Baking Terms - D, E and F | |
 Below are important baking terms, plus, a few cooking ones, as well. Select a letter that begins the word you are looking for, and you will be brought to a listing of them. For kitchen equipment terms and descriptions, click here. | |
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| Dacquoise: This classic French cake is composed of baked nut meringues layered with buttercream. There are many names for nut meringues and meringue-based desserts -- succès, progrès, japonais among them -- and the proportions, size and type of nut(s) used varies from one to another. | |
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| Dash: A measure of dry or liquid ingredient that equals 1/16 teaspoon. | |
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| Deci": Prefix in the metric system meaning "one-tenth." | |
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| Decorating 101 | |
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| Decorator's sugar = coarse sugar = decorating sugar: To make your own: To color, put a few drops of food coloring into a jar, then add 4 or 5 tablespoons of white decorator's sugar. Seal the jar and shake. | |
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| Deep-fry: Hot fat or oil which is deep enough to cover food during frying. | |
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| Deep-Frying: Method of frying food by immersing it in hot fat or oil. | |
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| Degerminated: A term for grain foods, such as some brands of cornmeal, that have had the germ removed in the milling process. | |
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| Dessert: (di-ZERT) - Meaning an usually sweet food served as the final course of a meal. The word was first recorded in 1600 and it derives from a French word meaning "to clear the table." This etymology is still reflected in current table service, where it is customary to remove everything from the table that's not being used (salt/pepper shakers, breadbaskets, sometimes even flowers) before serving dessert. | |
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| Dessert Syrup: A flavored sugar syrup used to flavor and moisten cakes and other desserts. | |
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| Devil's Food: a chocolate-flavored product that derives most of its flavor from cocoa butter rather than chocolate. | |
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| Devil's Food Cake: A light-textured chocolate cake made with a high percentage of baking soda, which gives the cake a reddish color. Devil's food cake was the favorite dessert of the early 1900s. Devils food cake is usually thought of in terms of dark chocolate, but originally it was red. This was due to a chemical reaction between early varieties of cocoa and baking soda, which also gave the cake a soapy taste. Today cooks, using modern processed cocoa, sometimes add a touch of red food coloring to bring back the authentic color. | |
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| Deviled: A term describing food that is dark, rich, chocolately, spicily piquant or stimulating it is "deviled." Means a highly seasoned, chopped, ground, or whole mixture that is served hot or cold. Many foods, including eggs and crab, are served "deviled." The term "deviled" referring to meat, fish, and cheese spreads, is somewhat different. Spiced potted meats have been popular for centuries. William Underwood introduced his famous deviled ham in 1867. | |
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| Devonshire Cream: (DEHV-uhn-sheer) - Originally from Devonshire County, England, it is a thick, buttery cream often used as a topping for desserts. It is still a specialty of Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset as this is where the right breed of cattle are raised with a high enough cream content to produce clotted cream. It is also known as Devon cream and clotted cream. Clotted cream has a consistency similar to soft butter. Before the days of pasturization, the milk from the cows was left to stand for several hours so that the cream would rise to the top. Then this cream was skimmed and put into big pans. The pans were then floated in trays of constantly boiling water in a process known as scalding. The cream would then become much thicker and develop a golden crust which is similar to butter. Today however, the cream is extracted by a separator which extracts the cream as it is pumped from the dairy to the holding tank. The separator is a type of centrifuge which extracts the surplus cream at the correct quantity so that the milk will still have enough cream to be classified as milk. | |
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| Dice: To "dice" means to cut food into cubes (the shape of dice in a game) which are more or less even. The dimension of the dice varies, with recipes calling for ingredients to be cut anywhere from 1/8-inch dice, to a 1/2-inch dice. If the recipe doesn't specific the dimension of the dice, then go for a 1/4-inch. | |
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| Dipping Fork: A special and small fork used when enrobing chocolates. I have used a regular eating fork, instead. | |
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| Dissolve: Stirring a dry substance into a liquid until solids are no longer remaining. (For example: stirring sugar into water, yeast into water, etc.). | |
