Article index
All 125 articles on Bakemens, by section.
Bread
Section page →- Dough temperature is the dial most home bakers never touchAug 11, 2026
- What hydration actually changes in a dough, from 60 to 85 per centAug 9, 2026
- Bulk fermentation ends when the dough says so, not when the timer doesAug 5, 2026
- The windowpane test measures one thing, and it can still mislead youJul 31, 2026
- Shaping a loaf is about surface tension and very little elseJul 29, 2026
- Sixteen hours at 4C: what a cold retard does to a loafJul 25, 2026
- Steam in the first ten minutes decides how high the loaf can goJul 23, 2026
- Scoring a loaf is a controlled failure, and the angle does the workJul 19, 2026
- A sourdough starter is a stable ecosystem, not a temperamental petJul 16, 2026
- Two per cent salt: why bread recipes keep landing on the same numberJul 12, 2026
- Enriched dough behaves differently because fat gets between the strandsJul 9, 2026
- Bake bread to an internal temperature, not to a shade of brownJul 6, 2026
- Poolish, biga and sponge do three different things to the same flourJul 3, 2026
- Autolyse does with time what kneading does with forceDec 1, 2025
- Stretch and fold builds strength during the rest, not during the pullNov 25, 2025
- Rye holds a loaf together with pentosans, not with glutenNov 23, 2025
- Bran is a blade, which is why wholemeal loaves sit lowerNov 18, 2025
- The poke test reads gas pressure, and every dough answers differentlyNov 16, 2025
- Less yeast and more time is the cheapest flavour upgrade in breadNov 13, 2025
- Tangzhong gelatinises starch on purpose so the crumb can hold more waterNov 8, 2025
- Open crumb is a structure you build, not a hydration number you copyNov 5, 2025
Cakes & Sponges
Section page →- Creaming butter and sugar is aeration, and the sugar crystals do the cuttingJun 27, 2026
- Reverse creaming gives a tighter crumb, and here is why it worksJun 24, 2026
- A genoise has no baking powder, so what is lifting itJun 22, 2026
- Curdled cake batter is a broken emulsion and it costs you volumeJun 18, 2026
- Cake flour at 8 per cent protein versus plain at 11: what changesJun 16, 2026
- Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda are not interchangeableJun 10, 2026
- Sugar in a cake is structure and moisture before it is sweetnessJun 8, 2026
- Egg white foam is doing all the lifting in a chiffon or angel cakeJun 4, 2026
- A loaf cake cracks down the middle because it is supposed toJun 2, 2026
- Oil cakes stay moist in a way butter cakes cannot matchMay 29, 2026
- Folding is the technique that decides how much of your foam survivesMay 24, 2026
- The skewer test misses more than it catches on a rich cakeMay 22, 2026
- Why the oven door stays shut for the first two thirds of a bakeMay 18, 2026
- The all-in-one method works because the fat is soft and the flour is weakNov 3, 2025
- Acid in a cake batter is doing three jobs at onceOct 31, 2025
- Natural and alkalised cocoa are not the same ingredientOct 27, 2025
- A rolled sponge cracks because the starch set before you rolled itOct 23, 2025
- A baked cheesecake is a custard in a tin, and it cracks for custard reasonsOct 19, 2025
- Soaking syrups do not add moisture so much as slow its exitOct 15, 2025
- A heavy fruit cake needs a slow oven and a lined tin for the same reasonOct 14, 2025
- Melted butter is a third path, and it lifts nothing on its ownOct 9, 2025
Pastry
Section page →- Lamination lives in a temperature window about three degrees wideMay 16, 2026
- Rough puff, full puff and blitz pastry: what you trade for the timeMay 12, 2026
- Shortcrust is rubbed in, not creamed, and that is the whole pointMay 9, 2026
- Blind baking is structural, and the beans are doing real workMay 5, 2026
- Choux is cooked twice and the first cook is the one people rushMay 3, 2026
- Croissant butter sits near 25 per cent of the dough, and there is a reasonApr 27, 2026
- Resting pastry is hydration and relaxation, not a superstitionApr 25, 2026
- Hot water crust does the opposite of everything shortcrust wantsApr 22, 2026
- Filo gets its layers from stretching, and strudel from the same trickApr 17, 2026
- A soggy bottom is a heat transfer problem before it is a filling problemApr 15, 2026
- Six turns gives 729 layers, and the seventh makes things worseApr 12, 2026
- Docking, venting and giving the steam somewhere to goApr 7, 2026
- Sweet pastry is fragile because sugar and yolk are working against the flourApr 4, 2026
- Flaky and short are opposite textures built from the same three ingredientsOct 6, 2025
- Melting point is the property that decides which fat suits which pastryOct 3, 2025
- The liquid in pastry is a compromise you make on purposeSep 30, 2025
- A laminated yeast dough is fermenting and layering at the same timeSep 27, 2025
- How much egg a choux paste takes is decided by the pan, not the recipeSep 22, 2025
- Thickening a fruit pie is a starch problem with three different answersSep 18, 2025
- An egg wash is three different finishes depending on what you dilute it withSep 16, 2025
