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The real question here is what makes all flours different from each other, and the answer is protein content. Protein in flour translates to gluten development, and the more gluten formed, the tougher the product will be. The higher the protein content of a flour, the lower the starch content, and vice versa. A few commonly found flours are:

High Gluten flour, coming in at the top of the list with 13% or more protein. High gluten flour is used almost exclusively for bread products and is good for yeast raised products that also contain a great deal of fat, like croissants.

Bread flour has 11.5-13% protein. That percentage varies from brand to brand and because flour is a natural product and can be unpredictable. High gluten and bread flours are made from hard wheat. Because of this, they absorb water easily and produce strong gluten. As the name implies, bread flour is good for breads and yeast-raised products.

All-purpose flour contains 9-11.5% protein and just as the name implies is a good for a wide range of products, though not strong enough for good bread and a little too strong for light cakes.

Pastry flour has 8-9.5% protein. These flours are made from soft wheat, which absorbs less water and in turn develops a weaker gluten structure. This means product will spread and rise more readily, making it great for cookies and many pastries.

Cake flour has the lowest protein percentage, between 6-8% and the highest concentration of starch. It also generally treated with cholrine, which improves the starch's ability to absorb water and weakens the ability of the protein to form gluten. This combination of characteristics is what makes cake flour ideal for light, highly aerated products.

The short answer is acidity. Baking soda is just sodium bicarbonate, and is alkaline in nature. In order for it to react and create carbon dioxide it needs moisture and acid. So just about all recipes that call for baking soda as a leavener will also call for an acidic liquid too, like buttermilk. The other important factor with baking soda is that it reacts quickly. Think science fair volcano. This isn’t always a good thing when your product needs time to develop or rest before baking.

Baking powder, on the other hand, has a longer reaction time. That’s because baking powder is the same base of sodium bicarbonate but with the addition of two acids and a starch. The acids each work at slower rates and in different stages, and the starch helps to prolong full hydration of the sodium bicarbonate and acid by attract water to itself instead.

Honestly, nothing. There are a whole lot of terms thrown around out there for various “raw” sugars that often boil down to the same thing. If you want to get real technical about it, turbinado sugar is a variety of raw sugar, while not all raw sugar is turbinado. Either way, the sugar isn’t raw anyway. Instead, almost all mass produced raw sugar is simply processed granulated sugar (in a bigger granule than table sugar) that has then had flavoring and coloring added to it. Kind of a weird process, but there you have it.

Pectin is a polysaccharide found in the cell walls of plants and is the ingredient that sets jams and jellies into a gel. All fruit contains some quantity of pectin, and often apples are used in recipes because of their pectin content. When natural fruit pectin isn't enough, commercial pectin can be used. Commercial pectin is formed from the peels of citrus fruits, which have an extremely high pectin content (as much as 30%). It speeds and strengthens the gelling process in jam recipes.

Maillard browning is a set of chemical reactions between proteins and sugars that take place at high heat. These reactions create complex flavors and aid in browning. This reaction can take place in a variety of foods, from baked bread and cookies to a seared steak.

In baking and pastry, lamination or a laminated dough refers to the technique of layering fat and dough over one another. When the dough is baked, the water in the butter turns to steam and creates air pockets between the dough that translates into flakiness. The most widely recognizable laminated products are probably croissants and danish. The distinct honeycomb look to a well-made croissant is created by uniform lamination.

Joconde (say: sha-conde), also known as biscuit joconde or joconde sponge, is a whipped egg cake with a nut flour base. Almond flour is most common, but substitutions of other nuts, like hazelnut or pistachio, are also frequently used. Joconde is a common component in entremet, and is often spread thin before baking.

IQF stands for “individual quick frozen.” Individual because the pieces of fruit are frozen separately so they stay separated out of the freezer and you don’t have to deal with a big block of fruit.

All fruit is mostly water. When that water is frozen slowly, it has time to form large ice crystals that tear through delicate fruit cells. Defrosted, the fruit is mushy thanks to its shredded insides. Quick freezing keeps ice crystals small so they do minimal damage to the fruit keeping it in good quality when it defrosts.

Simply put, hard wheat is a variety of wheat that contains a high amount of protein while soft wheat is a variety that contains a low amount of protein. Hard wheat is used to mill high gluten, bread and all-purpose flour, and soft wheat is used to mill pastry and cake flour.

Rather than the name of the protein in flour itself, gluten is more correctly the term of the network formed when wheat flour's two main proteins, glutenin and gliadin are introduced to water and agitated. Glutenin proteins bond strongly with one another end to end while also bonding, albeit a little more weakly, along their lengths. While this is occuring, gliadin proteins (more compact than glutenin in structure) bond to one another and to the glutenin chains to form a matrix of protein, now known as gluten.

