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About This Quiz
In the 13th century, a cake was known as "kaka," from an old Norse word. The pies, pastries and breads we enjoy today have a rich history. Our preoccupation with the perfect dough dates back centuries to the crude flour and water concoctions created during the ancient Roman and Egyptian times. And cake? You can thank the ancient Egyptians for that, and for several more advanced baking techniques. Although the oldest known oven dates back to about 6,500 years ago, ancient baked goods didn't really resemble their modern-day counterparts until the days of Medieval Europe when more ingredients and technologies were available (and fruitcakes were popular).
Today, baking skills are considered more of a science than art; in fact, unlike cooking, recipes are known as "formulas." Measurements are accurate and always exact because there's a chemistry to how the ingredients work together in baked goods. How honed are your baking skills? Do you know the difference between a whisk and a beat, or how to correctly bloom yeast? Get a baking tune-up with these techniques.
According to the "muffin method," which are mixed together first, wet or dry ingredients?
Dry, then wet
Mix together your dry ingredients first, and make a well in the middle. Wet ingredients are then poured into the center. This is known as the "muffin method" of mixing.
Wet, then dry
The order doesn't matter.
They're always added at the same time.
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What happens when you 'cream' together butter and sugar?
It collapses any bubbles in the batter.
It gives the cake a dense texture.
It helps the cake rise.
The method of creaming butter with sugar creates tiny air pockets in the butter that will help the cake rise when it bakes. Don't skimp! Properly creamed butter and sugar is pale yellow. Beat for two to three minutes to get the proper aeration.
It keeps the cake from spreading.
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Which type of flour will give your baked products a nutty, dense texture?
Cake flour
Bread flour
Pastry flour
Whole wheat flour
Different flours contain different levels of protein and fiber and can lend different textures and tastes to your baked goods. If you don't like the nuttier, denser texture it provides, you can mix it with all-purpose flour for a lighter flavor and crumb.
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What gives brown sugar its color?
Corn syrup
Maple syrup
Molasses
Although mostly considered interchangeable, dark brown sugar has more molasses than light brown sugar. More molasses means a deeper, more assertive flavor.
Vanilla extract
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What implement should you use for stirring cupcake ingredients?
Pastry brush
Pastry cutter
Sifter
Spoon
A spoon, whisk or other utensils are each used for specific purposes. Brushes, for instance, are used to spread egg wash on the pastry. And spoons, well, they're used for the most basic of baking techniques: mixing ingredients together in a circular motion.
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What is the ideal temperature for blooming yeast in water?
About 50 degrees Fahrenheit
100 - 110 degrees Fahrenheit
Dissolving these microorganisms in slightly warm water - 100 to 110 F - will activate them. Storing them below 50 F will cause them to go dormant.
212 degrees Fahrenheit
300 - 310 degrees Fahrenheit
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Which mixing method requires a dough hook for your mixer?
Beating
Folding
Kneading
Kneading dough helps produce the gluten in them. Specifically, kneading is when you work your dough by repeatedly folding it onto itself.
Whipping
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What is the secret to perfectly frosting a cake?
A "crumb coat"
An off-set spatula
Refrigeration
All of these are key to a good frosting.
A spatula is key to doing the job well. And that begins with what's called a crumb coat, a rough layer of frosting applied to keep any crumbs under control before the final layers are added. Remember, chill between swirling on layers for best results!
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Using flours with higher protein content in your baked goods gives them what kind of texture?
Tender
Spongy
Delicate
Chewy
Bread flour has the highest protein content. It is commonly used in baked goods where you'd want a chewier texture, such as pizza doughs and breads.
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When fed sugar or starch, yeast release tiny bubbles of what, causing your dough to rise?
Caffeine
Carbon dioxide
When activated, yeast feeds on sugar or starch in dough, and it releases tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. It's the same gas humans exhale, and it's what causes dough to rise.
Oxygen
Water
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What does the 'cutting' method incorporate into dry ingredients?
Eggs
Solid fat
The technique requires you to incorporate solid fat into dry ingredients until just pea-sized lumps of fat appear. This is most often accomplished with either a pastry cutter or simply with your fingers. It's important to keep your ingredients cold, so they don't melt too fast while you work.
