Cereal Starches

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How Baking Works

By Paula Figoni

Published 2003

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Cereal starches are extracted from the endosperm of cereal grains. Cornstarch, for example, is purified from the endosperm of corn kernels. Other cereal starches include rice starch, wheat starch, and waxy maize.
Cornstarch is the most common starch used in the bakeshop. In North America, cornstarch has the advantage of being inexpensive and readily available. Cornstarch should be your first choice for starch in the bakeshop, unless for some reason it does not meet your particular needs.

Waxy maize is a type of cornstarch, one that is extracted from a very different corn kernel and has different properties than regular cornstarch. While most cereal starches are high-amylose starches, waxy maize is a high-amylopectin starch (see Table 12.2). Waxy maize starch, sometimes called waxy cornstarch, will be discussed in the section on modified food starch, because it is almost always used in its modified form.