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| Divided: When a recipe lists an ingredient as "divided" it means that amount of the ingredient will be needed in total for the recipe, but will be used divided up in 2 or more steps in the directions. For instance, a coffee cake might call for 2 cups of sugar, divided, using 1-1/2 cups in the dough, and 1/2 cup in the topping. | |
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| Divinity: A delicate, soft-textured candy that is made by slowly beating a hot, cooked sugar syrup into beaten egg whites. Chopped nuts or candied fruit and food coloring can be added. | |
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| Docking: To pierce lightly with a fork, or a docker, to make small holes in dough that will let steam escape during baking. This helps the dough to remain flat and even. A docker looks like a spiked paint roller. | |
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| Dolce/Dolci: Literally means "sweet." When found on a menu, the term refers to desserts. | |
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| Dollop: To place a scoop or spoonful of a semi-liquid food, such as whipped cream, on top of another food. The term also refers to the scoop or spoonful of food itself, as in "a dollop of whipped cream." | |
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| Dot: To scatter bits, as of butter or margarine, over surface off food. | |
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| Double Boiler: Cooking utensil much like a bain-marie. Method of cooking without using direct heat; double boilers are used to warm or cook heat-sensitive food such as custards, delicate sauces and chocolate. A double-pan arrangement whereby two pots are formed to fit together, with one sitting partway inside the other. A single lid fits both pans. The lower pot is used to hold simmering water, which gently heats the mixture in the upper pot. The saucepans can be made from stainless steel, aluminum, or glass. You can also make your own. | |
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| Double-creme Cheese: A soft cream cheese made in many parts of France. | |
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| Dough: A mixture of flour, water, milk and, or egg, sometimes enriched with fat, which is firm enough to knead, roll and shape into another form. | |
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| Dragree: (dra-ZHAY) - They are tiny round, hard candies used for decorating cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. They come in a variety of sizes (from pinhead to 1/4-inch) and colors, including silver. They are not edible and can be found at any specialty party store. Dragrees can also be almonds with a hard sugar coating that are edible and probably can be found at your local pastry shop. | |
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| Drained Weight: The weight of solid canned fruit after draining off the juice. | |
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| Drawn Butter: An American term for butter that has been defatted and cleared of all cloudy residue and impurities. See clarified butter. | |
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| Dredge: Method of covering or coating with sugar or another dry powder, such as bread crumbs, etc. | |
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| Drinking Chocolate: Hot chocolate is a favorite of kids. A mixture of cocoa and sugar, mixed with warm milk to form a drink. | |
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| Drop Batter: A batter that is too thick to pour but will drop from a spoon in lumps. | |
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| Dry ingredients: Refers to the ingredients in a recipe, such as flours, sugar, leavening, salt, baking cocoa, spices, or herbs, that may be blended before adding to another mixture in the recipe. | |
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| Dry measuring cups: Straight-sided, graduated sizes of cups with a handle attached at the top lip. A home baking measuring tool used in the U.S. The common cup sizes are 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 1, and 2 cup, and are often nested for ease in storage. They are used to measure a standard amount of dry ingredients, such as flour, sugar, cornmeal, or brown sugar, for home baking recipes. The dry ingredients are spooned into the cup and leveled off with a straight-edged utensil. | |
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| Dumpling: 1. Small balls made of dough, meat or potato mixture, which are steamed or poached. typically used to garnish soups and stews. 2. Fruit encased in dough and baked | |
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| Dusting: Finishing method whereby flour, sugar, spice or seasoning is lightly sprinkled over the top of the food item. | |
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| Dutch Process Cocoa: an alkaline treatment of the nib prior to grinding, or the liquor prior to pressing. This process darkens the resultant chocolate liquor or cocoa and modifies the chocolate flavor, helping to neutralize cocoa's natural acidity. | |
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| Dutching: a treatment of the chocolate product with alkali |
