Bread is a basic dietary item dating back to the Neolithic era, which is prepared by baking that is carried out in oven. Control of the production and distribution of bread has been used as a means of exercising political influence over the populace for at least the last two millennia. Several experimental and mathematical models are developed for clear understanding of baking. This article presents a review of published literatures on experimental and mathematical studies on bread baking during the last two decades. Baking technology, evolution of baking ingredients, thermophysical properties of bread as functions of moisture content and baking time are reviewed. Experimental and simulative studies on profiling of temperature, moisture content, pore volume, expansion ratio during baking are also reviewed. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.