Chemistry of Baking
http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/food/6D.pdf









Flour
o Need to be high in gluten, gives texture and supports ingredients while rising
Yeast
o Consumes starch and sugars, produces carbon dioxide, alcohol and sugars. CO2
gives light airy texture (light density)
Fat
o Softer texture, prevents CO2 from escaping
Sugar
o Food source for yeast
Vitamin C
o Shortens dough maturing time
Baking Soda
o Releases CO2
o One of products is a strong base
o
2NaHCO3 → Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O
Baking Powder
o Baking soda with a strong acid added to it, neutralizing it
o NaHCO3 + H+ → Na+ + H2O + CO2
Egg
o Helps retain gas bubbles (like fat)
o Acts as a binder
Salt
o Adds flavor, strengthens soft fat and sugar mixtures
http://www.culinate.com/articles/features/baking_chemistry


Flour
o Bread




Glutenin and gliadin
When water is added, these proteins bond to make gluten
Kneading builds gluten networks
Dough rises; gluten threads touch and create more links. Inside the oven,
the proteins and starches in the flour transform into the sturdy webbing
inside a loaf of bread.
o Pastries
 Need smaller crumb, all purpose flour (less rigid gluten network)
Yeast
o Allows the pastries to rise (trapped CO2)
Chemistry of Baking





Baking soda/powder
o Releases more carbon dioxide that increases the size of the bubbles in mixture
o Double acting baking powder releases carbon dioxide twice during the baking
process: once when it reacts with liquids during mixing, and again when it’s
exposed to higher temperatures in the oven.
o Baking soda reacts with acids to produce carbon dioxide
Eggs
o Whites: force pastries to rise but force out moisture when heated
o Yolk: adds moisture
o Difficult to use one without the other because too much whites leads to a dry cake
while all yolk leads to a wet cake
Fats
o In pastries, fat coats the proteins in flour, preventing them from bonding with
water and forming gluten (making them softer and less chewier than bread)
o Oil coats flour’s proteins better than butter does, oil-based cakes are softer
Sugar/Milk
o Sugar keeps pastry soft; your glutenin runs off with sugar, your gliadin runs off
with sugar, and you don’t get much gluten formed
o Milk keeps batter soft; contains the sugar lactose, which bonds with flour proteins
and hinders gluten formation.
o Milk and sugar promote browning (crusts)
Salt
o Conceals bitter tastes and balances sweet flavors
o Plays role in gluten formation
 you add salt to dough is to make dough more elastic
 Charged amino acids in the flour are going to interact with the ions in the
salt, and that helps line up the gluten fibers. Your bread is going to have
better texture
http://library.vcc.ca/learningcentre/pdf/worksheets/Baking-Chemistry.pdf

Good terminology
http://www.mercurynews.com/food-wine/ci_19838627

Article about chemistry about baking in college
Baking is not simply a culinary activity for it includes a series of chemical reactions. From
mixing water with glutenin and gliadin to create gluten to adding yeast to the dough to produce
carbon dioxide so that the baked goods can rise, chemistry is very much a part of baking. Each
ingredient plays a role in the formation of the baked goods and set the characteristics of its
structure as well as texture, whether a dense, airy, wet or dry.
Chemistry of Baking
Fun Fact: A different type of flour is used for baking bread and pastries because bread requires
flour with rigid gluten to give it its strong structure and dense texture while pastries need a
smaller crumb (weaker structure) so an all purpose flour is required (less rigid gluten).
List the importance of the ingredients
List the chemical equations of the ingredients
Have picture of some of the chemical equations
GET THE GRAPH!!!!!!
http://www.tablematters.com/index.php/plate/gf/gfcake
In the oven







Baking transforms batter to cake.
o The heat of the oven triggers many of the chemical processes that create a cake’s
defining textures and flavors.
o Each of the key ingredients — fat, sugar, flour, eggs, and chemical leaveners — is
affected.
Yeast-raised cakes (using baking powder) produce carbon dioxide that migrates to the air
bubbles incorporated into the batter.
o Heated during creaming, the gases expand and make the cake rise.
o Even cakes with no chemical leaveners, such as angel food cake, have enough air
bubbles from the egg white foam to expand in the oven’s heat and raise the cake.
o Water in the batter also changes to steam and expands, contributing to the rise.
In the oven
o gas bubbles expand and mature
o Cake’s structure should be set and when cooled creates a solid foam.
o If the oven is set too low and the batter heats too slowly, the gas bubbles over
expand before the cake sets, creating a large-holed, coarse-grained texture in the
finished cake.
As altitude increases, there is increasingly less atmospheric pressure
o Allows the leavening gases to expand more rapidly, stretching and weakening the
structure of the cake, which can result in a coarse texture or cause the cake to fall.
o Cakes baked at high altitudes (above 3,000 feet/914 m) use lower oven
temperatures and less leavening agent.
Eggs and flour contain protein that coagulates, or firms up, when heated (at about
180°F/82°C).
The liquid in the batter, such as milk, cream, water, and even eggs (which are about 74%
water), also hydrates the starch in the flour when it is heated.
As the starch granules absorb moisture and swell, they form a paste, which then stiffens
or sets.
Chemistry of Baking




o This process is known as gelatinization and is followed by gelation (forming of a
gel) upon cooling.
The fat (shortening, oil, or butter)
o Batter tenderizes the cake.
o When heated, the fat melts, releases the air it once held, and slides into the
coagulated and stiffened structure of the cake, tenderizing and moistening it.
o Shortening contains emulsifiers that do a better job than butter of dispersing fat
throughout the batter.
o Fat in cake weighs it down and makes it heavier.
o Dense texture of fat-rich pound cake.
o Less fat allows the gas bubbles to expand more in the oven, creating the more
open, airy texture of angel food and sponge cakes.
Sugar
o The characteristic sweetness of cakes
o Tenderizes them by competing for available water that’s also necessary for gluten
formation and starch gelatinization.
o Sugars and proteins combine in the Maillard reactions, browning the cake’s
surface and developing hundreds of new flavor compounds that we recognize as
delicious.
If the oven is too low
o The fat melts so quickly that it releases its leavening gases before the other
elements in the batter set, preventing the cake from rising.
If the heat is too high
o The crust forms before the center is set, causing a soggy center with gases that
continue to expand late in the baking process, which can crack the crust.