ABSTRACT
The term baking applies not only to the production of bread but also to all food products in which flour is the basic material and to which heat is applied directly by radiation from the walls or top and bottom of an oven or heating appliance. More particularly, baking includes the production of items such as bread, cake, pastry, biscuits, cracker, cookies, and pies where flour is the essential and principle ingredient for the base product; baking also includes the toppings, frostings, fillings, etc. that finish the baked product. Baking as practiced by the homemaker is an art with an occasional failure, whereas baking as practiced by the professional baker is an engineering science in which the volumes involved make uniformity an absolute necessity and failures are disastrous. Survival of the commercial baker requires quality production at the lowest costs, which requires uniform, consistent performance from all of the ingredients employed.
