Baking is a method of
cooking food that uses prolonged dry heat, normally in an
oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is
bread but many other types of foods are baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and breads to their centre. As heat travels through it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods with a firm dry crust and a softer centre". Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid
barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the
masonry oven is similar to that of a
smoke pit.