly made, these doughs (dough) yield flaky baked products, rich in shortening, with glossy crusts.

Dough preparation

 The process most commonly employed in preparing dough for white bread and many specialty breads is known as the sponge-and-dough method, in which the ingredients are mixed in two distinct stages. Another conventional dough-preparation procedure, used commonly in preparing sweet doughs but rarely regular bread doughs, is the straight-dough method, in which all the ingredients are mixed in one step before fermentation. In a less conventional method, known as the “no-time” method, the fermentation step is eliminated entirely. These processes are described below and illustrated in Figure 1—>.

The sponge-and-dough method

 The sponge-and-dough mixing method consists of two distinct stages. In the first stage, the mixture, called the sponge, usually contains one-half to three-fourths of the flour, all of the yeast, yeast foods, and malt, and enough water to make a stiff dough. Shortening may be added at this stage, although it is usually added later, and one-half to three-fourths of the salt may be added to control fermentation. The sponge is customarily mixed in a large, horizontal dough mixer (see Figure 2—>), processing about one ton per batch, and usually constructed with heat-exchange jackets, allowing temperature control. The objectives of mixing are a nearly homogeneous blend of the ingredients and “developing” of the dough by formation of the gluten into elongated and interlaced fibres that will form the basic structure of the loaf. Because intense shearing actions must be avoided, the usual dough mixer has several horizontal bars, oriented parallel to the body of the mixer, rotating slowly at 35 to 75 revolutions per minute, stretching and kneading the dough by their action. A typical mixing cycle would be about 12 minutes.

      The mixed sponge is dumped into a trough (), a shallow rectangular metal tank on wheels, and placed in an area of controlled temperature and humidity (e.g., 27° C [80° F] and 75 percent relative humidity), where it is fermented until it begins to decline in volume. The time required for this process, called the drop or break, depends on such variables as temperature, type of flour, amount of yeast, absorption, and amount of malt, which are frequently adjusted to produce a drop in about three to five hours.

      At the second, or dough, stage, the sponge is returned to the mixer, and the remaining ingredients are added. The dough is developed to an optimum consistency, then either returned to the fermentation room or allowed “floor time” for further maturation.

      Advantages of the sponge-and-dough method include: (1) a saving in the amount of yeast (about 20 percent less is required than for a straight dough), (2) greater volume and more desirable texture and grain, and (3) greater flexibility allowed in operations because, in contrast to straight doughs (which must be taken up when ready), sponges can be held for later processing without marked deterioration of the final product.

      The sponge method, however, involves extra handling of the dough, additional weighing and measuring, and a second mixing and thus has the disadvantage of increasing labour, equipment, and power costs.

The straight-dough method

      Two of the many possible variations in the straight-dough process include the remixed straight-dough process, with a small portion of the water added at the second mix, and the no-punch method, involving extremely vigorous mixing. The straight-dough method is rarely used for white breads because it is not sufficiently adaptable to allow compensation for fluctuations in ingredient properties.

“No-time” methods

      One set of procedures intended to eliminate the traditional bulk fermentation step are the “no-time” methods. Popular in the United Kingdom and Australia, these processes generally require an extremely energy-intensive mixing step, sometimes performed in a partially vacuumized chamber. Rather high additions of chemical oxidants, reducing agents, and other dough modifiers are almost always required in order to produce the desired physical properties. “No-time” is actually a misnomer, since there are always small amounts of floor time (periods when the dough is awaiting further processing) during which maturing actions lead to improvements in the dough's physical properties. Even then, the flavour of the bread cannot be expected to match that of a traditionally processed loaf.

Makeup

      After the mass of dough has completed fermentation (and has been remixed if the sponge-and-dough process is employed), it is processed by a series of devices loosely classified as makeup equipment. In the manufacture of pan bread, makeup equipment includes the divider, the rounder, the intermediate proofer, the molder, and the panner.

Dividing

 The filled trough containing remixed dough is moved to the divider area or to the floor above the divider. The dough is dropped into the divider hopper, which cuts it into loaf-size pieces (see Figure 4—>). Two methods are employed. In the volumetric method, the dough is forced into pockets of a known volume. The pocket contents are cut off from the main dough mass and then ejected onto a conveyor leading to the rounder. When density is kept constant, weight and volume of the dough pieces are roughly the same. In the weight-based method, a cylindrical rope of dough is continuously extruded through an orifice at a fixed rate and is cut off by a knife-edged rotor at fixed intervals. Since the dough is of consistent density, the cut pieces are of uniform weight. Like the pocket-cut pieces, the cylindrical pieces are conveyed to the rounder.

