12/9/2020 What is Baking?
| ChefSteps
What is Baking?
What happens in the process of baking?
The process of baking starts with a loose structure—a batter for cake or dough for
a Danish—that is full of moisture. Opening the door and putting that wet foodstuff
into the oven starts the process of using heated air to draw out the moisture in
foods. When some of the liquid leaves the food and enters the cavity of the oven
instead, the heat from the oven can suffuse the surface of the food more fully. The
evaporated liquid helps to hold the temperature of the surface of the food below
the boiling point of water. At this point, the internal temperature of the baked
good is far lower than the surface.
The moment in the baking process that the surface of the baked good is fully
evaporated—and thus dry—is when the heat can penetrate even more deeply into
the food, which raises the internal temperature inside and cooks the baked good
fully. A cake that is brown on top but sinks in the middle after it leaves the oven
means that the cake needed to stay in the heat a little longer to dry out more.
Generally, this process happens at a temperature range of 300 °F / 149 °C to
400 °F / 204 °C, although there are always exceptions. But cookies and pastries
would be ruined by baking them at a high temperature like 500 °F / 260 °C or they
would never set up properly in the low temperatures of dehydration, such as
105 °F / 41 °C, even though that is a process of drying out food too.
The most important factor in baking successfully is dealing with humidity, not
heat. After the water from the baking food evaporates into the cavity of the oven,
it eventually moves out of the vents of the oven into the air in the kitchen. The
shifts happening in the oven—and moving to the outside of the oven—can change
the heat levels inside the oven dramatically. The resulting erratic temperature
changes can make or break a successful baking result.
For further information—and ideas for how to manage humidity more consciously,
read the part of this class on humidity.
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12/9/2020 What is Baking? | ChefSteps
How can you become a better baker?
If you want to achieve consistent and repeatable results in baking, preheat your
oven properly. Turning on your oven begins the process of baking. The heating
element reaches a temperature of 480 °F / 249 °C within seconds. The air in the
oven does not take long to begin heating either. However, it’s most important that
the oven walls fully store up heat, not the air. Hot air, as a gas, expands quickly.
Much of it leaves the oven through the vents. Waiting until the oven walls are fully
heated means those walls can store and later, steadily release heat energy to
offset the inevitable cooling that happens when an oven door opens and spills out
all that heated air. So, wait to put anything in the oven—no matter how excited
you are to see the final baked good—until everything in the oven has reached full
heat. The wait is worth it.
Since countertop ovens have less cavity space than a traditional oven, they are
more efficient at preheating than a larger oven can be.
Learning how to use your oven best will help your baking immensely. Every oven is
different. Each one has its own hot and cold spots. This means you will have to
bake often and take notes. If you know that there’s a spot in the back left-hand
corner of your oven that always browns faster than anywhere else in the oven, you
will make adjustments and plan to rotate whatever you are baking halfway through
the cycle. You will also know to watch the baked good, instead of going by a timer,
since that bake might require a minute or two longer than expected, to
compensate for the cold air that rushed in when you opened the oven door.
Convection can also be helpful in the baking process, but only with certain kinds
of foods. Delicate baked goods might be caused to rise unevenly as a result of too
much airflow moving in one direction. If using convection, we recommending
using a low fan setting to prevent blowing the top off of your soufflé.
What to bake in your countertop oven
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