Breadmaking know how

Press, 2 March 1982, Page 16

Breadmaking know how

Breadmaking starts with the harvesting of wheat. If you live on a farm or have stayed on one during your Christmas holidays, you will have seen the farmer harvesting the paddocks of wheat in January and February. The wheat is stored in huge silos until it is needed for milling. At the flourmill it is dry-cleaned, washed before being crushed, sieved, and sifted several times. Now the ' bakery takes over. The ingredients for bread are flour, water, sugar, yeast for fermentation, and salt for flavour. In smaller bakeries the ingredients are mixed together by hand to make a dough. Machinery is

used to mix the dough in large factories. The dough is kept in . the “proving" room for . about four hours, at a temperature of 80deg. F and 75 per cent humidity. This is so that the yeast can ferment. When fermentation happens the sugars in the flour are changed into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The gas makes the dough rise so that when the loaves of bread are cooked they are not flat. The dough is weighed and cut. then it is shaped and put into baking tins. These are placed into the oven and the loaves of bread are cooked. Huge modern ovens, which can bake up to 2000 loaves in

an hour, are used in some J factories. The bread is ,• moved around in the oven so [ that it is evenly baked. » After cooking the loaves J are cooled and sorted ready f for slicing and packaging. i Razor-sharp knives on the > slicing machines cut the ! loaves into slices of different ' thickness. The mechanical ' arms of the wrapping : machine pass a waxed-paper ' wrap, or plastic bag. around t the loaves and seal the ends ! tight. ; The bread is now ready for • delivery. The salesman cof- I lects his order from the r factory and delivers it to •' supermarkets and shops, usu- < ally very early in the morn- ; ing ready for the shoppers to..> buy.