Baking Basics
Chemical and biological leavening are not two routes to one rise
· 4 min read
Tomas Bergqvist
Editor, The Last Bite
Tomas writes the explanatory pieces on baking basics, chocolate & sugar, frozen and thinks most subjects are more interesting once you know how they work.
17 articles
Baking Basics
Sugar is a structural ingredient and reducing it changes the bake
· 4 min read
Pastry
Blind baking exists because filling and pastry cook at different rates
· 4 min read
Chocolate & Sugar
Most of chocolate flavour is created before anyone makes chocolate
· 4 min read
Chocolate & Sugar
Fondant is sugar crystallised on purpose and kept microscopically small
· 4 min read
Frozen
Milk proteins do work in a frozen dessert that fat usually gets credit for
· 3 min read
Sweet History
Vanilla stayed rare until somebody solved a pollination problem
· 3 min read
Sweet History
The croissant is younger than its origin story suggests
· 3 min read
Chocolate & Sugar
Conching is a grinding problem and a ventilation problem at the same time
· 4 min read
Chocolate & Sugar
Chocolate feels cool in the mouth because melting costs energy
· 3 min read
Frozen
Ice cream gets worse in the freezer and temperature swings are why
· 3 min read
Pastry
The percentage on a carton of cream decides what it can be asked to do
· 4 min read
Sweet History
Coffee and tea created the demand for something to eat alongside them
· 4 min read
Baking Basics
A cookie spreads because its fat melts before anything sets
· 4 min read
Frozen
A baked Alaska survives the oven because foam conducts heat badly
· 4 min read
Frozen
A ripple or a chunk has to be reformulated before it goes in
· 4 min read
Pastry
An assembled dessert changes because water moves between its layers
· 4 min read