The 12 Steps of Baking and Some Other Useful Knowledge

While anyone can open up a cookbook and begin baking, if it’s a good loaf of bread you are after, there a few things a serious baker should first understand. Bread has its own set of rules; the dough becomes the authority and the baker, the student, no matter how skilled.

Let’s begin with yeast, the life of the dough. Yeast is hungry. Yeast is greedy. Yeast will eat itself...to death. As long as there is a food source available, yeast goes the distance and if given the opportunity will over-consume and die (similar to a chemical leavener burning out). Not good, as dead yeast means a fermented taste, a loaf that gets no oven spring, and doughy, heavy bread. But when not committing organism suicide, yeast is actually rather durable. In an unbaked mass of dough in a refrigerator/retarder, the activity of the yeast will slow down dramatically due to temperature, but not completely stop. Yeast can function down to 35°- 40° F. During this chilly time the yeast now slowly eats the food that the dough supplies in the form of fermentable sugars, simple starches and salt. As the yeast eats (at any temperature) it produces a byproduct of ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide gas, which provide the fermentation that we so desire when proofing and baking bread.

When the food supply runs out the yeast cells stop eating and the fermentation slows down. The yeast has stopped eating because it has exhausted its food source, not because it is full. The yeast dies out, the dough is sticky and fermented and nobody is happy.

Now with this basic knowledge let us move on to some more very important information for any baker, or anyone interested in becoming one...The 12 Steps of Baking. These steps outline the basic process of creating a beautiful, well handled loaf of bread.


The 12 Steps of Baking

1. Scaling Ingredients – Precise measurements for accuracy of formula, fermentation and flavor. Baking is a science!

2. Mixing Ingredients – To incorporate ingredients and develop gluten without oxidizing the dough.

3. Bulk Fermentation – One large mass of properly mixed dough rests. During this time the yeast feeds on the available fermentable sugars and simple starches and produces the byproducts alcohol and carbon dioxide gas.

4. Folding Over – The mass of dough is folded on itself to equalize the temperature, develop gluten, and redistribute food for the yeast.

5. Divide – The dough is scaled into equal weights to ensure even baking. Keep it covered!

6. Pre-Shaping – Regrouping the scaled dough pieces to seal in carbon dioxide gas, and make it easier to put into the final shape.

7. Bench Rest – Allows the gluten to relax to make final shaping easier.

8. Shaping – Molding of dough for consistency, even bake time and attractive presentation.

9. Final Fermentation – Last chance for fermentation and crumb development, and equalizes oven spring.

10. Scoring – Allows the release of gas, increases eye appeal, allows for loaf identification, adds crispness and texture to crust and can be used as a baker’s signature.

11. Baking – Expansion as a result of the activity of the yeast in the form of gasses and alcohol rush toward the surface of the dough causing it to grow in size. This is known as oven spring. Yeast cells die (120°F), the proteins gelatinize and the crust develops.

12. Cooling – As soon as bread is removed from the oven, it should be placed on a vented cooling rack so it doesn’t get soggy.


Knowing this information proves especially useful in understanding how skipping steps, or going out of order in the 12 steps can cause problems with the final products. For example if a baker was to take a piece of dough that was shaped and in the final fermentation step (step nine) and then reshaped it, this action would bring the dough back between the pre-shape and bench rest steps (steps six-seven). Reshaping the dough will de-gas it and the reshaping will also act as an additional fold in the dough. From step four above, we know folding dough will provide new food sources for the yeast and increase fermentation activity, on top of what has already taken place. Although most of the carbon dioxide gas will have been released in reshaping the dough, the taste and scent of the ethyl alcohol byproduct will remain and now intensify. The strength of the gluten will increase and toughen the crumb and the loaf of bread will have to begin proofing all over again. The over worked loaf may proof faster and higher and even achieve better oven spring due to the increased yeast activity, but also due to that activity there will be undesirable smell of alcohol, the taste of fermentation and a tough crumb. Essentially feeding yeast too much is like feeding a goldfish too much. In both cases, the final result will go down the toilet.

Armed with the 12 Steps of Baking, a baker can more easily understand the timely process of bread baking. One of the greatest achievements of baking is to be able to work with a living product, appreciate it and rise (oh yes, intended) to the challenge everyday, knowing that any little change in temperature, humidity, or the mixing of the dough will complicate that day’s bake. That is one of the best parts of baking, a new challenge everyday. Never boring, never the same.