Baking Terms: Defined!

For the beginning bread baker, the hardest part of tackling a recipe is often trying to overcome the language. If you aren't familiar with the terms included in the recipe, and the book or website isn't kind enough to include a glossary of terms, you can easily find yourself scouring the internet, or another cookbook, for a reliable definition. Here I have defined some of the more commonly seen terms that can be a bit confusing:

Yeast: a type of microorganism that feeds on the sugars and proteins in bread thus expelling carbon-dioxide and allowing the bread to rise. Active Dry Yeast (found in small strips of vacuum-sealed packages or a baby-food sized jar) has larger granules of yeast than Instant Yeast and needs to be "proofed" in warm water to make sure it's still alive. Instant Yeast has smaller granules and does not need to be proofed before being added to a recipes dry ingredients.

Brioche: a French egg bread that is made using butter, giving the bread a moist and tender crumb. The crust of a brioche is a dark golden brown, and is flaky as opposed to the shell-like crust of a regular French bread. Brioche is often circular in shape.

Babka: a type of Eastern European or Jewish dessert bread. Babka is often found in a circular shape or baked into a high loaf and usually has chocolate or cinnamon in it. Eastern European versions often include fruit glazes or raisins, while the Jewish versions utilize a crumb topping.

Bread Flour: is a type of flour made specifically for bread baking. It contains more proteins and vitamins that allow the yeast to create a higher carbon dioxide yield, resulting in a higher rise of the bread.

Bleached/Unbleached Flour: while bleached or unbleached all-purpose flours can often be used interchangeably, they do both have their strong suits. Bleached flour has been chemically treated and as a result contains less protein. This type of flour is best used in breads that don't rely on yeast for rising. Unbleached flour, on the other hand, contains more protein than bleached, and is thus best used for yeast breads.

Crumb: refers to the texture of the inside of a loaf of bread. For instance, an egg bread would have a rich, tender, cake-like crumb whereas a whole wheat bread would have a course, dense crumb.

Doubled in size: this is the point where a bread is done rising, at least for the first time. When a bread has doubled its size, it will be airy and elastic to the touch.

Finger-tip test: a way to determine whether a bread has doubled in size yet. Quickly and lightly, poke two fingers about half an inch into the surface of the risen dough. If dents remain visible after your fingers are removed, the dough has sufficiently risen.

Knead: a series of movements that works the dough to form a smooth, elastic ball. Kneading is useful for working in the remainder of flour that could not be stirred in. The typical kneading method follows a "fold, push, turn" rhythm: fold the dough in half towards you, then push it away with the heels of your hands, then turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat.

Pullman Pan: a type of six-sided pan that encloses a baking loaf of bread from all sides with a sliding lid. This type of pan is useful for creating dense, sandwich sized loaves that are easy to slice.

Quick Bread: a kind of bread that utilizes baking soda, baking powder, or another type of chemical leavener instead of yeast.

Rise: what a bread does either prior to baking or while baking as a result of either yeast or a chemical leavener.

Second Rise: some breads require a second period of rising. Once the kneaded dough has risen to double its size, many recipes require a bread to be shaped. After shaping, it helps to allow the bread to re-rise and relax some of its glutens that may have been stiffened during shaping.