Baked Goods on a Spectrum

Being a home baker I have spent years trying to understand the process that results in a decent loaf of bread simply by combining and then baking four basic ingredients. It is clearly not as simple as one would think. My daughters have inherited my interest in baking and, because of that, I have spent some time trying to figure out the best way to teach them. I always, without fail, learn more about the subject myself when going through this process.

I like to start my teaching from a holistic perspective — what is the big picture? If I am making bread, how is that related to a biscuit or a scone? If I am making cookies, how is that related to Pate a Choux? It seemed clear to me that there is a spectrum of baked goods along at least three different lines: flour, eggs and fat, but I was unable to find any hint of that information on the internet. I think it is perhaps in part because professional bakers begin to intuit these relationships with experience; this knowledge is part of what makes them ‘professional’. The other part might be that no one has thought of these relationships from an educators point of view and so, they have never been published before. There is, of course, always the possibility that I was just unable to find some well-known resource.

During my search for this holistic relationship information, I finally discovered an excellent book entitled Ratio — The Simple Codes Behind The Craft Of Everyday Cooking ~ by Michael Ruhlman. It was definitely a step in the right direction. I was able to use his ratios and other ratios that I found randomly on the internet to produce my own graphic depiction of the relationships between baked goods.

Some of those resulting relationships were definitely a surprise to me.

To make the following graphic I equalized the ratios on six parts flour. This makes the amounts look large, but of course the ratios remain the same for each baked good. It was necessary to do so in order to compare apples to apples and construct the relationships. I also did not take liquid or sugar into account for purposes of the flow in the graph. I’m sure someone will object, but I found for purposes of comparison that they complicated rather than clarified. For custards, which do not contain any flour, I equalized on three eggs. This allowed for the relationship between Creme Anglaise and fritter batter to become clear.

I used graphviz to construct the diagram and can share the .dot file upon request. It is quite messy and un-commented at this point.

I am certainly open to revising, fixing and regenerating if you find an error or even wish to add some relationships. Drop me a note if you have comments or suggestions.

And so, without further ado…

Flow Diagram for Baked Goods

If you are a guitar player, please check out my other stories.

If you appreciated this guide please consider donating: