So after posting I found out that this is not even meant to be a realistic physics simulation.. The purpose of this is not to physically simulate the bread, it is to model it simply so that it looks realistic.
But a lot of this visualization stuff does blur the line with physics and math.
Dang, that means we can't use it predictively, to simulate how a given recipe would turn out without having to actually bake it. Imagine genetic algorithms for finding the perfect cookie recipe...