Rounding

 Dough pieces leaving the divider are irregular in shape, with sticky cut surfaces from which the gas can readily diffuse. Their gluten structure is somewhat disoriented and unsuitable for molding. The rounder closes these cut surfaces, giving each dough piece a smooth and dry exterior; forms a relatively thick and continuous skin around the dough piece, reorienting the gluten structure; and shapes the dough into a ball for easier handling in subsequent steps. It performs these functions by rolling the well-floured dough piece around the surface of a drum or cone, moving it upward or downward along this surface by means of a spiral track (see Figure 5—>). As a result of this action, the surface is dried both by the even distribution of dusting flour and by dehydration resulting from exposure to air; the gas cells near the surface of the ball are collapsed, forming a thick layer inhibiting the diffusion of gases from the dough; and the dough piece assumes an approximately spherical shape.

Intermediate proofing

      Dough leaving the rounder is almost completely degassed. It lacks extensibility, tears easily, has rubbery consistency, and has poor molding properties. To restore a flexible, pliable structure, the dough piece must be allowed to rest while fermentation proceeds. This is accomplished by letting the dough ball travel through an enclosed cabinet, the intermediate proofer, for several minutes. Physical changes, other than gas accumulation, occurring during this period are not yet understood, but there are apparently alterations in the molecular structure of the dough rendering it more responsive to subsequent operations. Upon leaving the intermediate proofer, the dough is more pliable and elastic, its volume is increased by gas accumulation, and its skin is firmer and drier.

      Most intermediate proofers are the overhead type, in which the principal part of the cabinet is raised above the floor, allowing space for other makeup machinery beneath it. Interior humidity and temperature depend on humidity accumulating from the loaves and on ambient temperatures.

Molding

 The molder receives pieces of dough from the intermediate proofer and shapes them into cylinders ready to be placed in the pans. There are several types of molders, but all have four functions in common: sheeting, curling, rolling, and sealing (see Figure 6—>). The dough as it comes from the intermediate proofer is a flattened spheroid; the first function of the molder is to flatten it into a thick sheet, usually by means of two or more consecutive pairs of rollers, each succeeding pair set more closely together than the preceding pair. The sheeted dough is curled into a loose cylinder by a special set of rolls or by a pair of canvas belts. The spiral of dough in the cylinder is not adherent upon leaving the curling section, and the next operation of the molder is to seal the dough piece, allowing it to expand without separating into layers. The conventional molder rolls the dough cylinder between a large drum and a smooth-surfaced semicircular compression board. Clearance between the drum and board is gradually reduced, and the dough, constantly in contact with both surfaces, becomes transversely compressed.

Panning

      An automatic panning device is an integral part of most modern molders. As empty pans, carried on a conveyor, pass the end of the machine, the loaves are transferred from the molder and positioned in the pans by a compressed air-operated device. Before the filled pans are taken to the oven, the dough undergoes another fermentation, or pan-proofing, for about 20 minutes at temperatures of 40° to 50° C, or 100° to 120° F.

Continuous bread making

      Many steps in conventional dough preparation and makeup have been fully automated, but none of the processes is truly continuous. In continuous systems, the dough is handled without interruption from the time the ingredients are mixed until it is deposited in the pan. The initial fermentation process is still essentially a batch procedure, but in the continuous bread-making line the traditional sponge is replaced by a liquid pre-ferment, called the broth or brew. The brew consists of a mixture of water, yeast, sugar, and portions of the flour and other ingredients, fermented for a few hours before being mixed into the dough.

 As shown in Figure 1—>, after the brew has finished fermenting, it is fed along with the dry ingredients into a mixing device, which mixes all ingredients into a homogeneous mass. The batterlike material passes through a dough pump regulating the flow and delivering the mixture to a developing apparatus, where kneading work is applied. The developer is the key equipment in the continuous line. Processing about 50 kilograms (100 pounds) each 90 seconds, it changes the batter from a fluid mass having no organized structure, little extensibility, and inadequate gas retention to a smooth, elastic, film-forming dough. The dough then moves out of the developer into a metering device that constantly extrudes the dough and intermittently severs a loaf-size piece, which falls into a pan passing beneath.