Sugar
Vegetable oil
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To help melted chocolate crystallize during the tempering process, chocolate makers use what technique?
Beating
Boiling
Shredding
Seeding
This happens near the beginning of the tempering process. First, the chocolate is melted. Then, as part of "seeding," handfuls of grated bits of tempered chocolate are added to the mix. The resulting tempered chocolate should be between 88 - 89 degrees Fahrenheit for best use.
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How should a cake pan be prepped?
With shortening
With oil
With parchment paper
Any and all of these will get the job done.
Greasing the pan with melted shortening or oil, and even laying down a sheet of parchment paper will all keep your baked goods free from sticking. (Additionally, also try a combination of butter and flour or sugar for easy removal.) And if all else fails, return your cake to the still-warm oven for about 10 minutes to release any stuck areas.
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What does a leavening agent do?
Causes baked goods to brown
Causes baked goods to burn
Causes baked goods to flatten
Causes baked goods to rise
You can't skip the leavening agent in a recipe and expect your baked goods to rise - it's the reaction leaveners have with other ingredients that gives rise to cakes and other products.
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Which mixing method incorporates ingredients with a spatula?
Beating
Folding
Folding involves very gently incorporating ingredients together by adding a lighter ingredient like whipped cream to a heavier one, such as batter. This gentle method is good for turning egg whites or whipped cream into your batter - it incorporates air into the mix. A "cut-fold" is done with a rubber spatula or whisk: cut through the ingredients across the bottom of the bowl. Continue back up the nearest side, and repeat.
Sifting
Whipping
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If it's unmarked, how can you find out how big a baking pan is?
Measure from corner to corner, diagonally
Measure from the inside edge to the outside edge
Measure from the inside edge to inside edge
The size of a baking pan is measured across the top, from the inside edge to inside edge. Large, shallow pans need increased heat while small, deeper pans require a lower temperature. Depth is measured from the inside of the bottom of the pan to the top rim.
Measure from the outside edge to outside edge
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Why should you sift your dry ingredients?
It aerates the ingredients.
It incorporates dry ingredients.
It removes lumps.
For all of these reasons
Passing dry ingredients through a fine mesh sifter allows you to remove any lumps, but also to mix the ingredients together. Additionally, sifting aerates the flour.
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How should brown sugar be measured?
Just eyeball it
Loose and level in a measuring cup
Loosely heaped into a measuring cup
Packed firmly into a measuring cup
To measure your brown sugar the right way, make sure it's packed firmly into a measuring cup or spoon. If your brown sugar is too hard, soften it with a cut apple in the container for a day or two.
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Where should baked goods be cooled?
Covered, on the counter
Covered, in the refrigerator
Covered, in a warm oven
On a wire rack
They're out of the oven, but where should they sit to cool? Place your breads and cakes on a wire rack, which allows for good air flow all around the baking pan.
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What will help your baked goods rise properly when the recipe doesn't call for an acid, like buttermilk?
Baking soda and moisture
Baking powder and moisture
Baking powder and baking soda are both leaveners, which means they create the air needed for your baked goods to rise. But they aren't interchangeable. While baking soda must be paired with an acid to activate, baking powder just needs moisture.
Both baking soda and baking powder
Neither baking soda nor baking powder
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What's the best method for melting dark chocolate?
In a double boiler
In a microwave
In a slow cooker
Any of these will do the trick
All of these methods -- in a double boiler on the stovetop, in the microwave, or in a slow cooker -- melt chocolate gently, without scorching or sticking or turning grainy and crumbly.
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At what internal temperature is a cake done?
165 degrees Fahrenheit
170 - 175 degrees Fahrenheit
205 - 209 degrees Fahrenheit
Thermometers take the guesswork out of baking. Cakes and cupcakes, for instance, should measure an internal temperature of 205 - 209 degrees Fahrenheit.
300 - 310 degrees Fahrenheit
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Which type of chocolate has the highest melting point?
Dark chocolate
Compared to milk chocolate, which tempers at 86-88 degrees Fahrenheit, most dark chocolates need temperatures between 88-91 degrees Fahrenheit to soften and reach their melting point. The more cocoa butter, which is a type of fat, the chocolate contains, the faster that chocolate will melt. Because it doesn't contain chocolate solids, white chocolate isn't truly chocolate.
