Almost all baking needs the following components:
- - A framework agent (often gluten) such as flour
- - A leavening agent to add air bubbles to the framework and make the product rise such as yeast, baking powder, or whipped egg whites
- - A fat to help framework stretch or be spongy such as butter, oils or egg yolks
- - A liquid to develop the gluten, add moistness and give the leavening agent a medium to work such as water or milk
- - A protein to help solidify the framework around the air bubble created by the leavening agent such as egg whites
Adding sugar can help brown the product and salt can help control the growth of the yeast. But they are not critical in all baking.
It depends exactly what you are cooking so mixing these in different proportions will give you different doughs from Pizza dough to angel food cake.
