I have the Suas Advanced Pastry Book but I was wondering if you can recommend a book that explains a lot of things like your sugar explanation above - I was reading somewhere for instance how sugars in ice cream are based on the molecular weight which correlates with freezing points ?
Fortunately there’s no comprehensive source for baking information. Training is where you get specific information. And even that can be spotty.
There’s a disconnect between academia and culinary training. Food science is a separate branch from culinary training.
And there’s another disconnect between those who learn through apprenticeships and never take classes. Self taught bakers have their own way of doing things.
There’s also a difference in mass production (Oreos, Hostess, etc), fine pastry, and local grocery store quality production. The equipment and ingredients used in mass production are very different from fine pastry. and the approach in a grocery store bakery is very different from a artisan bakery.
These are reference books I have in my library:
Paula Figoni How Baking Works: has brief explanations on baking ingredients. It’s not a recipe book. It doesn’t go real in-depth on ingredients, but it will give you some explanation on how ingredients work in baking. It’s meant to be used as a textbook, so outside of a classroom or workshop you won’t get as much out of it as you would in a class.
Harold McGee on Food and Cooking The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It’s not specifically on baking, but it’s just a nice reference book on cooking. It doesn’t go in depth but it is a handy reference book.
The Pastry Chef’s Companion by Glenn Rinsky & Laura Halpin Rinsky. I guess the best description of the book is it’s a mini baking dictionary/encyclopedia. It a list and definition of all the baking terms and tools.
From an industrial perspective on how baking is done commercially, Bakery Products Science and Technology. But this is from academia and this is like a $300 book. This is from the food science department out of UC Davis. I only reference it when I’m looking for really esoteric information out of curiosity.
