Industrial production and bakery processing equipment

Although bakery products entail a variety of products ranging from bread to sweet goods such as cakes, each product undergoes the same key processes due to the base ingredients being flour, water, and leavening agents such as yeast, baking soda, or baking powder in addition to sugar, salt, oils, etc. The production process starts with mixing the ingredients in bakery processing equipment, including spiral, horizontal, low- or high-speed mixers.

The next step is fermentation which allows yeast to convert sugars and starches into simpler substances and raise the dough. After a few hours of fermentation and proofing, the bulk dough is loaded on a conveyer and cut by dividers into desired sizes, which are later shaped according to the end-product specifications. The final step is baking, which is different for yeast-leavened and chemically-leavened products. While the former goes through three stages of baking which are the expansion of the dough, drying of the surface, and crust browning, for the latter the stages depend based on formulation. The baked good must be cooled, and if required, especially for certain pastries, it can be either decorated or completed with a filling or glazing.

Tradition vs. Modernism in the baking industry

The staple food: making bread

Despite being a fairly simple food made of only a few base ingredients such as flour, water, and yeast, slight differences in the production process result in a large number of bread types. Some of the most popular are white bread, baguettes, ciabatta, or rye bread. However, the basic production processes of mixing, fermentation, and baking are staples.

The objective of mixing is the blending and hydration of dry ingredients, air incorporation, and gluten development which takes up to 15 minutes in mixing equipment. The fermentation process is crucial for developing flavor and texture through yeast growth. The dough is fermented in fermentation tanks at room temperature for several hours.

Sweet treats from cakes to biscuits

Sweet goods, including cakes, doughnuts, croissants, cookies, and biscuits, are just as important in a bakery’s assortment as bread. Cake production starts with dough or batter production in a vertical batch mixer which is then pressed into pans with a filling machine. The cake is baked in a tunnel oven, cooled, and transported to the packaging machines. For doughnut production, the wet yeast slurry is mixed separately, added to the flour-water mixture, and mixed by a large dough hook.

Once mixed well, it simulates the human kneading process to homogenize the ingredients. The rested dough is forced into a hopper and transferred to an extruder to form the doughnut shapes. Unlike other pastries, doughnuts are fried in an open fryer and finally glazed. The main difference in croissants production is that the main ingredient along with flour is butter, which plays a key role in the process of lamination that gives it the signature flaky texture.

The dough is rested and proofed several times and treated with egg wash before baking at 200°C. The cookies and biscuits-making process starts with dough production, followed by dough feed and molding. While soft biscuit dough contains more fat and is molded in mold cavities of the biscuit line, hard biscuits are sheeted into layers and pressed through rolls. Cookie batter, on the other hand, is extruded via pumps. The shaped dough is transported into baking chambers.

Gluten-free and vegan bakery goods

As gluten intolerance is becoming more common, the baking industry is trying to reach the demand by using gluten-free cereals and pseudocereals, as well as milled legumes, seeds, and nuts as an alternative to wheat flour. Gluten is a binding structural protein that provides elasticity and retains moisture. Some of the substitutes used in gluten-free products are xanthan gum, guar gum, or ground seeds like psyllium, flax, and chia.