Baking Ingredients Tips

Baking is well known to everyone, but the process of making baking ingredients is still a mystery to people. In the following article, we will introduce the process of making baking ingredients.

High-gluten Flour for Baking Ingredients

Wheat flour with a protein content of over 12.5% is one of the main ingredients for making bread. It is commonly used in Western pastries such as sponge cakes and cream puffs. In terms of cakes, it is only used in high component fruitcakes.

Medium-gluten Flour for Baking Ingredients

Wheat flour with a protein content between 9-12% is mostly used in Chinese-style snacks such as steamed buns, dumplings, and some Western pastries, such as egg tarts and pie crusts.

Low-gluten Flour for Baking Ingredients

Wheat flour with a protein content between 7-9% is one of the main ingredients for making cakes. It is also a key ingredient in mixed pastry Western pastries.

Cake Flour for Baking Ingredients

Low-gluten flour undergoes chlorine treatment, which reduces the acidity of the original low-gluten flour. This makes it easier to structure cakes.

Whole Wheat Flour for Baking Ingredients

Wheat flour includes the outer bran layer, which maintains the same proportion of endosperm and bran as the original wheat grain. It is used to make whole wheat bread and small Western pastries.

Wheat Germ for Baking Ingredients

The germ part of wheat is separated from the main body during the flour milling process. This is used to make nutrient-rich wheat germ bread, which is an important nutritional food for children and the elderly.

Bran for Baking Ingredients

The bran is the outermost layer of wheat, mostly used as animal feed. However, it can be mixed with high-gluten flour to make high-fiber bran bread.

Rye Flour for Baking Ingredients

Rye flour is made from ground rye without gluten. It is usually mixed with high-gluten wheat flour.

Oats for Baking Ingredients

Oats, commonly known as oatmeal, are used to make mixed grain bread and small Western pastries.

Cornmeal for Baking Ingredients

Small and fine, cornmeal is made by grinding maize, used to make cornmeal bread and mixed grain bread. When making French bread on a large scale, it can also be scattered on the flour tray to prevent the dough from sticking.

Corn Starch for Baking Ingredients

Also known as corn flour, it is the starch of corn, which swells and gelatinizes when heated in water at 65°C. It is mainly used in pie filling and cream pudding filling. It can also be added to a cake formula to reduce the flour's glutinosity.

Shortening for Baking Ingredients

Commonly known as "chemical lard" or hydrogenated oil, shortening is a type of oil that is processed by an oil factory, deodorized and discolored, and then hydrogenated to become a solid, white fat. It is mostly used in pastry making or as a substitute for lard.

Butter for Baking Ingredients

There are two types of butter containing water and not containing water, which are the same as shortening. However, the refining process is more delicate, making the oil better and whiter in texture. Butter containing water is mostly used in decorating cakes, while butter without water is mostly used in cream cakes, cream decoration, and other high-end Western pastries.