Properties: Baking ingredients
Baking ingredients have decisively shaped baking and the associated café and bakery culture. The diversity of cakes and pies that has emerged was only developed and transformed through knowledge and ingenuity regarding baking ingredients. Individual ingredients, such as yeast, were already known to the ancient Greeks, as well as sourdough cultures. Yeast was the first dough leavening agent, long before there were baking powders like baking soda.
Long before food coloring existed, historically dyeing spices, such as saffron, were used to color the dough. In addition to additives for baking, another large category is the use of kitchen aids, from dough mixers, rolling aids, and cutters.
The spice rack can be divided into herbs, spices, spice mixes, and aromas. Known spice mixes include bread spice, gingerbread spice, and speculaas spice. Anise, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, saffron, and tonka bean are available individually and as mixtures.
For decorating cakes and pies, cake toppers such as various figures made of sugar, whipped cream, fondant, marzipan, or chocolate can be used. The figures range from flowers, branches, and leaves to football boots and animals.
Origin: Baking ingredients
The art of baking is as old as the history of flour and this dates back approximately 6,000 years. The simplest and most original form of baking was bread baking. In recent years, the variety of baking ingredients has diversified. The consumer no longer wants just simple basic ingredients but also to decorate and refine. The trend is towards creative baking and ready-to-use mixtures.
Uses: Baking ingredients
Baking ingredients can be used in various ways. There are no limits to the combinations of ingredients. For allergy sufferers and intolerances, there are numerous substitute substances available in trade to replace baking ingredients with alternatives. Baking without lactose or eggs is possible. An egg substitute made from lupins is available. Especially for sugar, there are diverse alternatives such as stevia, birch sugar, agave syrup, maple syrup, coconut blossom sugar, and xylitol.
If baking powder needs to be replaced, soda can be used. If alcohol needs to be substituted, there are various aromas available, such as rum aroma.
For vegans, the following baking ingredients can be replaced: lupins instead of chicken eggs, vegan chocolate and vegetable oils instead of butter. Rice milk, soy milk, or oat milk instead of cow's milk.
Storage: Baking ingredients
Baking ingredients must be stored mainly dry. Opened packages should be closed well again.
Health: Baking ingredients
Healthy alternative baking ingredients are also offered. Instead of sugar, rice syrup, agave nectar, coconut sugar, or xylitol can be used for baking. Alternatives to white flour include almond flour or coconut flour.
Nutrition: Baking ingredients
Season
Baking ingredients are available all year round, however, there are some ingredients only available at certain times of the year, e.g. Christmas or Easter. However, especially during the Christmas season a lot is baked. 60% of the annual sales of baking ingredients are achieved in the fourth quarter.
During the Christmas season products with baked apples, sultanas, gingerbread, nuts (almonds, hazelnuts), vanilla and spices such as cinnamon are particularly popular.
The majority of today's known and commonly used baking ingredients have been known for over 100 years, in some cases up to 150 years.
You can categorize baking products based on various properties. These include leavening agents such as baking powder, yeast (fresh yeast, dried yeast), and bicarbonate of soda. The flavorings group includes natural flavors like grated orange peel, lemon zest, orange essence, lemon essence, rum flavoring, bitter almond flavoring, lemon flavoring, butter flavoring, vanilla extract, Bourbon vanilla, and vanilla flavor.
Another category is fillings, such as nuts, hazelnuts, almonds, poppy seeds, pistachios, coconut flakes, walnuts, and other types of nuts. The consistency matters. Nuts are available in various grinding and cutting stages. Ground nuts, chopped nuts, sliced nuts, grated nuts, planed nuts, nuts in strips, chopped and roasted, ground and chopped. Other fillings include nut nougat, poppy seed filling, rum raisins, and chopped chocolate.
Other fillings are all forms and types of dried fruits.
Whether it's a dough filling or fruit - these must be thickened with a gelling or binding agent. This includes gelatin as sheets, ground gelatin, or vegetarian alternatives such as agar-agar. To bind fruits, gelling agents help, clear cake glaze or flavored, red or strawberry-flavored. To thicken and set cream, whipped cream stiffener is used.
What is a dough without filling and topping? Examples include puddings or pudding creams with vanilla or chocolate flavor, cake creams in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, or cheese-cream flavors, and marzipan.