How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science

by Paula I. Figoni

Understanding and applying food science to the bakeshop-now revised and updated How Baking Works, Second Edition thoroughly covers the entire baking process, emphasizing the "whys" at work behind basic techniques. The book takes the user through the major ingredient groups, explaining how sweeteners, fats, milk, leavening agents, and other ingredients affect the appearance, flavor, and texture of the end product. The coverage also includes scaling and measurements, heat transfer, and sensory properties in baking.

This revised and updated Second Edition features:


Hands-on exercises and experiments at the end of each chapter, with many involving the sensory evaluation of ingredients Expanded coverage of sweeteners, variety grains, enzymes, starch structure and gelatinization, and gluten structure Important coverage of changes to federal laws, such as food allergen labeling Coverage reflecting consumer awareness of nutrition and health, including information on dietary fiber, trans fats, and trans-free fats in the baking context More photographs to illustrate the science of baking End-of-chapter questions that both review content and require readers to apply and synthesize what they've learned How Baking Works, Second Edition offers a dynamic, hands-on learning experience to both practicing and future bakers and pastry chefs.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Culinary

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2003

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, have recommended this to many people who seem to have forgotten that baking is in fact an exact science.

[Ja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A technical baking how-to for those who wonder why we add certain ingredients to our recipes. When I say this book is technical, it's really a textbook for the aspiring baker who is literally in baking school. So not exactly easy reading, even for those who love sciency cookbooks. Regardless, I took the leap (and a year) to read through this monstrosity to really learn some of the basics of baking. There's useful information such as a Baker's Percentage which helps one understand how to scale a recipe up or down. And there's understanding how molecules are arranged and how they absorb light, thus affecting how we perceive a finished product.

There's a lot of really great information, but unless you are actually in class studying and applying what you learned, this would be a hard book to really take away anything from. If you love to bake, you're better off just simply trying a recipe and altering it ever so slightly to see what the results are.

If you love science cookbooks that's not focused on baking, I'd recommend The Science of Good Cooking by Cook's Ilustrated or The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt, both really great books that's also easy for anyone to pick up and read. However, if you're truly interested in analyzing the basics of baking, then you might be interested to read up on it in How Baking Works.

[Hadyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

while I don't recommend trying to read this from start to finish in a few days, it is remarkably clear for a textbook on baking. The information was divided into chapters that (not being a culinary student) I thought made a lot of sense, and there was a lot of review material at the end of each chapter. I found there were a lot of hints and tips for the home baker that I will carry forward in my baking. It's an excellent resource for any serious baker's bookshelf.

[Mara Quinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Para quem gosta de pastelaria e quer perceber a ciência e a química de cada processo e ingrediente. Muito bom!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Were you to situate a university school of baking, it would make perfect sense to locate it in between the School of Fine Arts and the Chemistry Building. Baking is a tasty collision of art and science; neglect of either spoils the dough. Master bakers and master pastry chefs have a thorough understanding of the chemicals in ingredients and of the chemical reactions involved in baking. Paula Figoni is a food scientist who teaches in the International Baking and Pastry Institute in the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. In addition to her teaching experience, she has worked in product development for Pillsbury and Ocean Spray. "How Baking Works" (now in a third edition; this review treats the second) is a textbook written for the culinary student in general and the baking-pastry student in particular. It is intended to be used in conjunction with classes in which experiments may be conducted and review questions discussed with classmates and an instructor. The home cook who seeks to do more than follow recipes will nonetheless be richly rewarded by slowly, carefully and even meditatively reading this book. There is an industrial bias which must be filtered by the home baker. Fortunately, this is not difficult to overcome.

[Paula Quinene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great baking comes down to science. I have used this book many times to improve a recipe. It's a must-have even for the home baker.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating !

[Margot Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this for use in my Montessori classroom. Lots of students like to bake . . . what about the science behind it. Great resource!

[Dina_s · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must readfor any serious baker/breadmaker/pastry student.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference

[Eric Hertenstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is specifically a clunkily written and gluten-biased quasi-textbook for would-be bakery professionals. Which makes me sound like some sort of gluten-hater. I'm not. I just like rice, and think it's worthy of a little baking talk, much the same with corn. Rice gets 3 lines in this book. This book sings the glory of chemical additives to ease the mass production of bread. I guess it was kind of interesting, from a sociological standpoint.

[February Four · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I bought this book, I knew it was a textbook, but I'd hoped for more information than what I found in this book. They do cover each factor/ingredient, but they give pretty little, considering this is supposed to be a textbook. It's a decent book for a hands-on/laboratory class, but I was hoping for more theory and a bit more expansion. Still keeping the book... I guess. (Haven't quite made up my mind.)

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets into some really nitty gritty on how baking works (per the title!). Sometimes it's a bit TOO granular, but helpful nonetheless. It would be better if you could actually get the answers to the study questions (the teacher's guide is outrageously expensive) and many of the tests require batches of batter that aren't practical for a home person. Still, I think this book would be invaluable to anyone who hasn't been to pastry school and wants to understand the process.

[Renee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter of this book is one of which I enjoy reading. I have tried to read this one repeatedly but it makes me feel like taking a nap every time! I do not require a book to be very entertaining but this one is boring!

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some great information but it's basically a textbook, with review questions and topics at the end of each chapter, I returned it and got another title that is more in line with what I am looking to learn about, hope to finish and review that soon.

[Flea · Rating 5 out of 5]

geek out with this one!

[Natalya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed and yet not confusing. Major Complaint would be that there are no answers to the review questions. Enjoyed it though

[Robert Dircks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super geeky science book on baking - good reference when geeking out or needing to understand something

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and enlightening. Dry though, since it's a textbook. I only wish I had gotten the teacher's edition!

[John Caron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book for understanding the science of baking.