BAKED

FRESH

Your Education Update

THIS MONTH IN FOOD

March 1st — National

Peanut Butter Lover's Day

ADD SOME CRUNCH WITH

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

A peanut butter cookie is a flat, crunchy cookie made with peanut butter as the main ingredient. It is characterized by a strong peanut flavor, crumbly texture, and typical surface fork marks.

Two types of peanut butter cookies are soft and chunky.

Peanut butter cookies are commonly made following a short dough process. Using crunchy or creamy peanut butter yields slightly different texture profiles as does the type of sugar, with course sugar granules creating a chewier cookie and fine sugar a crispier texture.

Considerations during processing:

Reduced water, high sugar and fat content are responsible for the cookie crumbly texture.
High humidity at the beginning stages of the baking process is important for structure setting.
Baking duration depends on cookie thickness and can range from 6-13 minutes. Longer baking times are preferred over high temperatures.
Second stage mixing should be minimal to avoid developing the gluten web.

How much peanut butter should you add? Find out on ASB's BAKERpedia page!

FEATURED WEBINAR:

Chemical Leavening

Many bakery products we are familiar with such as biscuits, cakes, muffins, tortillas, pancakes, or refrigerated dough are made with chemical leavening. Leavening is important as it influences many final product characteristics like appearance, color, shape, and texture.

Join Dr. Sharon Book of ICL Food Specialties as she explains the ingredients that provide this function, which are a base (baking soda) and an acid. Dr. Book also offers a general discussion of the steps to make a baked product and regulatory consideration is briefly addressed.

Speaker: Sharon Book, PhD

WATCH NOW

FEATURED COURSE:

Mixing & Processing

Not sure what 'second stage mixing' is? Want to learn more about mixing and processing prior to the oven?

This course discusses the importance of mixing dough to optimum development. Then, it goes into dough transporting or conveying and next covers dividing and intermediate proofing. Travel down the line into sheeting, moulding, and panning as well. Once in the pan, the dough goes into its final proofing stage, seeding, and scoring. All these steps are covered, too.

Certificate: BAKERcertified Bread 6

Course length: 29 minute video + test

ENROLL NOW

OVERHEARD AT THE HUB

"Over the last decade, BAKERpedia has leveled the innovation playing field for start-ups and baking companies by providing accessibility to crucial technical baking information. By working with ASB, we look forward to bringing these readers into a membership that would help their businesses thrive, seeing ASB grow and becoming technical partners in their training program.”

— Dr. Lin Carson, BAKERpedia CEO & Founder

COME TO OUR EDUCATION WEBINAR

Join us for an exclusive ASB webinar on March 12th at 2pm ET where we will introduce our new Education Hub!

Delve into exciting online learning opportunities designed to elevate your baking expertise with our Director of Education, Sarah Day. Discover the latest resources tailored for ASB members, including our partnership offerings with BAKERpedia and the American Bakers Association.

You will get an overview of our new courses, plus learn how to navigate the Education Hub and sign up. We will explore our free-for-members content along with discounted courses.

Not an ASB member yet? Please don’t panic, we will also discuss access options for members and non-members, including our new Digital Membership option.