Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic

paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

made from

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

(which itself is made from

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

s or from

leguminous Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom (biology), kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are est ...

or other

leavening agents In cooking, a leavening agent () or raising agent, also called a leaven () or leavener, is any one of a number of substances used in doughs and batters that cause a foaming action (gas bubbles) that lightens and softens the mixture. An altern ...

, as well as ingredients such as fats or flavourings. Making and shaping dough begins the preparation of a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly

bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

s and bread-based items, but also including

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

dumpling Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

flatbread A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are Unleavened bread, unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread. A Se ...

noodle Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noo ...

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...

pizza Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...

crusts, and similar items. Dough can be made from a wide variety of flour, commonly

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

and

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

but also

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

legumes Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consu ...

almonds The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the sh ...

, and other cereals or crops.

Types of dough

Doughs vary widely and may be ''enriched'' with eggs, sugars, spices, and fats. With respect to enrichment, the dough are forming a spectrum with two extremes: * lean dough contains mostly the basic ingredients (flour, water, salt, and, for the

leavened bread Bread is a baked food product made from water, flour, and often yeast. It is a staple food across the world, particularly in Europe and the Middle East. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cu ...

, yeast); * rich dough contains ''enriching ingredients'' (like milk, sugar,

shortening Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and is used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. The idea of shortening dates back to at least the 18th century, well before the invention of modern, shelf-stable vegetable ...

, malt, eggs, spices) in significant amounts. The amount of ingredients are traditionally specified as percentage of flour by weight ("

baker percentage Baker's percentage is a notation method indicating the proportion of an ingredient relative to the flour used in a recipe when making breads, cakes, muffins, and other baked goods. It is also referred to as baker's math, and may be indicated by a p ...

"), and for very rich doughs the amount of sugar can reach 25%, and shortening − 20%. There is no formal definition of what makes dough, though most doughs have

viscoelastic In materials science and continuum mechanics, viscoelasticity is the property of materials that exhibit both Viscosity, viscous and Elasticity (physics), elastic characteristics when undergoing deformation (engineering), deformation. Viscous mate ...

properties. There are several general classes of dough: * Yeast-leavened doughs are used to make various types of bread including

bread rolls A bread roll is a small, oblong individual loaf of bread served as a meal accompaniment (eaten plain or with butter). Rolls can be served and eaten whole or are also commonly cut and filled – the result of doing so is considered a ''sandwich ...

, loaves and some types of

. Not all yeast doughs require kneading. High-hydration doughs like

ciabatta Ciabatta (, ; ) is an Italian white bread created in 1982 by a baker in Adria, Veneto, in response to the popularity of French baguettes. Ciabatta is somewhat elongated, broad, and flat, and is baked in many variations, although unique for its ...

and

focaccia Focaccia is a Flatbread, flat leavening agent, leavened oven-baked Italian cuisine, Italian bread. In Rome, it is similar to a type of flatbread called (). Focaccia may be served as a side dish or as sandwich bread and it may be round, rectang ...

may be folded to develop

gluten Gluten is a structural protein naturally found in certain Cereal, cereal grains. The term ''gluten'' usually refers to the elastic network of a wheat grain's proteins, gliadin and glutenin primarily, that forms readily with the addition of water ...

or not kneaded at all. The addition of milk, salt, fats, eggs, sugar or other ingredients will produce bread products of varying texture. Commercial bread dough may also include

dough conditioner A dough conditioner, flour treatment agent, improving agent or bread improver is any ingredient or chemical added to bread dough to strengthen its texture or otherwise improve it in some way. Dough conditioners may include enzymes, yeast nutrient ...

s, which help make the dough and the final product more consistent. Gluten gives bread dough its structure and texture. Gluten-free or low-gluten doughs may need additional considerations. * Doughs with higher fat content that contain less water develop less gluten and are therefore generally less elastic than

doughs. They tend to become tough when they are kneaded. These doughs are often called "short" by bakers. Examples include many cookie and pie doughs such as

shortcrust pastry Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie. ...