Milk chocolate
White chocolate
All chocolate has the same melting temperature.
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Dealing with higher altitudes can be tricky. How would you compensate when baking a cake?
Higher oven temperature and decreased baking time
Liquids evaporate faster in higher altitudes, so you'll need to make some changes to your recipe, beginning with a change to the baking time and temperature. High-altitude baking requires a temperature increase of about 15 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit, with a shorter baking time (since the temperature is hotter).
Use less fat
Use less flour
Use less salt
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One stick of butter is equal to how many cups?
1/4 cup
1/2 cup
Measuring from butter or margarine sticks is easy as there are markings on the wrapper. But if you're working in cups rather than tablespoons, each stick of butter is equal to a half cup measurement.
1 cup
2 cups
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Out of cornstarch? What can you use as a substitute?
All-purpose flour
From bread to cookies, you can bake just about anything with it. In a pinch, all-purpose flour can take the place of cornstarch as a thickening ingredient. Use two tablespoons of AP flour for one tablespoon of cornstarch in everything from soup to fried foods to cookies.
Baking powder
Buttermilk
Granulated sugar
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Which is the larger measurement?
1/4 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon
1 teaspoon
1 tablespoon
Small amounts of wet or dry ingredients should be measured in measuring spoons - all the way to the top, please. The largest spoon in your set it typically the one tablespoon measurement, which equals three teaspoons.
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What can you add to milk to turn it into buttermilk?
Butter
Lemon juice
Vinegar
Either vinegar or lemon juice will do.
Both vinegar and lemon juice are good options for turning milk sour. For one cup of milk, you'll need one tablespoon of either.
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What is cooked out of butter when making browned butter?
Sugar
Milk solids
In French, it's known as beurre noisette, and it means melting and cooking your butter until the milk solids in it get toasty and brown. Browned butter adds a nutty taste to your baked products.
Salt
Water
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What causes muffins to form peaks while baking?
The batter was overmixed.
Too much gluten in your batter can send your muffin tops soaring. Instead of getting that perfect dome, they've turned out with peaks - and that's because of overly-large bubbles called tunnels. It's this air that gives volume to your muffins, but too much will make your muffins look like cones.
The batter was undermixed.
The ingredients were too cold.
The oven was too cold.
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Why do cookies made with brown sugar soften upon standing?
The brown sugar absorbs fats.
The brown sugar absorbs moisture from the air.
Brown sugar is sugar that contains molasses, a liquid, up to as much as 10 percent in light and 20 percent in dark varieties. Cookies made with brown sugar are softer because of the additional moisture content molasses adds to the baked good, and the moisture attracts and absorbs more from the air.
The brown sugar adds additional fat.
The brown sugar is concentrated.
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Why do cookies made with butter turn out thinner and crispier than those made with a different fat?
Butter has a higher melting point.
Butter has a lower melting point.
Butter, margarine, or shortening? It'll make a difference. Butter has a lower melting point than the others, causing cookie dough to spread more during the baking process - and more spread means a thinner cookie.
Butter has a higher moisture content.
Butter has a lower moisture content.
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Which is the best oven rack for baking your favorite chocolate chip cookies?
Top rack
Middle rack
While baking on the bottom rack is great for baked goods that you want to brown on the bottom, like a pizza, and the top rack for goods that need to brown on the top, like pie, it's the middle rack where most baked goods will flourish. It's the middle rack where the heat is evenly distributed and the perfect place for golden brown cookies.
Bottom rack
Any rack that's available is fine.
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When you're making puff pastry, what technique requires folding dough around very cold butter?
Folding
Laminating
Making dough for puff pastry or croissants requires a little more than mixing and rolling. Laminating the dough gives it its rich layers, and it's done by folding dough around cold butter and rolling.
Tempering
Tunneling
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How many apples should you buy if you need one cup of sliced apples?
1 medium-sized
How much does just one medium-sized apple yield? Just about one cup of sliced apple. This is pretty easy to remember and comes in handy when buying the right mount of apples for a pie for example.
6 medium-sized
9 large-sized
About a dozen or so
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You Got:
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