      Although ingredients are generally the same as those used in batch processes, closer control and more rigid specifications are necessary in continuous processing in order to assure the satisfactory operation of each unit. Changes in conditions cannot readily be made to compensate for changes occurring in ingredient properties. Oxidizers, such as bromate and iodate, are added routinely to compensate for the smaller amount of oxygen brought into the dough during mixing.

      The use of fermented (fermentation) brews has been widely accepted in plants practicing traditional dough preparation and makeup. The handling of a fermentation mixture through pumps, pipes, valves, and tanks greatly increases efficiency and control in both batch-type and continuous systems.

Baking and depanning

Ovens

      The output of all bread-making systems, batch or continuous, is usually keyed to the oven, probably the most critical equipment in the bakery. Most modern commercial bakeries use either the tunnel oven, consisting of a metal belt passing through a connected series of baking chambers open only at the ends, or the tray oven, with a rigid baking platform carried on chain belts. Other types include the peel oven, having a fixed hearth of stone or brick on which the loaves are placed with a wooden paddle or peel; the reel oven, with shelves rotating on a central axle in Ferris wheel fashion; the rotating hearth oven; and the draw plate oven.

      Advances in high-capacity baking equipment include a chamber oven with a conveyor that carries pan assemblies (called straps) along a roughly spiral path through an insulated baking chamber. The straps are automatically added to the conveyor before it enters the oven and then automatically removed and the bread dumped at the conveyor's exit point. Although the conveyor is of a complex design, the oven as a whole is considerably simpler than most other high-capacity baking equipment and can be operated with very little labour. As a further increase in efficiency, the conveyor can also be designed to carry filled pans in a continuous path through a pan-proofing enclosure and then through the oven.

      In small to medium-size retail bakeries, baking may be done in a rack oven. This consists of a chamber, perhaps two to three metres high, that is heated by electric elements or gas burners. The rack consists of a steel framework having casters at the bottom and supporting a vertical array of shelves. Bread pans containing unbaked dough pieces are placed on the shelves before the rack is pushed mechanically or manually into the oven. While baking is taking place, the rack may remain stationary or be slowly rotated.

      Most ovens are heated by gas (gas burner) burned within the chamber, although oil or electricity may be used. Burners are sometimes isolated from the main chamber, heat transfer then occurring through induced currents of air. Baking reactions in the oven are both physical and chemical in nature. Physical reactions include film formation, gas expansion, reduction of gas solubility, and alcohol evaporation. Chemical reactions include yeast fermentation, carbon dioxide formation, starch gelatinization, gluten coagulation, sugar caramelization, and browning.

Depanners

      Automatic depanners, removing the loaves from the pans, either invert the pans, jarring them to dislodge the bread, or pick the loaves out of the pans by means of suction cups attached to belts.

Chemically leavened products

      Many bakery products depend on the evolution of gas from added chemical reactants as their leavening source. Items produced by this system include layer cakes, cookies, muffins, biscuits, corn bread, and some doughnuts.

      The gluten proteins of the flour serve as the basic structural element in chemically leavened foods, just as they do in bread. The relatively smaller amounts of flour, the weaker (less extensible) protein in the soft-wheat flours customarily employed, and the lower protein content of the flour, however, result in a softer, crumblier texture. In most chemically leavened foods, the protein content of the flour, inadequate in quantity and quality to support the amount of expansion required in bread, produces a product of higher density.

Prepared mixes and doughs

      Prepared dry mixes, available for home use and for small and medium-size commercial bakeries, vary in complexity from self-rising flour, consisting only of salt, leavening ingredients, and flour, to elaborate cake mixes. Mixes offer the consumer ingredients measured with greater accuracy than possible with kitchen utensils and special ingredients designed for functional compatibility.

      Prepared doughs for such products as biscuits and other quick breads, packaged in cans of fibre and foil laminates, are available in refrigerated form. These products carry the mix concept two steps further; the dough or batter is premixed and shaped. Unlike ordinary canned products, refrigerated doughs are not sterile but contain microbes from normal ingredient contamination. Spoilage is retarded by low storage temperature, low oxygen tension, and the high osmotic pressure of the aqueous phase.

      Many boutique cookie bakeries and muffin shops that operate in shopping malls and similar locations generally use frozen (freezing) batters shipped from a central plant. These batters are thawed a day or so before use, and a measured amount is scooped from the container and placed on a baking pan immediately before insertion into the oven. In this way, freshly baked cookies or muffins can be prepared in many varieties with a small amount of unskilled labour and a minimum of specialized equipment. In some cases, a central commissary supplies fully baked but frozen products, which are simply thawed (and sometimes iced and decorated) before sale.

Dough and batter formulas

Hot breads

      Hot breads, such as biscuits, muffins, pancakes, and scones, constitute a large and important class of chemically leavened bakery foods. They consist of flour, baking powder, salt, and liquid, with varying amounts of eggs, milk, sugar, and shortening. Other variations include the addition of fruits such as raisins, condiments such as peppers, and adjuncts such as cheese. In corn breads (cornbread) a considerable proportion of the flour is replaced by cornmeal. Mixing and forming methods, and the baking conditions applied, also affect product appearance, texture, and flavour. For example, a batter suitable for making corn bread might also be used to make muffins or pancakes, and each kind of finished product would vary not only in appearance but also in flavour and texture. Recipes for hot breads usually contain not more than about 15 percent shortening and 5 percent sugar. Eggs, when used, are customarily whole eggs. milk is often used both for flavour and for its texturizing and crust coloration properties.

Cakes (cake)

      There are traditional rules for assuring “formula balance,” or the correct proportioning of ingredients, in layer cakes. For every 10 parts of flour, yellow layer cakes should contain 10 to 16 parts sugar by weight, and white layer cakes should contain 11 to 16 parts sugar. shortening should range from 3 to 7 parts for each 10 parts of flour. The weight of liquid whole eggs (egg) should equal or exceed that of the shortening in the mixture. Total water, including the moisture in eggs and milk, should exceed the amount of sugar by 2 ¹/₂ to 3 ¹/₂ parts. Baking-powder (baking powder) weight should equal from 3 to 6 percent of flour weight; salt should equal 3 to 4 percent of flour weight. If the amount of sugar in a formula is increased, the egg content should be increased an equal amount, and more shortening should be added when the percentage of eggs is increased. Additional water is rarely added when the formula contains dry milk, but if the formula water is not sufficient to equal the reconstitution water for the milk, about 1 percent of water for each additional percent of milk solids is added.

      Common cake varieties include white cake, similar in formula to yellow cake, except that the white cake uses egg whites instead of whole eggs; devil's food cake, differing from chocolate cake chiefly in that the devil's food batter is adjusted to an alkaline level with sodium bicarbonate; chiffon cakes, deriving their unique texture from the effect of liquid shortening on the foam structure; and gingerbread, similar to yellow cake but containing large amounts of molasses and spices.

Cookies (cookie)

      Recipes for cookies (called biscuits or sweet biscuits in some countries) are probably more variable than those for any other type of bakery product. Some layer-cake batters can be used for soft drop cookies, but most cookie formulas contain considerably less water than cake recipes, and cookies are baked to a lower moisture content than any normal cake. With the exception of soft types, the moisture content of cookies will be below 5 percent after baking, resulting in crisp texture and good storage stability.

      Cookies are generally high in shortening and sugar. Milk and eggs are not common ingredients in commercial cookies but may be used in home recipes. Sugar granule size has a pronounced effect on cookie texture, influencing spread and expansion during baking, an effect partly caused by competition for the limited water content between the slowly dissolving sugar and the gluten of the flour.

Equipment

Mixing

      The horizontal dough mixers used for yeast-leavened products may be used for mixing chemically leavened doughs and batters. Mixers may be the batch type, similar in configuration to the household mixer, with large steel bowls, open at the top, containing the batter while it is mixed or whipped by beater paddles of various conformations. In continuous mixers the batter is pumped through an enclosed chamber while a toothed disk rapidly rotates and mixes the ingredients. The chambers may be pressurized to force gas into the batter and surrounded with a flowing heat-transfer medium to adjust the temperature.