. *

Quick bread Quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent rather than a biological one like Baker's yeast, yeast or Sourdough#Starter, sourdough starter. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, w ...

s use leavening agents other than yeast (such as

baking powder Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a carbonate or bicarbonate and a weak acid. The base and acid are prevented from reacting prematurely by the inclusion of a buffer such as cornstarch. Baking powder is used to increas ...

baking soda Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda (or simply “bicarb” especially in the UK) is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt (chemistry), salt compose ...

), and include most

s, and more. These may be based on a batter or a dough. *

Laminated dough Laminated dough is a culinary preparation consisting of many thin layers of dough separated by butter or other solid fat, produced by repeated folding and rolling. Such doughs may contain more than eighty layers. During baking, water in the butter ...

such as

mille-feuille A (; ),The name is also written as and . also known by the names Napoleon in North America, vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and custard slice, is a French dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influ ...

and

puff pastry Puff pastry, also known as , is a light, flaky pastry, its base dough () composed of wheat flour and water. Butter or other solid fat () is then layered into the dough. The dough is repeatedly rolled and folded, rested, re-rolled and folded, encas ...

are flour doughs folded over fat to create layers and rolled out. The folding and rolling process can be repeated to create very thin layers of dough and butter to create the puff pastry. There are many different techniques to create laminated doughs and some like

paratha Paratha (, also parantha/parontah) is a flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent, with earliest reference mentioned in early medieval Sanskrit, India. It is one of the most popular flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. ...

are relatively simple while others like mille-feuille are more laborious. Most laminated doughs are leavened only by the steam created by the folding process.

Danish pastry A Danish pastry (sometimes shortened to danish; , ) is a multilayered, laminated sweet pastry in the '' viennoiserie'' tradition. Like other ''viennoiserie'' pastries, such as croissants, it is a variant of puff pastry made of laminated yeast- ...

and

croissant A croissant (, ) is a French cuisine, French pastry in a crescent shape made from a laminated yeast dough similar to puff pastry. It is a buttery, flaky, ''viennoiserie'' pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian cuisine, Austrian ''Kifli, ...

are sometimes considered a separate class of dough because they are made from laminated dough that is leavened with yeast. *

Choux pastry Choux pastry, or (), is a delicate pastry dough used in many pastries. The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs. Instead of a raising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in ...

is a steam-leavened dough used for some types of sweet pastries, notably

cream puffs A profiterole (), ''chou à la crème'' (), also known alternatively as a cream puff (US), is a filled French choux pastry ball with a typically sweet and moist filling of whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream. The puffs may be emb ...

, eclairs, some homemade funnel cakes,

tulumba Tulumba, Tolomba or Bamiyeh (; ) is a deep-fried dessert found in Egypt, the Levant, Turkey and the regional cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire. It is a fried batter soaked in syrup, similar to jalebis or churros. It is made from unle ...

and

churros A churro (, ) is a type of List of fried dough foods, fried dough from Spanish cuisine, Spanish and Portuguese cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, made with choux pastry dough piped into hot oil with a piping bag and large closed star tip or similar ...

. Unlike most other pastry doughs, the ingredients for the dough are cooked on the stovetop before the dough is baked until achieving the consistency of a thick paste. Choux means cabbage in French. It is thought that the name comes from the shape of the cream puffs made with choux paste.Alan Davidson. National & Regional Styles of Cookery: Proceedings: Oxford Symposium. 1981. * Some

and

doughs are similar enough that experts have difficulty distinguishing them, although dumpling is a very general category that overlaps with others like yeasted breads and batter

biscuits A biscuit is a Flour, flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and Unleavened bread, unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing (food), icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also ...

