Bakery products are treats made from flour and baked until cooked. Put simply, they are Western-style sweets that go through a baking process. We know many different baked goods, but do you know which category each one belongs to?
The Main Types of Bakery Products
1. Bread
Bread is made from wheat flour mixed with water and yeast or baking powder, with other ingredients added to vary the colour, flavour and aroma depending on the type. There are many types of bread, such as French bread, sandwich bread and sweet bread. Bread can be eaten straight away but is usually eaten with butter, peanut butter, jam, jelly, marmalade or honey, or made into sandwiches that can be baked or toasted and served hot or cold. Bread should be kept in a bread box to stay fresh, because it can go mouldy easily in cool temperatures.
2. Cake
Most people enjoy cake as a snack. Cakes come in many styles, decorations and colours and can be created however you like. They fall into three groups:
- Sponge cake: made from three main ingredients, eggs, sugar and flour. It rises from whisked eggs and trapped air, for example khanom khai (Thai egg cakes), roll cakes and butter sponge cakes.
- Batter cake: contains an additional fat that makes the cake moister. There are several mixing methods: the creaming method, the two-stage method, the blending method, the one-stage method and the butter sponge method.
- Chiffon cake: adapted from the first two types by separating the yolks and whites. It is light, fluffy and soft, but has a shorter shelf life.
3. Shortdough, Cookies, Shortcrust Pies and Tarts
This group shares a similar dough that is crumbly and crisp.
- Shortdough: mostly used together with other bakes, for example as a base layer for cakes.
- Cookies fall into three main groups:
- Piped cookies: light and airy, relying on creamed butter and sugar, such as butter cookies and coffee cookies.
- Refrigerator (icebox) cookies: crisp and firm, often with nuts or dried fruit, such as nut cookies and fruit cookies.
- Drop cookies: flat, crisp and sweet, such as cheese cookies and almond cookies.
- Shortcrust pies and tarts: can be open or closed. Pies are usually large, while tarts are small with sweet fillings.
4. Puff Pastry
A layered pastry created by layers of butter sandwiched between layers of dough. When baked at high temperatures, steam pressure makes the pastry puff up. The key to puff pastry is pastry margarine, which has a special property called plasticity that lets it be rolled into thin sheets.
Besides these four main types, other bakery products include Danish pastries, croissants, choux pastry, éclairs, custard cream and various fillings.
