Unlocking Food: Functional & Chemical Properties
Unlocking Food: Functional & Chemical Properties
What do you already know about how ingredients behave during baking and cooking?
Lesson Objective
At the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain how key ingredients function and change chemically during food preparation, especially in baking and cooking.
What are Functional and Chemical Properties?
How ingredients behave physically in recipes, e.g. thickening, emulsifying, foaming.
How ingredients react and change during cooking, e.g. caramelisation, protein denaturation.
Functional Properties
Chemical Properties
The Role of Eggs
Eggs provide structure, bind ingredients, and help with rising. They also participate in Maillard reaction for browning.
Flour and Gluten Formation
Flour forms gluten when mixed with water, giving dough strength and elasticity for bread, cakes, and pastries.
Fats in Baking
Fats add tenderness, moisture, and flavour. They prevent gluten formation for crumbly textures in pastries and cakes.
Raising Agents
Baking powder, baking soda, and yeast produce gases that make baked goods rise, giving them a light texture.
Recap: Why are these properties important?
Understanding the functional and chemical properties of ingredients helps us create better textures, flavours, and successful recipes.
The term given to the softening, shaping or spreading of fats is
Emulcification
Plasticity
Shortening
Oxidation
Which one of the following uses a biological raising agent
Scones
Doughnuts
ginger bread
Eclairs
Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.
Text
Write down 2 things you want to know more about.
Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.