The Science of Baking

What exactly is baking? Some say it’s an art, others say that it’s science. I say, why not be both. Hello, my name is Kevin Kerper and I am a bread baker at the terrier bakery.

The process of baking bread from its play-dough like beginnings to its golden brown crust is an epic and fantastic journey. Formulas ask for exact amounts of ingredients such as 364 g of bleached flour; I discovered the hard way.  During my second week, I accidently used wheat flour to make a biga instead of bleached flour and I had to throw out the batch out. After getting the initial ingredients, the dough is mixed by adding in the ingredients into Herbert (Our colossal blender). This would seem to be an easy task but, in reality, this is quite complicated. For example, yeast and salt can’t touch when the dry ingredients are initially being mixed. I have been bellowed at many times for this error.

Special care is taken to stretch and fold dough. If you overwork the dough, it becomes too firm and when not worked enough, the dough has areas that taste like flour. Baking would theoretically be the easiest part, but there are always issues with this step. Things come out burned or undercooked because the ovens are finicky. Once the final product is made, my job is done and I go to my room and pass out in exhaust.