. Varying the ratio of liquid and flour in a basic pasta dough may create a softer dough like that used for the German soup noodle spaetzle. Eggs are a very common addition to make the dough moist and easier to roll out. The dough can be filled or shaped various ways and boiled, baked, steamed or fried. * Gluten free doughs like

rice noodles Rice noodles are noodles made with rice flour and water as the principal ingredients. Sometimes ingredients such as tapioca or corn starch are added in order to improve the transparency or increase the gelatinous and chewy texture of the noodle ...

and Japanese harusame noodles depend on the gelatinization of

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

for structure. * Unleavened bread is made not only from wheat but in many cultures has been made from locally available starchy ingredients like corn,

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural). Oats appear to have been domesticated as a secondary crop, as their seed ...

and

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

since the earliest times. Sometimes

meringue Meringue ( , ) is a type of dessert or candy, of French cuisine, French origin, traditionally made from Whisk, whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acid, acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or potassium bitartrate, cream of t ...

is considered a dough. The English recipe for "Satin Biscuit" dates to 1677, and earlier recipes are known by different names. Some included flour like a 1604 recipe for "white bisket bread".

Techniques

Techniques used in dough production depend on the type of dough and final product. For yeast-based and sponge (such as

sourdough Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its dis ...

) breads, a common production technique is the dough is mixed, kneaded, and then left to rise. Many bread doughs call for a second stage, where the dough is kneaded again, shaped into the final form, and left to rise a final time (or proofed) before baking. Kneading is the process of working a dough to produce a smooth, elastic dough by developing

. This process is both temperature and time-dependent; temperatures that are either too hot or too cold will cause the yeast to not develop, and rising times that are either too short or too long will affect the final product.

Pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

is typically made from a dry dough that is kneaded and shaped, either through

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

, rolling out in a pasta machine, or stretched or shaped by hand (as for

gnocchi Gnocchi are a varied family of pasta-like dumplings in Italian cuisine. They are made of small rolls of dough, such as those composed of a simple combination of wheat flour,Buonassisi, recipe #831-833 potato,Buonassisi, recipe #854-857 egg,Buonas ...

dumplings Dumplings are a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of cooked dough (made from a variety of starchy sources), often wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, wheat or other flours, or potatoes, and it may be filled wi ...

). Pasta may be cooked directly after production (so-called " fresh pasta") or dried, which renders it shelf-stable. Doughs for

s and many

flatbreads A flatbread is bread made usually with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pita bread. A serving of 85g (~ ...

which are not leavened with yeast are typically mixed but not kneaded or left to rise; these doughs are shaped and cooked directly after mixing. While breads and other products made from doughs are often

baked Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is gradually t ...

, some types of dough-based foods are cooked over direct heat, such as

tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...

s, which are cooked directly on a

griddle A griddle, in the UK also called a girdle, is a cooking device consisting mainly of a broad, usually flat cooking surface. Nowadays it can be either a movable metal pan- or plate-like utensil, a flat heated cooking surface built onto a stove as ...

Fried dough foods This is a list of fried dough foods. Many cultures have dishes that are prepared by deep frying dough in many various forms. Doughnuts are a type of fried dough food that are covered separately in the Wikipedia article List of doughnut varieties. ...

are also common in many cultures.

Pancake A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...

waffle A waffle is a dish made from leavened Batter (cooking), batter or dough that is cooked between two plates that are patterned to give a characteristic size, shape, and surface impression. There are many variations based on the type of waffle iron ...

s, some kinds of bar cookies such as brownies, and many

s and

quick bread Quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent rather than a biological one like Baker's yeast, yeast or Sourdough#Starter, sourdough starter. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, w ...

s (including

muffins A muffin or bun is an individually portioned baked product; however, the term can refer to one of two distinct items: a part-raised flatbread (like a crumpet) that is baked and then cooked on a griddle (typically unsweetened), or a (often swee ...

and the like) are often made with a semi-liquid batter of flour and liquid that is poured into the final shape, rather than a solid dough. Unlike bread dough, these batters are not stabilized by the formation of a gluten network.Stanley P. Cauvain. (2012) Chapter 12: Baking. in ''Food Processing Handbook.'' 2 ed. Wiley. p. 422 . This reference is specifically about cake batter. File:Cirdingis36.gif, Dough being kneaded File:Breaddough1.jpg, Yeast bread dough after kneading, before rising File:Breaddough2.jpg, Yeast bread dough after rising ( proofing), for 40 minutes File:Pasta machine.jpg, Dough being cut into noodles with a pasta machine

References

External links

* * {{Authority control

Types of dough

Techniques

See also

References

Further reading

External links