Most baking recipes call for flour, often known as all-purpose flour or maida in India. It’s sold in branded packets and by the kilo in Kirana stores and supermarkets. Skimming the bran and husk from wheat flour, eliminating the fibre content.
Leaveners
Baking powder and baking soda are two essential ingredients in any baker’s cupboard. Yes, because they work in distinct ways, you should have both. A short version of a long story: Baking soda is used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient
Sugar
When sugar is listed as an ingredient in a recipe, it refers to granulated sugar. This type of sugar is made from the juice of sugarcane or beets and has been stripped of its natural molasses. It can then be refined to look white.
Salt
In ordinary baking, you’ll use granulated table salt. Because plain baked items can often have an unpleasant flavor, some bakers choose to use table salt that hasn’t been iodized. When measuring salt for a recipe, use table salt.
Dairy
Many wonderful baked items call for sour cream, yoghurt, or buttermilk, but plain old milk—2% or higher—is the must-have dairy for baking (whole milk is preferable). You can replace a lot of other dairy components with milk as a foundation.
Fats
Shortening is a solid vegetable fat that some cooks use to make tender baked goods like pie crusts, either as a replacement for butter or in combination with butter.