Signs That Your Bakes Are Done

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Telling when your bake is done is an important skill to have in baking. There are many different signals we can look out for.

Unfortunately there isn’t a single tell-all sign that we can use. Like a doctor, you need to be able to process all the inputs and come up with final diagnosis.

Today we’re going to talk about the different signs you can use to test done-ness and how they differ between products. The Bake School is a good resource for the different techniques. King Arthur Baking and ThermoWorks are good for temperatures.

Why following the recipe is insufficient

Baking is a science, cooking is an art.

You may have heard this used to describe why baking needs precision and why we should be using a kitchen scale to measure ingredients. It’s necessary to get the ratio between ingredients right to achieve:

  • sufficient leavening
  • gluten formation
  • hydration
  • tenderness
  • caramelization

However, the precision in baking times and temperatures leaves much to be desired. Most home ovens are not calibrated and can run hotter or colder by 10-15 C (20-30 F). Ovens are not evenly heated, with some experiencing hotspots (mitigated by convection). As a result, the baking time is only in the rough ballpark.

The type of pan will affect baking times. Glass is an insulator and takes longer to brown than aluminum. A lighter pan takes longer than a darker pan. And recipes don’t mandate the exact cookware to be used.

It’s up to us, as bakers, to do the final checks for doneness. We take in all these variations of our setup and compensate accordingly.

Visual Inspection

There are two places to visually assess for clues of doneness. These are only readings of the exterior: if they’re missing, we know it’s not done baking; if they’re both present, it’s still inconclusive and we need to look for additional signals.

These visual signs assume that the baking temperature is reasonably calibrated. An oven that runs hot will cook the exterior faster than desired, leaving a large temperature gradient to a raw center.

Recipes always state the shape of the vessel because it has a great effect. A deeper vessel will produce a thicker bake, which can allow larger temperature gradient to the center. If you’re using a different vessel, it’s almost guaranteed that you need to adjust both temperature and time accordingly:

  • deeper pans require more time for heat to diffuse inwards, which necessitates a lower baking temperature
  • shallow pans cook faster. A higher temperature can be used, to promote faster browning and compensate for less time spent in Maillard/caramelization zone.

Edges Pulling Away From Pan

Look for the cake releasing itself from the pan. This tells us that the edges are set, which happens when the exterior hits a certain temperature where it’s no longer a batter. It undergoes some caramelization and releases from the pan.

To pull away, the interior has contracted slightly. In the first part of baking, the initial expansion of gases and steam contributes to the rise upwards and outwards. Once the oven spring is done, then the outward pressure is reduced, allowing cake to contract.

If this is present but the top is not brown, this could mean the pan is very conductive and superheated the area.

Top Of Cake Is Golden Brown

The top of bakes can only undergo browning once much of the moisture in the dough or batter is driven off. Water has a high specific-heat capacity and acts as a heatsink, delaying caramelization and Maillard processes. These take place more quickly at higher temperatures, >150C (300 F).

If the top is brown but the edges are not pulling away, this might mean the oven temperature is too high. There’s a large temperature gradient, where the inside is raw while the outside is browned as it receives all the heat. It could also be that the recipe contains a lot of ingredients that readily induce browning (sugar or baking soda).

If the temperature is low, the top may not be brown but the edges will pull away once the cake has fully baked through. This is a lack of browning, which happens at higher temperatures (150 C) while cake setting occurs closer to 75 C. There’s not enough of a temperature gradient.

Finger Press Test

This is a test of the interior, to determine if the interior structure has set.

Lightly tap the center of the bake. When it’s fully set, it’ll spring back. If it’s not yet set, it’ll feel like a custard or pudding.

Cake Tester

This is the classic “toothpick has crumbs” test. Stick a toothpick or cake tester in the thickest part of the bake. If it comes out clean, then the structure is set.

This is essentially an escalation of the finger press test. It’s like drilling through the earth’s core:

  • If we see batter inside, it’s not set
  • If there are a few crumbs, it’s getting close
  • If it’s clean, the interior is fully set

You want to be cognizant of the carryover cooking that takes place. Waiting for the tester to come out clean means that the interior will continue climbing a few more degrees. This is the same as temping steaks, you remove steaks before they reach desired internal temperature.

This test doesn’t work well for custards and puddings. It’s also a bit hard if you have fillings such as berries or chocolate. The fillings can “dissolve” the batter nearby and give a false reading.

