Welcome to TheBakingPan glossary. This baking glossary is a comprehensive assortment of dessert, pastry, and confectionery terms.

What is the difference between desserts, pastries, and confections, or are they actually the same thing?

Almost but they’re not quite the same thing. Dessert is a general term for something normally served at the end of a meal, it can be hot or cold, and includes any number of sweet things such as cakes, pies, ice cream, cookies, pudding, fruits, and soufflés. Pastry may be sweet or savory, and refers to something made with dough, such as pies, quiche, tarts, and Danishes. Confections are small bite-size sweets, such as chocolates and candies.

A glossary is an alphabetized collection of specialized terms with definitions, in this case all terms related to baking. Hopefully within this baking glossary you will find what you are looking for, or learn a sweet fact you didn’t previously know.

Click on any letter below to search this glossary alphabetically:

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Use of Glossary:
This baking glossary is a continual work in progress, with new baking terms, changes, and updates being made occasionally. This baking glossary may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written or verbal permission of Carol Arroyo, TheBakingPan, and appropriate credit given. If you have any suggestions regarding this baking glossary, please feel free to contact mewith your ideas.

Sources:
The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, Countryman Press, Vermont, 2003;
Beranbaum, Rose Levy, The Pie and Pastry Bible, Scribner, New York, 1998;
Bloom, Carole, The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections, Hearst Books, New York, 1995;
Daley, Regan, In the Sweet Kitchen, Artisan, New York, 2001;
Mushet, Cindy and Sur La Table, The Art & Soul of Baking, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Missouri, 2008;
Rinsky, Glen and Laura Rinsky, The Pastry Chef's Companion, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, 2009;
Stewart, Martha, Baking Handbook, Clarkson Potter, New York, 2005;
Teubner, Christian, Cakes & Pastries, Hearst Books, New York, 1983;
Walter, Carole, Great Pies & Tarts, Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, 1998;
Williams Sonoma, Essentials of Baking, Welden Owen Inc, California, 2003

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