Sheeting and cutting

      Chemically leavened doughs can be formed by methods similar to those used for yeast-leavened doughs of similar consistency. In the usual sequence, the dough passes between sets of rollers, forming sheets of uniform thickness; the desired outline is cut in the sheet by stamping pressure or embossed rollers; and the scrap dough is removed for reprocessing. Many cookies (cookie) and crackers are made in this way, and designs may be impressed in the dough pieces by docking pins (used primarily to puncture the sheet, preventing formation of excessively large gas bubbles) or by cutting edges partially penetrating the dough pieces.

Die forming (mold) and extruding

      In addition to the sheeting and cutting methods, cookies may be shaped by die forming and extrusion. In die forming a dough casing may be applied around a centre portion of jam or other material, forming products such as fig bars; or portions of dough may be deposited, forming such drop-type cookies as vanilla wafers, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies. Extrusion is accomplished by means of a die plate having orifices that may be circular, rectangular, or complex in outline. The mass of dough, contained in a hopper, is pushed through these openings, forming long strands of dough. Individual cookies are formed by separating pieces from the dough strand with a wire passing across the outer surface of the die or by pulling apart the hopper and oven belt (to which the dough adheres).

Rotary molding

      Cookies produced on rotary molders include sandwich-base cakes and pieces made with embossed designs. A steel cylinder, the surface covered with shallow engraved cavities, rotates past the opening in a hopper filled with cookie dough. The pockets are filled with the dough, which is sheared off from the main mass by a blade, and, as the cylinder continues its revolution, the dough pieces are ejected onto a conveyor belt leading to the band oven.

Baking

      Most commercial ovens for chemically leavened products are the band types, although reel ovens are still used, especially in smaller shops or bakeries where short runs are frequent.

Air- and steam-leavened products

Air leavening

      Air-leavened bakery products, avoiding the flavours arising from chemical- and yeast-leavening systems, are particularly suitable for delicately flavoured cakes (cake). Since the batters can be kept on the acidic side of neutrality, the negative influence of chemical leaveners on fruit flavours and vanilla is avoided.

Foams and sponges

      The albumen of egg white, a protein solution, foams readily when whipped. The highly extended structure has little strength and must be supported during baking by some other protein substance, usually the gluten of flour. Because the small amount of lipids in flour tend to collapse the albumen foam, flour is gently folded into egg white foams, minimizing contact of fatty substances with the protein. Gluten sponges are denser than the lightest egg-white foams but are less subject to fat collapse.

      The foam of egg yolks (yolk) and whole eggs, as in pound cakes, is an air-in-oil emulsion. Proteins and starch, scattered throughout the emulsion in a dispersed condition, gradually coalesce as the batter stands or is heated. Fats and oils, in addition to yolk lipids, can be added to such systems without causing complete collapse but never achieve the low density possible with protein foams and usually have a tender, crumbly texture, unlike the more elastic structure of albumen-based products.

Wafers and biscuits

      Rye wafers made of whipped batters are modern versions of an ancient Scandinavian food. High-moisture dough or batter, containing a substantial amount of rye flour and some wheat flour, is whipped, extruded onto an oven belt, scored and docked, then baked slowly until almost dry. Alternatively, the strips of dough may be cut after they are baked.

      Beaten biscuits (biscuit), an old specialty of the American South, are also made from whipped batter. Air is beaten into a stiff folded dough with many strokes of a rolling pin or similar utensil. Round pieces cut from the dough are pricked with a fork to prevent development of large bubbles, then baked slowly. The baked biscuit is similar to a soft cracker.

Steam leavening

      All leavened products rely to some extent on water-vapour pressure to expand the vesicles or gas bubbles during the latter stages of baking, but some items also utilize the leavening action produced by the rapid buildup of steam as the interior of the product reaches the boiling point. These foods include puff pastries, used for patty shells and napoleons, and chou pastes, often used for cream-puff and éclair cases.

Puff pastry

      Puff pastry, often used in French pastries, is formed from layered fat and dough. The proportion of fat is usually high, rarely less than 30 percent of the finished raw piece. The dough should be extensible but not particularly elastic; for this reason mixtures of hard and soft wheat flour are often used. The fat should have an almost waxy texture and must remain solid through the sheeting steps. butter, although frequently used, is not particularly suitable for puff pastry because its low melting point causes it to blend into the dough during the sheeting process. Bakers specializing in puff pastry often use special margarines containing high-melting-point fats.

