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Baking is a way ofcooking food, and also a skill. Baking generally uses anoven, but it can also be done in hotashes, or hotstones.
Baking is used for makingbread,cakes,pastries,pies,tarts,cookies, and other sweet things. These foods, when made by baking, are called "bakedgoods". Baked goods are sold at abakery. A person who makes baked goods as ajob is called abaker.
It is also used for makingbaked potatoes, bakedapples, bakedbeans, somecasseroles andpasta dishes such aslasagna, and various other foods, such as thepretzel. None of these are called baked goods.
Flour,water,milk,brown sugar, andwhite sugar are common ingredients in baked goods. So areleavening agents, which producegas that becomes trapped in thedough. This makes the dough rise. Common leavening agents include baker'syeast,baking soda, orbaking powder.
Shortening is also needed. It makes doughs more easily workable, and the bread that comes out in the end is more soft and tender. Shortening includesfats and/oroils. Additionally,egg whites are used to help create a light,airytexture.[1]
These are all mixed together to create dough orbatter, which is then put into a pan or a cooking sheet and baked.
The first baking happened inancient history, whenhumans took wildgrassgrains and soaked them inwater. They mixed everything together and mashed it. After that, this mixture was poured onto a flat, hot rock, androasted on hotembers. This new way of making bread was much easier than the older ways, because bread could be made any time there wasfire.
By around 2500BCancient Egyptians hadbread. They may have learned how to make it from theBabylonians.
Around 400 BC,ancient Greeks began to make tarts with patterns andhoney. Dispyrus, another type of baked good, was also made by the Greeks around that time. It was popular. Dispyrus was adonut-like bread made fromflour and honey and shaped in a ring. Soaked inwine, it was eaten when hot. The firstproof of stone ovens was in Italy, where they madepizza andpasta.
Baking was very popular in theRoman Empire.[2] In about 300 B.C., the pastry cook became a special job for Romans (called thepastillarium). Romans lovedpastries, which were often baked for large parties.
Baking became so popular during the Roman Empire that anyone who could think of a new kind of pastry was given anaward. Around 1 AD there were more than 300 pastrychefs in Rome.[3]
Because of Rome, the art of baking eventually became known inEurope. It later spread to the eastern parts ofAsia.
Bakers sometimes baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets. InLondon,chefs sold their baked goods fromhandcarts. InParis, the firstcafé of baked goods opened.
Baking became more popular. Cakes can be actually mixed in just a few minutes, with only a small bit of skill needed, and it can be lifted fresh from the oven in less than 30 minutes.[2] A basicloaf of bread may take slightly longer time, but it does not demand a lot of time from the cook.[2]