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| Eclair: (French) Light, oblong pastry split and filled with cream, usually topped with chocolate icing. | |
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| Eclair Paste: A paste or dough made of boiling water or milk, butter, flour, and eggs; used to make éclairs, cream puffs, and similar products. | |
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| Egg and Crumb: To coat a food with egg, flour or bread crumbs. This forms a coating that browns easily and tends to prevent soaking of food with fat. To do, food is dipped in slightly diluted beaten egg and then with flour or crumbs. | |
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| Egg Terms: Certain terms or phrases occur with regularity in egg recipes. | |
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| Egg Wash: Egg yolk and/or white beaten with a small amount of water or milk (1 - 2 teaspoons) and brushed over a dough prior to baking. An egg wash gives color and gloss to a baked good. | |
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| Eggs: are the ova of chickens. In home baking, neither the shell color nor the grade of egg matter. The size standard recipes call for is large unless stated otherwise. Eggs perform many functions - leavening, binding, thickening, coating or glazing, emulsifying, moisturizing or drying, and adding color, flavor, and nutrients to the finished product. Eggs also may be used to retard crystallization in some frostings. Eggs in custards give structure and color. Eggs in yeast breads provide added color, soft texture and richness. | |
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| Elongated: When we use the term elongated shells, leaves, etc., it means to taper an icing decoration by relaxing bag pressure and moving before stopping the technique. | |
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| Emulsion: A mixture of two liquids, such as oil and water, that don't naturally combine smoothly, formed by the suspension of one liquid in another. Go to How to Emulsify. | |
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| En Crocite: (French) Food encased in pastry. | |
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| Endosperm: The starchy inner portion of whole grain kernels. | |
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| English Muffin: is a yeast roll made by cooking a soft, shaped dough usually in a circular form on a griddle. | |
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| Enriched Flour: is supplemented with iron and four B vitamins (thiamin, niacin, riboflavin and folic acid), in equal amounts to what was removed with the bran and germ, plus supplemented with calcium. There is no change in taste, color, texture, baking quality, or caloric value of flour. | |
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| Entrée: in the U.S., the main course; in France, the first course. | |
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| Evaporated Milk: Preserved milk that has much of the water content removed through evaporation. Similar to condensed milk, but not as sweet. | |
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| Executive Chef: the head chef | |
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| Expediter: the person in the kitchen who is responsible for making sure the orders are fired promptly and the quality of the food is acceptable | |
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| Extra-Fine Sugar: Is a refined sugar product of sugar crystals whose average size and distribution are within the range of normal table sugar. Some producers call this extra-fine granulated sugar. | |
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| Extracts: are concentrated flavorings that come from different foods and plants. Some are made by distilling fruits, seeds or leaves, anise, vanilla, peppermint and almond extracts are made this way. | |
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| Extraction Rate: refers to the amount of the wheat berry milled into flour. All-purpose flour is roughly a 72% extraction, whereas a high quality (or "short") patent flour is roughly 65%. |
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| Faric: Round, flat oatmeal cakes baked on a griddle. | |
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| Farina: (Italian) Fine flour made from wheat, nuts and potatoes. | |
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| Farl: is a generic term for any triangular piece of baking. The term is commonly used when making Irish soda bread. | |
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| Fermentation: Fermentation is a process that happens in any dough containing yeast or yeast breads. It begins as soon as the ingredients are mixed together and continues until the dough is baked, at which point the yeast dies. Fermentation is quickened or slowed by certain temperatures. Yeast ferments glucose from the added sugar and the sugar already contained in the flour to carbon dioxide, which gives bread its rise, and alcohol, which gives it its flavor. Salt controls the rate of fermentation (too little and the yeast is overactivated, too much and the yeast is killed). | |