- Every dusting of flour changes the pastry you wrote downSep 12, 2025
Baking Science
Section page →- Gluten is two proteins and water is what introduces themApr 2, 2026
- Starch gelatinisation is what turns wet batter into crumbMar 28, 2026
- The Maillard reaction needs heat, protein and a surface that has driedMar 26, 2026
- Caramelisation and Maillard get confused, and they are not the sameMar 23, 2026
- Oven spring is gas expansion, and it stops when the crust setsMar 18, 2026
- Fermentation makes gas, but the flavour comes from the bacteriaMar 16, 2026
- Baker's percentages let you rescale, compare and diagnose any recipeMar 12, 2026
- Altitude changes every leavened recipe, and pressure is the reasonMar 8, 2026
- Egg proteins set between about 62 and 82C, and that governs everythingMar 4, 2026
- Fat tenderises because it interrupts, not because it lubricatesMar 2, 2026
- Why bread goes stale fastest in the fridgeFeb 26, 2026
- Amylase, falling number and why bakers add malt to flourFeb 24, 2026
- Water hardness, chlorine and pH: what your tap does to doughFeb 18, 2026
- Invert sugars hold onto water, which is why honey cakes stay softSep 10, 2025
- Egg yolk is an emulsifier, and that is most of what it does in a batterSep 6, 2025
- Every rise is air, steam or carbon dioxide, and most bakes use all threeSep 3, 2025
- Conduction, convection and radiation each bake a different part of the loafAug 31, 2025
- Water activity, not moisture, decides how long a bake keepsAug 25, 2025
- Freezing dough and batter damages different things in eachAug 24, 2025
- Aromatics are volatile, so the oven takes back part of what you addedAug 19, 2025
- Milk does four things in a dough that plain water cannotAug 15, 2025
Tins & Tools
Section page →- A set of one gram scales is the cheapest upgrade in the kitchenFeb 15, 2026
- Your oven dial is a suggestion and a cheap thermometer proves itFeb 12, 2026
- Fan or conventional: the twenty degree rule and when it misleadsFeb 8, 2026
- A baking steel or stone is thermal mass, and that is the whole benefitFeb 6, 2026
- Tin material and colour change the bake more than the recipe admitsFeb 2, 2026
- Tin volume, not tin diameter, is what you scale a recipe byJan 31, 2026
- Stand mixer, hand mixer or hands: what each is actually good atJan 26, 2026
- A probe thermometer removes the biggest guess in bakingJan 24, 2026
- Parchment, silicone mats and greasing: which surface for which bakeJan 19, 2026
- A lidded cast iron pot is the best steam device most kitchens already ownJan 17, 2026
- Controlling dough temperature without buying a proving cabinetJan 13, 2026
- The five small tools that change bread more than any applianceJan 8, 2026
- A banneton shapes nothing, it just holds a shape while gravity arguesAug 13, 2025
- Find your oven's hot corner before you blame the recipeAug 8, 2025
- Tapered, straight and heavy rolling pins are three different toolsAug 6, 2025
- A warped thin tray is why one side of the batch browns firstAug 4, 2025
- Piping is a temperature problem before it is a technique problemJul 30, 2025
- A lame, a razor and a kitchen knife cut dough differently because of dragJul 27, 2025
- A straight-sided tub turns fermentation into something you can measureJul 22, 2025
- A food processor makes better shortcrust and worse breadJul 20, 2025
- Springform, loose-bottomed and bundt tins each fail in their own wayJul 16, 2025
When It Goes Wrong
Section page →- A sunken middle is usually underbaking, whatever the internet tells youJan 7, 2026
- Dense bread crumb has five causes and the crumb tells you whichJan 3, 2026
- Butter pooling under your croissants means the layers broke, and you can find whereDec 29, 2025
- That dense wet layer at the bottom of your cake has a specific causeDec 28, 2025
- Tunnels and holes in a muffin come from mixing, not from the ovenDec 23, 2025
- Your loaf burst at the side because the crust set before it finished risingDec 19, 2025
- Shortcrust that shrinks down the tin is telling you about glutenDec 18, 2025
- A sharp alcoholic smell means the dough went past its useful pointDec 12, 2025
- Cookies that spread into one sheet: fat, sugar, flour or heatDec 10, 2025
- A flat, wide sourdough has lost structure at one of three pointsDec 7, 2025
- A gummy crumb after cooling means the loaf was never actually finishedDec 3, 2025
- A loaf that will not brown has run out of sugarJul 12, 2025
- A dry cake is usually overbaked by minutes, not by degreesJul 11, 2025
- A tough, rubbery cake means gluten did work it should not haveJul 6, 2025
- Weeping and beading are two different meringue failuresJul 2, 2025
- Split buttercream is a temperature problem you can fix in the bowlJul 1, 2025
- A crust like armour comes from the last third of the bakeJun 25, 2025
- A cave under the crust means the shaping trapped a bubbleJun 23, 2025
- A starter that has stopped rising is cold, hungry or too acidicJun 20, 2025
- Cookies that come out cakey instead of chewy have too much structureJun 16, 2025