Baking

Baking is a way of cooking food, and also a skill. Baking generally uses an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or hot stones.

Baking is used for making bread, cakes, pastries, pies, tarts, cookies, and other sweet things. These foods, when made by baking, are called "baked goods". Baked goods are sold at a bakery. A person who makes baked goods as a job is called a baker.

It is also used for making baked potatoes, baked apples, baked beans, some casseroles and pasta dishes such as lasagna, and various other foods, such as the pretzel. None of these are called baked goods.

Flour, water, milk, brown sugar, and white sugar are common ingredients in baked goods. So are leavening agents, which produce gas that becomes trapped in the dough. This makes the dough rise. Common leavening agents include baker's yeast, baking soda, or baking powder.

Shortening is also needed. It makes doughs more easily workable, and the bread that comes out in the end is more soft and tender. Shortening includes fats and/or oils. Additionally, egg whites are used to help create a light, airy texture.^[1]

These are all mixed together to create dough or batter, which is then put into a pan or a cooking sheet and baked.

The first baking happened in ancient history, when humans took wild grass grains and soaked them in water. They mixed everything together and mashed it. After that, this mixture was poured onto a flat, hot rock, and roasted on hot embers. This new way of making bread was much easier than the older ways, because bread could be made any time there was fire.

By around 2500 BC ancient Egyptians had bread. They may have learned how to make it from the Babylonians.

Around 400 BC, ancient Greeks began to make tarts with patterns and honey. Dispyrus, another type of baked good, was also made by the Greeks around that time. It was popular. Dispyrus was a donut-like bread made from flour and honey and shaped in a ring. Soaked in wine, it was eaten when hot. The first proof of stone ovens was in Italy, where they made pizza and pasta.

Baking was very popular in the Roman Empire.^[2] In about 300 B.C., the pastry cook became a special job for Romans (called the pastillarium). Romans loved pastries, which were often baked for large parties.

Baking became so popular during the Roman Empire that anyone who could think of a new kind of pastry was given an award. Around 1 AD there were more than 300 pastry chefs in Rome.^[3]

Because of Rome, the art of baking eventually became known in Europe. It later spread to the eastern parts of Asia.

Bakers sometimes baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets. In London, chefs sold their baked goods from handcarts. In Paris, the first café of baked goods opened.

Baking became more popular. Cakes can be actually mixed in just a few minutes, with only a small bit of skill needed, and it can be lifted fresh from the oven in less than 30 minutes.^[2] A basic loaf of bread may take slightly longer time, but it does not demand a lot of time from the cook.^[2]