Artisan Bread: Bread made as it has been for centuries by trained hands. While the dough contains only flour, water, salt and leavening, other additions, such as olives or nuts, are acceptable. The dough undergoes a lengthy fermentation process. The result is a bread with more flavour, better crust and a complex texture.

Batard: A loaf that has an oval or oblong shape.

Boule: A round loaf (French for "ball").

Baguette: A long loaf of bread with a very open crumb possessing four to seven slits on the top of the loaf.

Bread:  One of the joys of life – especially when eaten warm out of the oven and with butter melted on top.

Ciabatta: A flatter, rectangular shaped bread with a tan-brown crisp crust. Loaves should be more flat than high and the bread should have large HOLES and lots of them. Ciabatta means "slipper" in Italian and the loaf resembles the shape of a foot slipper.

Cob: A crusty, round loaf of bread with scores

Crumb: The bread's interior. The soft part that is surrounded by the crust. It is often judged by holes (alveoles), moistness, colour, texture and flavour.

Fermentation: Fermentation describes the action when yeast feeds on available starch, converting sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Trapped carbon dioxide stretches gluten, develops complex flavours and is responsible for the development of the alveoles in the crumb.

Focaccia: An Italian chewy flatbread made with bread dough that can be baked plain or studded with onions, fresh herbs, cheese, or whatever you choose.

Gluten: A natural protein in wheat flour. When the bread dough is kneaded, gluten becomes an elastic net that traps the carbon dioxide produced by the commercial yeast. The more the gluten is worked, by kneading the dough, the chewier the bread is.

Knead: The process of folding dough onto itself until gluten strands form

Knock Back: A bread baking term describing the process to release the carbon dioxide gas that has formed from a bread dough that has risen fully. Make a fist and push it into the center of the dough. Pull the edges of the dough to the center and turn the dough over in the mixing bowl. Cover the bowl and let it rise again before starting the shaping of the dough loaf.

Leaven: An ingredient mixed into the bread dough mixture that causes bread to rise, also known as "rising". It normally includes your wild yeast, commercial yeast, baking powder, baking soda, and other chemical leaveners used in modern baking today.

Mould or Moulding: To shape the finished dough into loaves by using your hands or machine. This is the forming of the dough into its final shape before baking in the oven.

Peel: A flat wide wooden blade fixed to a long pole. This is used for inserting the formed bread dough and removing the baked bread from hearth type ovens. Pizza shops also use it for their wide ovens.

Premium Bread: Although every bakery in the country has its own definition of premium bread, a few commonalties stand. Compared to traditional sliced loaves, premium breads are generally smaller in length, wider, denser and contain an array of inclusions and toppings.

Proof: Allow the dough to rise in a warm, moist place and away from drafts that can inhibit (slow down) the rising process. Defined as any fermentation that takes place after forming the loaf. Dough that is fully proofed should have doubled in volume. The term "rise" can be used interchangeably.

Score: To cut the surface of the loaf prior to baking. This provides for controlled expansion of the loaves during baking so they do not “break” undesirably. Scoring is also used to enhance the appearance of the bread.

Sponge: In bread baking terms, a mixture of only part of the bread's ingredients, generally part of the water and part of the flour. The sponge allows for increased fermentation, meaning better flavour and generally better rising.

Scratch Baking: To be involved in the entire process of making bread from weighing the ingredients through to baking and cooling the bread.

Turkish Bread: A ridged, flat bread also known as Pide

Wholesale Bakery: A bakery, normally with extensive production facilities, that uses retail outlets variously located in food stores, grocery stores, supermarkets, etc., to sell its products to the consumer.