      There are several methods of making puff pastry. In the basic procedure dough is rolled into a rectangular layer of uniform thickness, and the fat is spread over two-thirds of the surface. The dough is next folded, producing three dough strata enclosing two fat layers. This preparation is next chilled by refrigeration, then rolled, reducing thickness until it reaches approximately the area of the original unfolded dough. The folding, refrigeration, and rolling procedure is repeated several times, and after the final rolling the dough is reduced to the thickness desired in the shaped raw piece.

      Correctly prepared puff pastry will expand as much as 10 times during baking because of the evolution of large volumes of steam at the interface between shortening and dough. The focuses for gassing are the microscopic air bubbles rolled into the dough during the layering process. If layering has been properly conducted, the finished pieces will be symmetrical and well-shaped, with crisp, flaky outer layers.

Chou paste

      Choupaste, used for cream puffs, is made by an entirely different method. Flour, salt, butter, and boiling water are mixed together, forming a fairly stiff dough, and whole eggs are incorporated by beating. Small pieces of the dough are baked on sheets, initially at high temperature. The air bubbles formed during mixing expand rapidly at baking temperatures, filling the interior with large, irregular cells, while the outside browns and congeals, forming a rather firm case. The interior, largely hollow, can be injected with such sweet or savoury fillings as whipped cream or shrimp in sauce.

Unleavened products: pie crusts

      Pie crusts are the major volume item of unleavened products prepared by modern bakeries. Small amounts of baking powder or soda are sometimes added to pie-crust doughs, mostly in domestic cookery. This addition, although increasing tenderness, tends to eliminate the desirable flakiness and permits the filling liquid to soak into the crust more rapidly.

      Pie crusts are usually simple mixtures of flour, water, shortening, and salt. The shortening proportion is about 30 to 40 percent of the dough. The amount of water is kept low, and the mixing process is kept short to minimize development of elasticity, which leads to shrinkage and development of toughness on baking. For flaky crust the fat should not be completely dispersed through the dough but should remain in small particles. Commercial producers often employ special mixers using reciprocating, intermeshing arms to gently knead the dough. The doughs are chilled before mixing and forming to reduce smearing of the shortening.

      Flakiness is also related to the type of shortening used. Lard is popular in home cookery for this reason and also because of its satisfying flavour. Because shortening should be solid at the temperature of mixing, oils are undesirable.

      Milk or small amounts of corn sugar may be added to improve crust browning and for their flavour effect. About 1 to 2 percent of the dough will be salt.

Flat breads

      A large part of the world's population consumes so-called flat breads on a daily basis. Tortillas (tortilla) and pita bread are representative examples. Traditional tortillas are made from a paste of ground corn kernels that have been soaked in hot lime water. Corn tortillas contain no leaveners, although a wheat-flour version, which is gradually replacing the corn product, frequently contains a small amount of baking powder. Pita bread is a very thin disk of yeast-leavened dough that has been prepared so as to cause separation of the top and bottom surfaces of the baked product except at the circumference.

      The dough portion of pizzas (pizza) also can be considered a type of flat bread. Other examples can be found that vary widely in size, shape, and composition, although nearly all of them are based on a lean, yeast-leavened dough of rather tough consistency.

Mixing and forming

      The mixing and bulk fermentation (if any) of flat-bread doughs can be performed in conventional equipment and vary only in minor details from the procedures used for loaf bread. There are two basic methods for forming the dough into circles: (1) separating the dough mass into pieces of the correct size for individual servings, rounding the chunks into roughly spheroidal shape, and passing the balls between pairs of rotating steel cylinders that flatten them into thin circles and (2) forming the dough mass into a continuous sheet of uniform thickness from which circles are cut. In addition, some pizzas are made by placing the dough balls on a baking pan and then pressing them to the desired thickness with a descending steel plate.