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| Feuilletage: An expansion of the French workd feuille, meaing "leaf" or "sheet." It is puff pastry dough prepared from a mixture of flour, salt, and water. Puff pastry dough is used to make sweet or savory pastrie. | |
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| Feuillette: Feuillette is French for puff pastries (paté feuillette), which are delicate, flaky, buttery and many-layered; sugared pastries (paté sucree), used for tarts and cookies, doughy pastry (paté brisee), used for quiches and various savory dishes, and soufflés. | |
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| Figs: Figs were probably one of the first fruits to be dried and stored by man. Although considered a fruit, the fig is actually a flower that is inverted into itself. The seeds are drupes (or the real fruit). Figs are the only fruit to fully ripen and semi-dry on the tree. They are generally available twice each year, in June and again in late August or September. Both crops are harvested from the same tree. | |
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| Figure Piping: Decorating technique used to form figures out of icing. | |
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| Filbert: Same as hazelnut. | |
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| Fillet: To remove the bones from meat or fish. | |
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| Filling: Frosting, preserves or pudding that's spread between cake layers and holds them together. | |
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| Fines Herbs: (French) Mix of finely chopped fresh parsley, chervil, tarragon and chives. | |
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| First Pastry Cook: cook who works with the pastry chef. | |
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| Flake: 1. Method of separating cooked fish into individual flaky slivers. 2. Method of grating chocolate or cheese into small slivers. | |
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| Flambe: (French) Flamed; Example - food tossed in a pan to which burning brandy or another alcohol has been added. | |
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| Fleur de Sel: (French) Translated - flower of the salt. A rare sea salt harvested by hand in Brittany, France and available only in limited quantities. Composed of the natural crystal formations found on the surface of a salt marsh. The crystals are sun-dried only, thereby maintaining many of the nutrients not found in typical prepared salts. Fleur de Sel's unrefined nature lends itself to be served as a condiment, rather than a seasoning, adding both texture and flavor to a meal. | |
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| Florentine: (French) 1. Of fish and eggs; served on a bed of buttered spinach and coated with cheese sauce. 2. Thin petit four cake made of nuts, glace fruit and chocolate. | |
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| Foam Cakes: In these cakes, air is beaten into whole eggs and sugar before the other ingredients (starches) are gently folded in. Genoise is an example of a foam cake, and some other sponge cakes fall in this category as well. | |
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| Folding: Process whereby one ingredient or mixture is added to another, using a large metal spoon or spatula. Gentle process that often keeps mixed air fluffed throughout a mixture. | |
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| Fondant: Fondant is a creamy white substance created by kneading cooked sugar syrup. It is used often as a filling for chocolates, frosting for cakes, petit fours or pastries. The Dutch historically prepare a flavored fondant which is made into individual sweets. | |
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| Food Additives: Food additives are substances added intentionally to foodstuffs to perform certain technological functions, for example to color, to sweeten or to preserve. | |
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| Fool: Cold dessert consisting of fruit puree and whipped cream. Sugar paste, rolled fondant and roll out icing are all the same. They are just different names used in different countries. | |
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| Framboise: (French) A raspberry-flavored liqueur with a high alcohol content. Freezing: Process whereby food is solidified or preserved through chilling and storing it at 0-C or 32-F degrees. | |
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| Fraisage: This makes flat pieces of fat smeared in between the flour, which is optimal when making a very flaky crust. To do: break off a small lump of dough, put it under the heel of your hand on the counter, and push on the dough as you slide it forward about 4 inches. Scrape up and set aside that piece of dough and repeat with the remaining dough. Then gather the pieces of smeared dough into a disk, in the next step. | |
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| Frost: 1. To coat a cake with an icing of confectioners sugar; 2. To dip the rim of a glass in egg white and caster sugar and then chill in a refrigerator until set. | |
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| Frosting: Is it icing or frosting ? It is both. Icing is a more professional term used when talking about frosting that is stiffer and pipes well. Frosting is considered homespun or creamier and softer. | |
