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Baking

Baking fundamentals: why baking is chemistry, not cooking

Professional bakers measure flour by weight because a single cup can vary by up to 20% depending on how it's scooped — and in baking, that swing is the difference between tender and tough. Where savory cooking forgives improvisation, baking is applied chemistry: each ingredient plays a structural role, and the ratios matter. Understand the roles and your results stop being a gamble.

By Josh Strauss, Mise Kitchen Team · Published

What each ingredient does

Flour provides structure through gluten — proteins that link into a network when hydrated and worked. Fat coats those proteins and shortens the gluten strands, which is why it makes things tender (hence "shortening"). Sugar sweetens but also tenderizes, retains moisture, and aids browning. Eggs bind, enrich, and add lift. Leaveners — baking soda, baking powder, yeast — create the gas that makes things rise.

The leavening logic

Baking soda needs an acid (buttermilk, brown sugar, cocoa) to react and releases gas immediately, so batters with it should go in the oven promptly. Baking powder contains its own acid and often a second slow-acting one, so it is more forgiving. Yeast is a living organism that ferments slowly for flavor and rise. Using the wrong one — or too much — gives you a metallic taste or a collapse.

Practical habits

Weigh your flour, bring cold ingredients to room temperature when a recipe asks, don't overmix once flour is added (extra gluten means toughness), and trust the recipe's ratios. Baking rewards precision the way a good sear rewards patience — different skills, same payoff in consistency.