Temperature

In cooking, temperature is important for two things: food safety and quality. In baking, pretty much all final temperatures are high enough to guarantee pasteurization, so we are focused on quality

Food Safety

Raw foods can contain pathogens. These pathogens are killed at higher temperatures.

Some pathogens multiply inside the human body. Reducing their quantity reduces the load on the immune system. The go-to example is Salmonella present in raw chicken. If not cooked sufficiently, this can lead to food poisoning.

Other pathogens produce toxins. By reducing their quantity, this delays the time it takes for food to go bad. This is also known as preservation. An example is found in canned foods with broken seals:

  1. botulinum spores remain dormant in canned foods
  2. damaged cans introduce oxygen and allow the spores to activate
  3. bacteria reproduce and produce the toxin that causes botulism

Food Quality in General

Just because something is safe to eat doesn’t mean it’s tasty. Temperature plays a role in the quality of the dish.

Food safety is a min-max problem: minimize risk and maximize food pleasure. Don’t attempt to present it as 100% minimizing food risk (overcooked chicken breast) or maximizing food quality (raw cookie dough).

How can we achieve both? This is the field of pasteurization. A combination of temperature and time will produce the resultant dose. If it’s a lower temperature, we may just need to hold it for a longer time.

Food Quality for Baking

When it comes to baking, the final temperature we want to reach is determined by the product we are trying to make. Note, these temperature ranges are for sea-level: everything is relative humidity so make it relative to your altitude.

Note that the act of temping bakes using a thermometer also means you’re using a cake tester. Use the visual signs on the probe, in addition to the internal temperature, to build up the positive signals.

Lean Bread

With lean breads, we target 90-99 C (190-210 F). This is near boiling point of water.

Lean breads have little sugar or fats, so we cannot rely on those for browning. The moist interior acts as a heat sink, preventing the crust from reaching high enough temperatures to undergo Maillard browning. We need to remove the bulk of the moisture, surfing along the temperature curve at the enthalpy of vaporization. This is similar to the stall in BBQ. Once we make it past the stall, the crust will quickly brown.

You usually don’t have to temp lean doughs. It’ll usually be at temp, once the crust is to your liking. Temping can be useful if you’re unsure how dark the recipe is supposed to be, such as with rye breads. The final texture of these doughs is typically dry.

Enriched Doughs

With enriched doughs, we target 80-90 C (180-190 F). This is a tad lower than lean breads.

The eggs, sugar, and fat in enriched doughs allows for browning at lower temperatures. Taking these to a higher temperature may cause too much browning. Or it may remove too much moisture, resulting in a dry dough instead of the desired texture of soft and moist.

Quickbreads

With quickbreads, we target 95 C (205 F).

While quickbreads are like enriched doughs, they don’t have gluten to form structure. They really need to drive out the moisture to fully set. Failing to do so will leave a gummy mess.

Cakes

Dense and heavier cakes are like quick breads, where we will target 95 C (205 F). Quickbreads are cakes made with baking powder instead of creaming butter and sugar. The same rational apply.

Lighter cakes skew towards lean dough, where we will target 99 C (210 F). We are driving out even more moisture. This is the temperature where we finish pulling cakes and start pulling lean breads.

Custards

Custards are an emulsion of eggs and milk. We target 80 C (175 F).

Custards include pumpkin pie, puddings, and flan.

Eggier dishes like custards, bread pudding, and french toast will target a lower temperature, 70 C (160 F). These have less milk and sugars that inhibit protein binding.

Cheesecakes have the lowest internal temperature of all custards, at 65 C (150 F). This is the ideal temperature to set the cake but avoid cracking, which occurs near 70 C.

Molten lava cakes have a similar internal temp as custard because we are trying to avoid setting the centre. A key difference is that the outside of the cake will usually set and produce a texture gradient, unlike in custards where we are going for uniformity.

Conclusion

When it comes to checking doneness, you should follow the following mantra:

  1. Look for a browned top. Look for set edges that are pulling away.
  2. Try the finger press test. You can also use a jiggle test, if it’s a custard.
  3. Temp it with a probe thermometer. Inspect the crumbs on the probe.

Following these 3 steps in order, you can have increasing confidence that your baking is close to cooked. Each step is more intrusive than the last, so it helps to avoid prematurely opening the oven door.