Baking Terms for Beginners

Baking is a hobby many love to do but in order to fully understand how it works or how to do it you will have to familiarize yourself with the different baking terms used. They are many baking terms used by professional bakers or by cook books. You have to figure out what each one is in order to do the job and so that the baked goodies will be delicious enough for seconds. Below we will discuss a few basic baking terms that everyone should know.

The most basic of the terms is: Bake. To bake means to cook in an oven using dry heat. You have to remember to turn on and heat up the oven 10-15 minutes before use in order to equalize the temperature.

Another important term to remember is: Bakers Dozen. For bakers, a dozen of an item means 13 pieces. Remember this when people tell you them want to order a bakers dozen.

When you are asked to used caramelized sugar you should know what caramelize means. It means to heat and melt the sugar in a sauce pan until the sugar turn brown and is ready to be drizzled on to pastries.

Dough is another baking term that is used often. Dough is mixture of ingredients like butter, sugar and eggs. This is the base of any pastry. You can’t make cookies without the cookie dough and you can’t make bread and cakes if you don’t know how to make dough.

When the recipe asks you to frost it simply mean to put icing. When a cake is frosted icing is spread all over and it becomes covered with whatever flavor the icing is. Cupcakes are usually frosted too with different flavors of frosting.

Baked goods are sometimes glazed before being placed inside the oven. To glaze means coating or brushing to food with eggs, milk and sometimes sugar before the baking proper. This is done to create a golden finish for the baked goods. To glaze can also mean to top a cake off with some icing before serving.

When you are asked to grease a pan you brush some oil or butter onto the baking pan to prevent you baked goods from sticking. This is also done so you will have a perfect cookie or cake without forcing it off the baking tray.

You are sometimes asked to knead the dough and this means you should fold and press the dough with your hands until it becomes very smooth to the touch.

These are just some of the terms you will encounter when you start baking. To find out more, do your research before starting with a new recipe.