How bread is made - Overview - Federation of Bakers (2024)

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How bread is made - Overview - Federation of Bakers? ›

When flour is moistened and stirred, beaten or kneaded, gluten develops to give dough `stretch`. The elastic framework of gluten holds the gas produced by the fermentation action of yeast. In a year of good harvest a bread grist may consist of 80% or more of home grown wheat.

It consists of a series of steps including mixing, fermentation, makeup, proofing, baking, cooling, slicing and packaging. Due to their critical role, these processes must be carefully operated to meet pre-set conditions and specifications.

Baking is the final step in making yeast-leavened (bread, buns, rolls, crackers) and chemically-leavened products (cakes, cookies). It's a thermal process that uses an oven, which transfers heat to the dough pieces via: Conduction through heated surfaces. Convection through hot air.

In typical high-volume bread-production, the dough is cut into individual pieces and allowed to "recover" for 5–8 minutes (intermediate proofing). Each piece of dough is then shaped, placed in a baking tin and moved to the humidity- and temperature-controlled proofing chamber, where it sits for about 45–50 minutes.

In bread making (or special yeasted cakes), the yeast organisms expel carbon dioxide as they feed off of sugars. As the dough rises and proofs, carbon dioxide is formed; this is why the dough volume increases. The carbon dioxide expands and moves as the bread dough warms and bakes in the oven. The bread rises and sets.

The 12-step process of bread baking involves: 1) scaling ingredients, 2) mixing and kneading dough, 3) fermentation for yeast growth, 4) deflating and punching down dough, 5) scaling dough pieces, 6) rounding dough balls, 7) benching dough for resting, 8) shaping dough pieces, 9) proofing final rise, 10) baking bread ...

Automated machines can now mix doughs, knead them, shape them, and bake them in a fraction of the time it would take to do it by hand. This has allowed bakeries to produce more bread in less time and with less labour, resulting in greater efficiency and cost savings.

Why put egg wash on bread? ›

The egg-liquid mixture is then brushed over baked goods—like bread or pastries—before going in the oven to help give them a strikingly golden color and an eye-catching gloss after baking. An egg wash can also help seal the edges of filled pastries or hand pies and help any sprinkled sugar adhere to the dough.

This shows that the role of product, price, place and promotion increases customer satisfaction. The dimensions of product and price have a more substantial influence than place and promotion.

Bread is usually made from a wheat-flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and baked in an oven. Carbon dioxide and ethanol vapors produced during yeast fermentation result in bread's air pockets.