Do you like to bake? Here’s an opportunity to learn some easy baking vocabulary to help you. Baking is when you make bread, cakes, cookies, pies, or other types of food that use dough (a mixture of flour, water, and other things). Many people enjoy (like doing) baking. But if you’re learning a language, following a recipe (list of instructions for baking or cooking) can be hard! There are a lot of easy baking vocabulary words you may not know. That’s why we’ve put together a list of easy baking vocabulary.

Learn these baking vocabulary words to help you in the kitchen, or read this blog on general cooking vocabulary! You’ll be baking like a pro (professional, experienced person) in no time (shortly)!

Measure

When you are baking, it’s very important to measure. Measuring is using the right amount of ingredients (the parts of food that go in a recipe). Different countries measure in different ways. In the U.S., we use cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons to measure our ingredients. In Europe, ingredients are measured by weight (how heavy something is). It’s very important to measure your ingredients when you bake. If you measure wrong, the thing you’re baking won’t bake in the right way or may even taste bad!

For example:

I need to measure one cup of sugar for the cookies I’m baking.
Can you measure 125ml of water for me, please?

Flour

One of the most important baking ingredients is flour (pronounced the same as flower). Flour is in almost every baking recipe. Flour can be made from many things, but it’s usually made from wheat (a type of grain). Flour is a light, soft, white powder that is used to make bread, cookies, and other baked goods. There are many types of flour. It can be made from rice, chickpeas, or other types of grains. The kind of flour you use is different for what you’re baking. The recipe will tell you what kind to buy.

For example:

I was making some bagels, and only had half of the flour that I needed. I had to ask my neighbor if they had some flour I could use.
When you go to the store, could you please buy some flour? I want to bake cookies tonight.

Preheat

Do you know how to preheat an oven (what you bake things in)? It’s easy! Many recipes tell you to preheat the oven. All this means is to turn the oven on to the right temperature so it can heat up (get warm). You should preheat the oven before putting something in. This is so that things bake and cook at the right temperature. If the recipe says to preheat the oven to 350 degrees, turn the oven on to 350 a couple minutes before you need it. There is usually a small light on the oven that turns on when it’s heating up and turns off when the oven is preheated. Then you can put your cookies or bread in the oven and let it bake!

For example:

Don’t forget to preheat the oven when you’re baking!
The light on my oven is broken, so I can’t tell if it’s preheated or not!

Knead

Have you ever made bread? If you have, the recipe probably said to knead the dough. But what does this mean? To knead bread dough (the circle of food that you made from the ingredients), first you place the dough on a flat surface with some flour on it (so the dough doesn’t stick). Then you use your hands to stretch, push, and squeeze the dough. Kneading dough makes the dough stronger. It also makes sure that the dough is the same all the way through. If you’re baking bread, you have to knead the dough before you bake it!

For example:

I love kneading bread dough. It’s such a good workout for my arms!
Knead the dough for 10 minutes before placing it on a pan and baking for 1 hour.

Dough

We’ve talked a lot about dough in this blog. But what exactly is dough? Dough is a mixture of dry and wet ingredients that’s used in baking. Dough may be made of flour, water, oil, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and eggs. What goes into dough depends on the recipe. Dough is usually only used in baking and is not used in cooking. Dough is the uncooked (raw) version of bread, brownies, cookies, and more!

For example:

I love to eat cookie dough when I’m baking cookies.
Put the dough into a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

What do you like to bake? What baking vocabulary would you like to see us write about? Share with us in the comments below!

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Erin Duffin lives in Hamburg, is an English teacher, blogger, yoga instructor, and enjoys learning new baking skills, especially when it involves learning new baking vocabulary in English!