Guides

Every guide has to state the question it answers. A guide that cannot name one is an article, and articles are how a reference site fills up with prose nobody was looking for.

• Why grams and cups do not convert cleanly

  How many grams is a cup of flour, and why does every source give a different answer?

  beginner

• Why gluten-free flour comes as a blend

  What is actually in a bag of gluten-free flour, and why does the same recipe behave differently with different bags?

  intermediate

• Are oats gluten-free?

  Are oats gluten-free, and what does the label on a bag of oats actually tell me?

  beginner

• How to store baked things, and why the rules differ

  How should each kind of baked thing be stored, and why does the advice contradict itself between products?

  beginner

• Understanding baker’s percentage

  What is baker’s percentage, and why does every professional formula use it?

  beginner

• How to diagnose a bake that went wrong

  Something went wrong. How do I work out what, without guessing?

  beginner

• How to think about substituting an ingredient

  I do not have an ingredient. How do I work out what will actually work instead?

  intermediate

• Why shop-bought bread lasts longer than homemade

  A supermarket loaf is still soft after five days and mine is hard by tomorrow. What is actually different?

  beginner

• The pastry families, and what actually separates them

  Shortcrust, puff, flaky, choux, filo, hot-water — what actually makes them different from each other?

  beginner

• Oven spring — what it is and what causes it

  My loaf either leaps in the oven or barely moves. What is happening in those first few minutes, and what decides it?

  intermediate

• What freezes well, and what freezing actually does

  Which things survive the freezer, which do not, and why does frozen bread taste fresher than bread from the bread bin?

  beginner

• The flours, and what actually separates them

  Plain, strong, self-raising, cake, wholemeal, 00, rye — what do the names mean and which should I actually use?

  beginner

• The sugars, and when the difference matters

  Caster, granulated, icing, brown, muscovado, demerara, golden syrup, treacle — when does the choice actually change the bake?

  beginner

• Storing bread, and the trade-off you cannot avoid

  Bread bin, bag, fridge or freezer — and why does everything I try make one thing better and another worse?

  beginner

• The bread families, and what actually separates them

  Sourdough, white, wholemeal, rye, brioche, focaccia, flatbread — is there a way to organise these that actually predicts how they behave?

  beginner

• The cake families, sorted by how the air gets in

  Sponge, pound, chiffon, angel food, oil cakes, cheesecake — is there an organising principle, or is it just a list?

  beginner

• Biscuits and cookies, sorted by how the dough is handled

  Drop, rolled, piped, sliced, pressed — and is a biscuit the same thing as a cookie?

  beginner

• What happens when you reduce the sugar

  If I cut the sugar by a third, what actually changes besides how sweet it is?

  intermediate

• Choosing a fat, and substituting one honestly

  Which fat should I use, and what actually happens if I swap one for another?

  intermediate

• Reading a crumb: dense, tight, open, gummy and everything between

  My crumb is wrong — but which kind of wrong, and does it point at fermentation, structure, shaping or the bake?

  intermediate

• Substituting one flour for another, honestly

  I have the wrong flour. What actually changes if I use what I have, and when does it stop working?

  intermediate

• Icing, frosting, glaze, fondant: what the words mean

  Icing, frosting, buttercream, royal icing, fondant, glaze — are these different things or different words?

  beginner

• Reheating: what it can undo, and what it cannot

  Reheating stale bread makes it better for a while. What is actually happening, and why does it not last?

  beginner

• Chewy, crisp or cakey: what actually decides a cookie’s texture

  Chewy, crisp or cakey — what is actually different between them, and which lever changes which?

  intermediate

• What flavourings actually do, beyond tasting of themselves

  Vanilla, zest, spice, salt — do these do anything a bake would miss if they were left out?

  beginner