Product Classification, ingredients and composition

Product classification, ingredients and composition

A different way of classifying bakery items can be done by categorising them in unsweetened, sweetened or filled products. In some traditional oriented classification products can also be classified based on ‘quality ingredient attributes’, think of the use of butter, eggs, bourbon vanilla or a local grown crops (can be wheat flour, but also oats or ‘sultanas’) and if used in a fair amount we often talk about ‘rich’ recipes (e.g. a lot of butter, sugar and/ or eggs and if used in a low amount we often speak of ‘poor’ recipes. This also is the case if some of those ingredients (e.g. butter or milk) are being replaced by more plantbased ingredients: in the recent past it was very often a downgrade of a product, but with the quick developments of vegan alternatives it doesn’t always have to be.

For several products the moisture content is a clear dealbreaker:

•           Bread; once too low it is considered as dry and bad quality
•           Biscuits and crackers; once too high it has become soft and perhaps even soggy and not crispy.

Moisture and fat content together partly determine a product category:

Type/ Category	Products	Characteristic	Fat
Batters	Wafers	High moisture content, ranging from 15-35% of total recipe, due to high amounts of egg and milk/water	Ranging from 0-25 of total recipe
	Waffels
	Pound Cakes
	Layer Cakes
	Muffins
Bread	Sandwichbreads	High Moisture and high in Flour. Distinct flavour due to fermentation (yeast or sourdough)	Ranging from 0-12 of total recipe
	Batard
	Floorbreads
	Fruitbreads
	Sweet breads
Cookies	Shortbread	Soft doughs, can be liquidly; generally passed through a hopper for depositing, extrusion or cutting	20-35% of total recipe
	Langues de Chat
	Chocolate Chip
	Butter cake
	Fruit cookies
Biscuits	Maria/ Tea	Short (little to -no liquids) or developed doughs (some liquids), depending on how it will be processed: rotary moulding or sheet and cut	5-20 of total recipe
	Sandwich
	Digestive
	Speculaas/ Spekulatius/ Gingerbread
Laminated	Puff Pastry	Developing dough by mixing or laminating, thus creating layers. With or without yeast	15-50% of total recipe
	Millefeuille
	Croissant
	Danish
	Strudel
	Baklava
	Pastries/ Pies
Cracker	Knackebröd	Wide range of very liquidy to hardly liquid (to sheet or laminate) dough types, generally savoury, so no sugar and high flour(s) content. Liquidy types are aerated and/ or extruded	0-20% of total recipe
	Fermented by yeast
	Fermented by enzymes

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