This structure has elasticity and the elasticity allows gluten to swell and expand without breaking when gas bubbles are introduced, such as carbon dioxide during yeast fermentation and water vapor during baking, which allows for leavened bread products.

Gelee (say: zhel-ay) is a French term for a jelly-like food. In common modern pastry, a gelee refers most commonly to fruit puree stabilized with gelatin. It is generally only loosely stable, not as firm as American jell-o.

Entremet or entremets (ahn-truh-may) is the term used for mousse-based cakes that feature a variety of components, flavors and textures. Traditionally entremets are round, around 9" in diameter and 2" or so in height. These days, though, that convention is out the window, and entremets take on all shapes and sizes.

Emulsification is one of the most important core principles of baking and pastry. A general definition of emulsification is the act of incorporating two or more liquids that are normally unable to mix with one another. When two liquids are incorporated in this manner it is known as an emulsion (vinaigrettes and mayonnaise are a few examples). In baking and pastry, emulsification is almost always referring to mixing fat and water. Although fat and water will never truly bond and incorporate, by creating an emulsion the fat and water are broken down into particles that are small enough to be considered mixed for practical purposes. Emulsification is so important because it evenly disperses fat and water which is essential for proper taste, texture and leavening.

Compound butter is just butter with added ingredients. These can be herbs, spices, cheeses, etc. Often the butter is simply softened and mixed with any desired ingredients until thoroughly combined, and then chilled again to firm up.

Cocoa butter is the fat found in cocoa and is the main source of fat in chocolate (many chocolates will contain some dairy fat). Cocoa butter is crystalline in form and those crystals can form into different shapes and sizes depending on the temperature of the chocolate (a characteristic called polymorphous crystallization). Cocoa butter crystallization is what allows chocolate to set firmly at room temperature.

During the chocolate making process, cocoa nibs are ground down until they form a paste, called chocolate liquor. This contains all of the cocoa solids that will eventually end up in a finished chocolate product.

Couverture is the term for high quality chocolate, containing a high content of cocoa butter (minimum 32%). The high cocoa butter and cocoa solid content of couverture gives chocolate the ability to be tempered, which creates a finished product capable of a high shine, good snap when broken and pleasing mouth feel and melt point. Couverture is used for chocolate decorative work and for dipping or enrobing.

An iSi is a brand name for a food whipper. It consists of a small canister to hold liquid that is then sealed in and charged with CO2. The CO2 aerates the liquid as it's dispensed out of the canister, turning it into a foam (also referred to as an espuma). Although there are many brands that make food whippers, iSi has become synonymous with the tool, similar to Kleenex or Q-tip.

A vacherin (say: vash-erin) is a classic dessert composed of meringue, ice cream or sorbet and whipped cream, often finished with fresh fruit or candied fruit. The name comes from the cake's original resemblance to the vacherin cheese. It was first created in or near Lyon in the 1800's.

A roulade is a culinary term for any product served in the form of a roll. The most classic pastry examples are swiss rolls and yule logs.

A poolish is a type of pre-fermented dough (also known simply as a preferment) used in bread and vienoisserie recipes. A poolish is softer and wetter than other pre-ferments and is often used specifically to increase the dough's ability to stretch. While a poolish can be created and held for hours, it is usually used much sooner. The length of time it develops before being added to a larger recipe will effect the overall flavor and texture of the final bread product.

Technically a polysaccharide is a carbohydrate. In the simplest of terms it is a complex sugar; long chains of several simple sugar molecules bonded together.  Table sugar - sucrose - is a polysaccharide composed of two monosaccharides (simple sugars), glucose and fructose.

A petit gateau or petits gateaux in plural form (both roughly pronounced: puh-tee gah-toe) is a French term that literally translates to "little cake." It is a style of pastry that encompasses all of the elements of an entremet or mousse cake (varying textures, flavors and components), but in an individual portion. A petit gateau is normally not more than three to five bites.

A petit four, or petits fours, (say: "petty-four") are small, bite-sized desserts. The name literally translates to "small oven" and the name of the dessert comes from the fact that petits fours were traditionally made in a secondary oven that drew heat off of the main oven in a kitchen or bakery. Petits fours these days can really be any shape or composition, though should remain as one or two bites.

A levain (leh-van) is pre-fermented dough that is added to a bread recipe to cultivate it with already active yeast. A levain can be made with dry or cake yeast purchased from a store or made with wild, naturally occurring yeast found in the air, the flour and the hands of the baker. How the levain is made will effect the final taste and structure of the bread.

