Baked Goods with a Crispy Crust

We usually expect the crust on baked goods, other than some cakes, to have a mouthfeel that can be characterized as crispy, crunchy, or crackly. These different expressions tell us that the way we experience eating a crust is linked to, and intermingled with, tactile, visual, and auditory sensory impressions.

Crispness is related to the high-frequency sound that is generated when the front teeth break through the crust, before it has been deformed by chewing—this is the sign of a good crust. The crunchy sound is tied to the merciless way in which the molars finish the job started by the incisors, reducing the pieces in ever smaller bits.