Cooking method

Baking

Baking is oven cooking where the food arrives as a liquid or a dough and leaves as a solid. Because the structure is being built during the cook rather than merely heated, small changes in ratio, temperature and mixing show up in the result — which is why baking is less forgiving than the rest of cooking and not because bakers are fussier.

Why baking is different from roasting

In roasting, the food already has its structure and the oven is heating it and browning the surface. In baking, the structure does not exist yet: gluten networks form and set, egg proteins coagulate, starch gelatinises, gases expand and are then trapped, and water evaporates. All of those happen in a specific order at specific temperatures, and the finished thing is the record of whether they happened in the right order.

That is why the ratios matter. Sugar is not only sweetness — it holds water and tenderises. Flour is not only bulk — it is the protein network. Fat is not only richness — it shortens, aerates and carries flavour. Change one and you change several properties at once, which is why "I reduced the sugar" so often produces a cake that is dry and tough rather than one that is simply less sweet.

The habits that fix most failures

• Weigh everything. A cup of flour varies by twenty per cent depending on how it was filled, which is enough to ruin a cake. This is the single largest source of baking disappointment.
• Get an oven thermometer. Most domestic ovens are out by ten to twenty degrees, and they are hotter at the back.
• Preheat properly, and for longer than the light suggests — the light goes off when the air is up to temperature and the oven walls are not.
• Bring ingredients to room temperature when the recipe says so. Cold butter will not cream and cold eggs curdle a creamed mixture.
• Stop mixing when the flour is just combined. Every extra turn builds gluten, and gluten in a cake is toughness.
• Use the tin the recipe specifies, or adjust the time. A larger tin gives a shallower bake, which cooks much faster.
• Do not open the door early. A rush of cold air during the rise collapses a cake or a soufflé.

Oven position and what it changes

Middle shelf

The default, and the most even. Almost everything goes here.

Top third

More radiant heat from above. Browns tops faster — good for gratins and for finishing, bad for a cake that will dome and crack.

Bottom third

More conducted heat from below. Good for pastry bases and pizza, which need the bottom set before the top browns.

Fan

Even heat throughout, so you can use several shelves. It also dries surfaces faster, which is good for pastry and hard on delicate sponges.

A preheated stone or heavy tray

A blast of conducted heat into the base. This is what makes home pizza and bread work.

Rotating halfway

Worth doing in a conventional oven, which is rarely even front to back.

Steam, and why bread is different

Most baking wants a dry oven. Bread wants a wet one, for the first ten to fifteen minutes only.

When a loaf goes into a hot oven the gas inside it expands rapidly and the loaf rises — the oven spring. If the crust sets too early, that expansion is stopped and the loaf stays small and tears at the weak points. Steam keeps the surface moist and flexible for long enough for the spring to finish, and it also helps produce a glossy, well-coloured crust.

Then the steam has to go. A crust cannot crisp in a humid oven, so the second half of the bake is dry — which is exactly why baking bread in a covered heavy pot works so well: the lid traps the loaf's own steam for the first stretch, and taking it off for the second gives a dry, crisping environment.

Common questions