A deck oven is one of the two major varieties of ovens found in most professional pastry kitchens (the other being a convection oven), and is used primarily for bread baking. A deck oven relies on radiant heat - transfer of heat to the product through the heated air of the baking chamber, and conductive heat - transfer of heat directly into the product from the baking stone or deck. Deck ovens have even, consistent heat that make it ideal for controlled baking. They will usually include features like steam injection and a venting system to adjust the humidity inside the baking chamber.

"Tempered" chocolate refers to a process in which chocolate is heated and then cooled to produce stable fat crystals that allow the chocolate to set up firmly at room temperature.

The fat in chocolate, called cocoa butter, has a unique physical property called polymorphous crystallization. This means the fat, which is crystalline in structure, can take on many different shapes and sizes, and it's part of what makes chocolate so versatile as an ingredient.

Cocoa powder in its natural form is acidic. “Dutch processed” refers to a treatment of alkalizing the cocoa powder to bring it to a more neutral PH level. This produces a milder flavor and will darken the cacao. It also means that the more neutral cocoa powder will not react with alkaline leaveners, like baking soda, and will require a more neutral leavener such as baking powder.

Essentially all baking powder sold today is double-action. The double-action moniker refers to the two acids found in this type of baking powder. The first acid works when it is introduced to liquid. The second acid reacts when introduced to heat, solving the problem of the sodium bicarbonate using up all its juice before the muffin is even in the oven.

The % on a package of chocolate refers to the percentage by weight of total cocoa content – both cocoa butter and all other cocoa solids – in the chocolate*. The higher the percentage, the darker the chocolate. However, because chocolate production allows for an enormous variance in sugar, dairy and other ingredients added. Not all chocolates of the same percentage will have the same bitterness or sweetness, etc.

*while this is the most common meaning, there is no standard for what the percentage represents, so it may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

To dock a dough means to basically aerate it, creating small holes that will allow trapped air to escape under the dough during baking so that it doesn’t billow up or puff when you want it to bake flat. A docker is the tool that makes it happen; A roller with lots of pins protruding from it that create holes as you roll it along dough. If you get one, choose metal pins instead of plastic because they don't warp.

While most people assume that moisture loss is the main culprit in a stale product, that's actually not the case. When a product bakes, the starch in the recipe absorbs water and swells. This does a lot for the final texture and quality of the baked good, but it doesn't last forever. Over time, the water begins to break free from the starch, and the starch reverts back into its natural crystal form, creating the texture we associate with stale bread.

Volatile molecules, which are often the building blocks for the flavor in our food, will begin to evaporate over time, ruining and dulling the flavor of the product. This, like the starch recrystallization, is an inevitable chemical reaction and can't be stopped. But water loss still is a factor in product staling, and for that some things can be done.

The biggest water-related factors that cause a product to go stale are the moisture content of the recipe and the baking method. Obviously a recipe with more water in it is going to have more moisture, but too much water can ruin the texture of a nice cake or cookie, so simply adding more water is not going to work. Adding sugar is a great way to add moisture, because sugar will absorb water and hold onto it during baking. Often times fat will be added in a recipe to give the perception of moisture, which is why many bakeries add shortening or oil to their cakes. Emulsifiers like soy lecithin will also aid in retaining water.

As for baking method, it's pretty straightforward: the longer you bake a product, the more moisture you're going to lose. The heat from the oven causes water in your recipe to turn to steam and rise up and out of the product. You want some of this reaction since it helps your product rise, but too much and you lose water that keeps your baked good moist. Bottom line is don't over bake your cakes and cookie! Removing them from the oven and letting carry over cooking - heat retained from baking continues to cook your product even out of the oven - finish the job is a good way to avoid too much moisture loss.

Cacao nibs are the hulled, fermented and roasted cocoa beans that have been broken down into pieces. It is cacao in the final stage before being ground into chocolate liquor and played with to from finished chocolate. They are edible as is and have a mild, nutty flavor.

The short answer is keeping your baked goodies in air tight containers as soon as they're cool. If you happen to be in a very dry environment, it can help to place a small piece of bread or slightly damp paper towel in the container with them to create a humid environment that will prevent staling. Nothing in the world will keep your cakes or cookies from eventually going stale, but a tightly sealed container helps give them a longer life.

But what causes staling?? Find the answer here.  

Technically, nope. Don’t expect the same results.

You might be asking "why is this even an FAQ??", but I've actually heard this question more often than you might think. While all eggs have the same basic components of fat, protein and water, the ratios of those components can vary greatly from one species of egg to the other. So while sure, you could add duck eggs to your cupcake instead of chicken eggs, don't expect to get the same look, flavor and consistency. But really, who the hell is in a situation where chicken eggs aren't the most readily available?