Mass (food)

A mass (Latin massa 'lump', Greek maza 'bread dough') is a preliminary product in food production that is still shaped, baked or processed in some other way.

In technical terms, one differentiates between doughs and masses - without any precise limits - by their flour content. Due to their high toughness, doughs are kneaded and masses (with less toughness) are stirred or whipped. A mass of sand, for example, is stirred. Therefore the term sand dough  - as well as the term " bisque dough " - is not correct in the technical language of the bakery and confectionery trade etc. and the language of food law, for the (domestic) kitchen it is irrelevant.

For the production of masses, little or no flour or starch powder (mostly wheat powder = starch powder made from wheat) is used. The loosening is usually done by entrapping air (by beating vigorously with a whisk).

In the production of baked goods, the term mass is essentially used for two groups of intermediate products in fine baked goods :

1. Viscous mixtures that are made by stirring or whipping egg white (or whole egg ) with sugar , fat and a little flour or just starch and used for the further processing of basic baked goods
   • light (= lower fat) masses: incendiary mass (often, but not technically, also called “choux pastry ”), biscuit mass , Viennese mass . Here the egg part is responsible for the inclusion of air and thus the loosening of the finished products.
   • heavy (= fatty) masses: sand cake masses , Baumkuchen masses . Here the frothy, whipped fat has to manage the inclusion of air.
2. Semi-finished products that are used for garnishing, filling, topping or covering pastries. Examples are: marzipan paste, bee sting paste, poppy seed paste, quark paste.

Comparison of masses and doughs

feature	Dimensions	dough
raw materials	Eggs, sugar, starch powder, fat	Flour, water or milk
Manufacturing	Stir, whip	Kneading or stirring (shortcrust pastry)
consistency	soft, frothy	malleable
Loosening	Air, steam or baking soda	Yeast, water vapor (for puff pastry ), potassium carbonate (for gingerbread dough)
species	Mixing mass , biscuit mass , Viennese mass , sand mass , meringue mass , macaroon mass ,  fire mass	Yeast dough , Danish pastry , puff pastry , shortcrust pastry , gingerbread dough

Individual evidence

1. ^ Josef Loderbauer: The baker's book in learning fields . Verlag Handwerk und Technik, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-582-40205-9 .