Glossary

A period in which flour and water are mixed and left to stand before the salt and leaven are incorporated, allowing full hydration and some gluten development without mechanical work.

Often used loosely to mean any rest during mixing. In its original sense the salt and leaven are specifically held back.

A protein found in oats, described by Coeliac UK as similar to gluten. It is why 'are oats gluten-free’ has a second answer beyond the contamination question: oats can be free of wheat, barley and rye and still contain avenin.

Most people with coeliac disease tolerate gluten-free oats without problems; a very small number remain sensitive. That is clinical rather than culinary ground, and BakeHQ states the position without offering a figure or an opinion on individual suitability.

The interior of a baked product as distinct from its crust, described by the size, shape and regularity of its gas cells. An 'open’ crumb has large irregular cells; a 'close’ or 'tight’ crumb has small even ones.

Neither is better in the abstract. An open crumb suits a hearth loaf and makes a poor sandwich; a close crumb is the correct target for a tin loaf.

The part of a culture taken out and set aside before fresh flour and water are added. It exists because feeding without removing anything doubles the culture at every feed, and because the removed portion carries the accumulated acid that would otherwise keep building.

sourdough discard (INTERNATIONAL)

Not a waste product in the sense of being spoiled — it is an over-acidified, under-fed portion of the same culture. Its baking behaviour differs from active starter: little leavening power remains, but the acidity and enzyme activity do, which is why it is used where sourness and tenderising are wanted and the lift comes from elsewhere.

Pricking a pastry base with a fork or a docking tool before baking, so that steam forming underneath escapes rather than lifting the base into a dome.

Not a substitute for weights during blind baking — docking manages steam, weights manage the pastry’s own movement.

A bread dough containing meaningful quantities of fat, sugar, egg or dairy, as distinct from a lean dough of flour, water, salt and leaven alone.

Enrichment slows fermentation and softens the crumb. There is no threshold at which a dough officially becomes enriched; the term describes a direction rather than a category.

The layer of dark liquid — grey, brown or nearly black — that separates on top of a sourdough starter that has gone too long without feeding. It is a normal product of fermentation and not a sign of spoilage.

starter liquid (INTERNATIONAL)

Routinely mistaken for mould or for evidence that a starter has died, and it is neither. Hooch is flat and liquid; mould is raised, textured and usually coloured. A starter with hooch needs feeding, not discarding. It can be stirred back in for a more sour result or poured off for a milder one.

The total water in a dough expressed as a percentage of the total flour weight, following baker’s percentage. A dough with 700 g of water to 1,000 g of flour is at 70 per cent hydration.

Water contained in a preferment or starter counts toward the total. Formulas that omit it understate their real hydration, which is a common source of confusion.

Any substance that disperses in water and raises its viscosity, usually a polysaccharide of high molecular weight. In baking the useful consequence is gas retention: a viscous enough continuous phase stops bubbles rising, merging and escaping before the bake sets.

gum (INTERNATIONAL)

Often used loosely as a synonym for 'gum', though psyllium and the methylcellulose derivatives are hydrocolloids and are not gums. The category matters more than the names, because what they share — viscosity building — is the function, while how they do it differs enough that they are not interchangeable.

A quantity of sourdough culture built up, usually from a smaller maintained starter, specifically for a particular bake. Distinguished from the starter itself, which is maintained continuously.

leaven (UK)

Used interchangeably with 'starter’ in much writing. The distinction is useful because the flour and water in a levain must be counted in the formula’s totals.

In most British and American usage a macaroon is a dense coconut confection — craggy, chewy, frequently dipped in chocolate. In several European traditions the same word names an almond biscuit that is the historical ancestor of the macaron and still has no foot, no filling and no sandwich.

macaroons (INTERNATIONAL)

It is also, very commonly, typed when MACARON is meant — the smooth almond-meringue shell with a ruffled foot, sandwiched around a filling. BakeHQ does not treat the words as variants of one another: if you meant the smooth coloured sandwich shells, the macaron record is the one you want, and if you meant the coconut ones, BakeHQ does not currently cover them.

The burst of expansion in the first minutes of baking, as gases in the dough expand with heat, dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of solution, and water begins to vaporise — before the crust sets and fixes the shape.

Poor oven spring is a symptom rather than a fault: it usually reports overproofing, weak gluten development or insufficient heat at the base.

The fermentation period after a dough has been shaped and before it is baked. Distinct from bulk fermentation, which happens before dividing and shaping.

prove (UK)final fermentation (TRADE)

British usage prefers 'prove’ as the verb. 'Proofing’ is also used for the separate act of testing that yeast is alive, which is an unrelated meaning.

The gradual re-association of starch molecules into a more ordered arrangement after gelatinisation, causing a baked crumb to firm as it ages. The principal mechanism behind staling.

Frequently conflated with drying out. A loaf sealed so it loses no water still stales, which is the clearest evidence that the two are different processes.

Cutting the surface of a shaped dough immediately before baking, so that expansion during oven spring happens at a chosen point rather than tearing the crust wherever it is weakest.

slashing (TRADE)

Primarily functional rather than decorative, though it is both. An unscored hearth loaf usually bursts along a side seam.

As a verb, the action by which fat interrupts gluten strands to produce tenderness. As a noun, a solid fat — often vegetable-based — sold for that purpose.

The two senses cause genuine confusion between markets. 'Shortening’ as a named ingredient is far more common in American recipes than British ones.

Stretching a small piece of dough between the fingers until it is thin enough to pass light through. If it stretches translucent without tearing, the gluten network is well developed.

Unreliable on wholemeal doughs, where the gluten is under-hydrated because the bran has taken the water rather than because it was under-developed, and impractical on very wet doughs.