Identify These Baking Techniques and Prove Your Skill as a Baker

By: Isadora Teich
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Identify These Baking Techniques and Prove Your Skill as a Baker
Image: Todor Tsvetkov/E+/GettyImages

About This Quiz

Everyone loves delicious pies, towering cakes and tasty tarts, but not everyone has the know-how to make them perfectly. While some people can make a cake taller than a child with ease, other people struggle to make the cakes that come from a box. Baking can be a tricky thing to master, but those who love it know there's nothing quite like presenting a pie or biscuits you made with love and watching everyone enjoy them.  

However, it takes a lot more than love to make a perfect dessert. From rolling pie crust to whipping up some frosting, there are many techniques that go into making truly tantalizing baked treats. Not every bake is a piece of cake to make, even if it might literally be a piece of cake. Some people even take desserts to the next level with the fanciest and most complex decorations. These can truly make a dessert look as beautiful and stunning as it tastes. 

If you are a baking expert who knows their stuff when it comes to making cookies, croissants and more, put your knowledge to the test and prove your skill with this quiz! It's about to get hot in the kitchen - can you take the heat? 

Which technique involves blending or beating something with a tool to incorporate air into it?
Blending
Cooling
Whisking
You whisk ingredients using a whisk. This can blend and beat ingredients, as well as incorporate air into them.
Lamination

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What technique involves heating something solid until it becomes liquid?
Boiling
Melting
Melting is a common technique of both cooking and baking. Often in baking you melt butter, sugar or chocolate.
Skinning
Whipping

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Cooking sugar until it turns brown is known as what?
Chopping
Scoring
Caramelizing
When sugar is heated to high temperatures, it breaks down and turns brown. This is known as caramelizing and is commonly applied to onions which have been cooked until their natural sugars have broken down under heat. Careful - there's a fine line between caramelizing and burning!
The all In one method

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When you raise the temperature of something gradually, you __________ it.
Caramelize
Whisk
Temper
When you temper something, you raise its temperature gradually. This is useful for eggs and chocolate.
Blind bake

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Soaking something in a flavored liquid to absorb its flavors is known as what?
Lamination
Infusion
When you infuse or marinate something, you steep or soak it in a flavored liquid to absorb its flavor. This is a popular way of getting floral or aromatic flavors into something.
Caramelization
Frying

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When you thicken a liquid with heat, you __________ it.
Pipe
Separate the eggs in
Reduce
Reducing a liquid thickens it and intensifies its flavor. This is done by simmering or boiling it.
Coat

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What is it called when all ingredients are mixed together at once?
Sieve method
All In one method
This method is great for beginner bakers, or people who don't have time to spend hours manipulating pastry dough. All the ingredients are mixed together in one shot.
Proofing
Icing

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Shallowly slashing the surface of a dough with a sharp knife before baking is called what?
Scoring
This technique is sometimes used for baked goods, such as bread or biscuits, and sometimes for meat. It allows for expansion while baking and creates a pleasing finished look.
Infusing
Frying
Glazing

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Many recipes ask you to pass dry ingredients through what device?
Spatula
Mandoline
Blender
Sieve
Many recipes ask that you put all of the dry ingredients in a sieve or sifter and shake them through. When you sieve the dry ingredients it adds air to them, which improves the final texture of the bake.

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What is it called when you use a spoon or spatula to gently mix ingredients?
Stretching
Halving
Proving
Folding
Folding is when you use a thin rubber spatula or spoon to mix delicate and airy ingredients together, without deflating them. This is often how whipped egg whites are added into a batter.

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What is it called when you divide egg whites from yolks?
Lamination
Manipulation
Flouring
Separating eggs
There are many gadgets that can help you separate eggs, but you can do it with your hands. Remember that it is easier to separate eggs while they're chilled.

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When you press and mix liquid and flour to stretch gluten strands, what it is called?
Beating
Kneading
Kneading is a key part of dough making. When you knead dough, it warms and stretches gluten strands, which is what helps to give bakes the right texture. Different baked goods require different amounts of kneading, and it is important to get it right.
Curdling
Scoring

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When you mix ingredients intensely, you ________ them.
Beat
When you beat ingredients, you mix them very quickly in order to incorporate air into them. This is often done with a mixer or whisk.
Par bake
Glaze
Simmer

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What is it called when you heat a liquid to major bubbling?
Baking
Boiling
Boiling has two meanings. It can mean to heat a liquid to its boiling point, with rolling bubbles. It can also mean to submerge something into boiling liquid.
Sieving
Kneading

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Giving bread time to rise before baking it is called what?
Proofing
Proofing is also known as proving or blooming. It is when bakers allow bread time to rise into its final shape before it is baked.
Stirring
Beating
Piping

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When you aerate something, what do you add to it?
Water
Milk
Butter
Air
When you aerate ingredients, you add air to them. This is often done to batter and gives bakes a lighter texture.