Baking

      Thin disks of dough tend to balloon into ball-shaped objects in the oven, especially if the edges have been sealed by the cutting method (as is usually the case). Although these balloons collapse in later stages of baking or upon cooling, the initial rapid evolution of gas in the interior leaves the top and bottom surfaces more or less separated. Separation is a desirable feature for pita bread and some other varieties, and it can be enhanced by baking the dough circles in a very hot oven. For tortillas, on the other hand, separation is not desirable, so these products are mostly grilled or baked on a hot plate, heating them first on one side and then on the other.

      Ballooning can also be prevented by “docking” (i.e., penetrating the top surface with many small punctures) or by slow baking. Of course, in the traditional pizza preparation method, ballooning is prevented by the load of sauce and other toppings placed on the crust before baking. matzo dough is unleavened, but it still needs to be docked in order to prevent excessive expansion of the thin sheet in the oven.

Market preparation

Slicing

      Bread often is marketed in sliced form. Slicing is performed by parallel arrays of saw blades through which the loaves are carried by gravity or by conveyors. The blades may be endless bands carried on rotating drums, or relatively short strips held in a reciprocating frame. Most bread is sliced while still fairly warm, and the difficulty of cutting the sticky, soft crumb has led to development of coated blades and blade-cleaning devices. Horizontal slicing of hamburger rolls and similar products is accomplished by circular (disk) blades, usually two blades in a slicer, between which a connected array of four or six rolls is carried by a belt. The cutter blades are separated to avoid cutting completely through the roll, in order to leave a “hinge.”

freezing

      Freezing is an indispensable bakery industry process. Ordinary bread and rolls are rarely distributed and sold in frozen form because of the excessive cost in relation to product value, but a substantial percentage of all specialty products is sold in frozen form. Most bakery products respond well to freezing, although some cream fillings must be specially formulated to avoid syneresis, or gel breakdown. Rapid chilling in blast freezers is preferred, although milder methods may be used. Storage at −18° C (0° F) or lower is essential for quality maintenance. Thawing and refreezing is harmful to quality. Frozen bakery products can dehydrate under freezer conditions and must be packaged in containers resistant to moisture-vapour transfer.

Wrapping

      Most American consumers prefer wrapped bread, and the trend toward wrapping is growing in other countries. Sanitary and aesthetic considerations dictate protection of the product from environmental contamination during distribution and display. Waxed paper was originally the only film used to package bread; then cellophane became popular; and finally polyethylene, polypropylene, and combination laminates became common. Other bakery products are packaged in a variety of containers ranging from open bags of greaseproof material to plastic trays with sealed foil overwraps.

canning

      The market for bakery products in tin cans is small, but hunters and campers find canned foods convenient. Canning protects against drying and environmental contamination, but texture staling and some degree of flavour staling still occur. In processing, an amount of dough or batter known to fill exactly the available space after baking is placed in a can, and the cover is loosely fastened to allow gases to escape. The product is then baked in a conventional oven, the lid is hermetically sealed immediately after baking, and the sealed can is sprayed with water to cool it. Vacuum sealing, needed to assure storage stability, can be routinely achieved by this method. Special can linings and sealing compounds are needed to survive oven temperatures, and the exterior should be dark-coloured (e.g., olive drab) in order to absorb radiant heat in the oven, avoiding long baking times. Spores of some pathogens are not killed by the conditions reached in the centre of the baked product, but pH and osmotic pressure can be adjusted to prevent growth of spoilage organisms. There is no record of food poisoning attributable to canned bakery food.

Quality maintenance

Spoilage by microbes

      Bakery products are subject to the microbiological spoilage problems affecting other foods. If moisture content is kept below 12 to 14 percent (depending on the composition), growth of yeast, bacteria, and molds is completely inhibited. Nearly all crackers and cookies fall below this level, although jams, marshmallow, and other adjuncts may be far higher in moisture content. Breads, cakes, sweet rolls, and some other bakery foods may contain as much as 38 to 40 percent water when freshly baked and are subject to attack by many fungi (fungus) and a few bacteria.

Fungi

      To obtain maximum shelf life free of mold spoilage, high levels of sanitation must be maintained in baking and packing areas. Oven heat destroys all fungal life-forms, and any spoilage by these organisms is due to reinoculation after baking. A number of compounds have been proposed for use as fungistats in bread. Some have proved to be innocuous to molds, toxic to humans, or both. Soluble salts of propionic acid, principally sodium propionate, have been accepted and extend shelf life appreciably in the absence of a massive inoculum. Sorbic acid (or potassium sorbate) and acetic acid also have a protective effect.

      The only widespread food poisoning in which bread has been a vector has resulted from ergot, a fungus infection of the rye plant. Ergot contamination of bread made from rye, or from blends of rye and wheat, has caused epidemics leading to numerous deaths.

bacteria

      Bacteria associated with bread spoilage include Bacillus mesentericus, responsible for “ropy” bread, and the less common but more spectacular Micrococcus prodigiosus, causative agent of “bleeding bread.” Neither ropy bread nor bleeding bread is particularly toxic. Enzymes secreted by B. mesentericus change the starch inside the loaf into a gummy substance stretching into strands when a piece of the bread is pulled apart. In addition to ropiness, the spoiled bread will have an off-aroma sometimes characterized as fruity or pineapple-like. Formerly, when ropiness occurred, bakers acidified doughs with vinegar as a protective measure, but this type of spoilage is rare in bread from modern bakeries.

      M. prodigiosus causes red spots to appear in bread. At an advanced stage these spots of high bacterial population may liquefy, emphasizing the similarity to blood, which has sometimes led the superstitious to attribute religious significance to this phenomenon. The organism will not survive ordinary baking temperatures, unlike B. mesentericus, which forms spores capable of survival in the centre of the loaf, where the temperature rises only to about 100° C (212° F).

      Baked goods containing such high-moisture adjuncts as pastry creams and pie fillings are susceptible to contamination by food-spoilage organisms, including Salmonella and Streptococcus. Cream and custard pies are recognized health hazards when stored at room temperature for any length of time, and some communities ban their sale during summer. Storage in frozen form eliminates the hazard.

Staling

      Undesirable changes in bakery products can occur independently of microbial action. Staling involves changes in texture, flavour, and appearance. Firming of the interior, or “crumb,” is a highly noticeable alteration in bread and other low-density, lean products. Elasticity is lost, and the structure becomes crumbly. Although loss of moisture produces much the same effect, texture staling can occur without any appreciable drying. Such firming is due to changes in the molecular status of the starch, specifically to a kind of aggregation of sections of the long-chain molecules into micelles, making the molecules more rigid and less soluble than in the newly gelatinized granule. Bread that has undergone texture staling can be softened by heating to about 60°–65° C (140°–150° F). However, its texture does not return to that of fresh bread, being gummier and more elastic. In addition, care must be exercised to prevent drying during heating.

      Starch retrogradation, the cause of ordinary texture staling of the crumb, can be slowed by the addition of certain compounds to the dough. Most of the effective chemicals are starch-complexing agents. Monoglycerides of fatty acids have been widely used as dough additives to retard staling in the finished loaf.

Samuel A. Matz

Additional Reading

R. MacRae, R.K. Robinson, and M.J. Sadler (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Food Science, Food Technology, and Nutrition, 8 vol. (1993); and Y.H. Hui (ed.), Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology, 4 vol. (1992), are general works that cover all aspects of the science of food. P. Fellows, Food Processing Technology: Principles and Practices (1988), is an introductory text.R. Paul Singh Various aspects of baking are treated in books by Samuel A. Matz: Ingredients for Bakers (1987), containing descriptions of the raw materials used by bakers, Formulas and Processes for Bakers (1987), presenting guidelines used in formulating doughs and batters, examples of many typical formulas, explanations of changes occurring in mixing, fermenting, shaping, and cooking, and the effects that processing variables may have on the quality of the finished product, Equipment for Bakers (1988), discussing the different machines used in retail and wholesale bakeries, including the specifications and functions of individual models, Bakery Technology: Packaging, Nutrition, Product Development, QA (1989), and Cookie and Cracker Technology, 3rd ed. (1992). Additional works include E.J. Pyler, Baking Science & Technology, 3rd ed., 2 vol. (1988); William J. Sultan, Practical Baking, 5th ed. (1990), a survey of the art and craft of professional baking; and D.J.R. Manley, Technology of Biscuits, Crackers, and Cookies, 2nd ed. (1991).A more fundamental approach to some of the problems in baking science can be found in Hamed A. Faridi and Jon M. Faubion (eds.), Dough Rheology and Baked Product Texture (1990).Samuel A. Matz

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