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Precooking your pastry before adding filling is known as what?
Blanching
Parboiling
Blind baking
Blind baking is common in pie or tart recipes. In some recipes you have to precook your crust before adding the filling, so the bottom of your dessert does not get soggy.
Emulsifying

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When you let something cool, what are you reducing?
Size
Temperature
Allowing something to cool means waiting for it to reduce in temperature. Especially for multi-layered or more complex creations, trying to work with cakes or other baked goods that are too hot can lead to messy results.
Sweetness
Hardness

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When you mix two or more ingredients together, you __________ them.
Caramelize
Sautee
Combine
When you mix two or more ingredients together, you combine them. This is one of the most fundamental baking techniques.
Blind bake

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What is it called when you cover something with a dry or wet substance?
Cooling
Blending
Coating
When you coat something, you cover it with a wet or dry substance. For example, baked bread is often coated with butter.
Whipping

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Which of these do you crimp?
Cakes
Cookies
Pie crusts
Crimping is a technique where you pinch the outer rim of a crust, perhaps with your fingers or with the tines of a fork. This is common in pies and tarts.
Souffles

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When you egg wash something, what do you do to it?
Soak it in egg yolks
Brush it with beaten egg
Egg wash is a coating of beaten eggs that's added to the surface of something before baking. This is done to add inviting color to baked treats.
Scramble it
Crack an egg on it

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When you want to make a baked good shiny after baking, what do you do?
Blind bake it
Chop it
Char grill it
Glaze it
Glazes are added to baked goods to give them shine and flavor. This can be done with a layer of butter, sugar icing or other glossy substance.

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Beating butter and sugar until they change in texture is known as what?
Whipping
Piping
Creaming
One of the first steps in some baking recipes is "creaming" the butter and sugar. This means to beat them together until they become pale and creamy. Using creamed butter and sugar makes baked goods lighter and fluffier in texture.
Dressing

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When you lubricate a pan or tin with oil or fat, you __________ it.
Blend
Incorporate
Grease
When you grease a pan or tin, you lubricate it with some kind of oil, fat or butter. This is important so that baked items brown evenly and don't get stuck in their pans.
Reduce

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Which technique involves a piping bag?
Preheating
Blind baking
Piping
Piping is commonly used to decorate desserts. It most often involves squeezing frosting through a piping bag to make intricate designs.
Simmering

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Turning on the oven before baking to let it come to the temperature you need is called what?
Peeling
Macerating
Greasing
Preheating
Preheating is common when it comes to baking things in the oven. You want your oven to be at the right level of heat to ensure that your special creation bakes evenly.

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Making food softer by soaking it in a liquid is called what?
Mincing
Proofing
Icing
Maceration
When you macerate food, you soften it by soaking it in liquid. Macerating fruit with sugar for desserts is common.

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What technique involves bringing a liquid to slightly below its boiling point?
Simmering
When you simmer a liquid, you heat it to just below its boiling point. Then you let it bubble gently.
Frosting
Scoring
Grilling

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What is it called when you lightly scatter a substance over a baked good?
Sprinkling
When you sprinkle something onto another food, you lightly scatter it. This is common with sugar, candies, seeds and other toppings. Sometimes a sifter is used, especially for powdered sugar.
Tempering
Boiling
Kneading

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Which technique involves mixing a substance in a circular motion?
Stirring
Stirring always involves some kind of kitchen utensil, like a spoon. It involves mixing a substance in circular motions.
Macerating
Boiling
Infusing

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A bain-marie is also known as what?
A water bath
A bain-marie is also known as a water bath. This technique is used for gently baking custardy items, such as creme brulee or cheesecake. Ingredients are placed in a baking dish or dishes, then those are placed in a larger baking dish that is partially filled with water. The whole assembly is then placed in a preheated oven to bake.
A curdler
A sifter
A mandoline

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In which technique are butter and liquid simmered together first?
Poaching
Caramelizing
The hot milk method
Some desserts require that butter and milk be simmered together before they are added to the flour. This method is common when making old-fashioned British desserts.
Creaming

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What is it called when you rub butter into flour?
Mixing
Churning
The rubbing-in method
The rubbing-in method is common in bread and pastry making. You use your fingertips to rub butter or other fat into flour until a crumb-like texture forms.
Folding

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Altering layers of butter and dough is known as what?
Incorporation
Kneading
Basting
Lamination
Lamination is interspersing layers of dough and butter. These thin layers are what give pastries their irresistible flaky texture.

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