THE BAKE SHOP (part I)

By definition the bake shop is the area that requires more exact "science" than any other area of the kitchen. To obtain consistency we must rely on accurate measuring and weighing and respect the proper handling requirements of each product. Likewise more patience is demanded here, and shortcuts will prove disastrous. Here many of the fundamental ingredients are very simple and basic but with time comes experience and with it the "touch" that produces the "magic of a chef". With it you will be able to make the final adjustments using your newly aquired "professional" senses of sight, touch and smell.
To answer the question of what are breads and pastries then, let us consider the bake shop consisting of two related but distinct areas of production, knowledge and skills;

1. PASTRY
   To produce the wide variety of different doughs and sweet confections consumed in the hotel. This is accomplished by combining flour, sugar, butter, fat, eggs and flavorings. Note that as flour, sugar and fats come in a variety of classifications, mastering their characteristics is a "must" part of pastry shop training.

2. BAKERY
   To produce the wide variety of different Bread products consumed in the hotel. Generalizing we can say that there are three varieties of baked products; Doughs, Batters, Pastes into which, as a rule a "leavening agent" gets introduced. The wide variety of breads produced comes from the manipulation of a few simple products and once again mastering their characteristics is a "must" part of bake shop training.

   Flour	Water	Milk	Leavening Agents	Sugar	Salt	Eggs	Shortening

THE BAKERY

GENERAL INFORMATION
The glory and wonder of bread baking lies in it's simplicity, though at first glance it can appear to be intimidatingly complicated. Utilizing the basic ingredients of flour, water, leavening (usually yeast), sugar and salt the wide world of breads with the plethora of accompanying flavors and textures are created. Never forget that bread begins as a "Living" product, vibrating with live yeast cells. A master baker can pluck this yeast out of the air in his bakery.

EQUIPMENT
• Large Equipment
  
  • Spiral Dough Mixer
    The best machine for mixing large quantities of dough.
    
  • 60-80 quart floor mixer
    mix and knead doughs with bread hook or paddle attachements
  • Proofing cabinet or box
    Moist proof or "ferment or rise" the dough
  • bun divider / rounder
    scales weighed bulk dough into individual rolls and shapes them also
  • floor sheeter and / or bench sheeter
    for rolling out crackers, lavosh and other items that require it
  • Rotary oven with roll in racks and steam
    the principal baking oven in the bake shop; gas fired, electronically controlled
  • convection ovens
    for all forms of baking breads and pastries
• Small Equipment
  
  • Baker's scale
    for "scaling" or weighing ingredients. Beam scale is preferred.
    
  • Measuring cups and spoons
    for volumetric measuring, which also is important
  • Flour sifters
    various diameters and mesh sizes depending on the quantitiy and quality to be sifted
  • Strainers
    for removing foreign particles and lumps from liquids and purees
  • Rolling baker's racks
    make sure you have plenty to go along with the sheet pans
  • sheet pans
    needed in great quantities, both for actual baking and preparation also
  • Stainless Steel bowls
    non reactive and many sizes to suit the need
  • Bread molds
    
    • loaf pans
    • pullman load forms
    • muffin tins
• Utensils
  
  • Baker's Dough Knife
    Also called dough divider, dough blade or pastry scrapper.
    A soon to be extension of your arm. This handy rectangular tool has many uses to a baker in the scaling and shaping process and the working or lifting soft doughs when they are sticky. One with a thin flexible blade and a wooden handle is preferred , with a blade about 5 inches wide.
  • Knives
    • pairing knife
    • palette knife (offset handle type)
    • bread knife
    • carving knife
    • large chopping knife
    • filleting knife
      
  • Brushes
    Get good quality paint brush style.
    • round
    • various widths rectangular
      4 inch, 3 inch, 2 inch
    • muffin tins
      
  • Pastry bags and Tubes
    best are the plastic lined and well stitched. Get stainless steel tubes in various sizes and styles like;
    

    open star tips

    closed star tips

    fluted tips

    plain tips

  • stainless steel whip or whisk
    to make egg washes and other liquid preparations
  • 6 wheel adjustable dough divider
    for cutting 5 equal sized strips of dough at the same time
  • Roller Docker
    for perforating various cracker and bread doughs.
  • Pastry wheel
    a pizza cutter for trimming dough items
  • Bench brush
    for cleaning off the work bench, usually of excess flour


INGREDIENTS
As mentioned before, one of the goals of the bakery training course is to understand the proper handling and use of the ingredients. This is one of the main objectives of this section on ingredients.

• FLOUR
  
  • General Information
    There are numerous kinds of flours, based on the wheat and or the grain from which they are milled. They all have different properties. The most important property of the flour relating to baking is the gluten and moisture absorbing characteristics. Dry flour will take up much more water than flour that has been stored in a humid environment. In the new world wheat flour is milled from two types of wheat grain, hard and soft, but it is the flour from the MIXING of the two milled wheat grains which mosts interests the baker.
  • Gluten
    This is a plant protein that is found mainly in the flour of wheat. When mixed with water and kneaded it yields an elastic property that networks through-out the dough that functions to trap the escaping steam and gases like CO2 (carbon dioxide) that are generated during the baking process. This "ballooning effect" of trapped gases causes the product to rise, then after baking and when cooled down this elastic material will harden and help give the product it's shape. So we can attribute both the stretch and hardness to the wheat flour gluten protein. Whether a flour has high or low gluten content is a relationship of the percentage of protein, with "Soft flour" having about a 7 % gluten content and "Hard flour" having about a 15 % gluten content. Most flour milled in the U.S. has about an 7% - 15% gluten content with bread flour ranging from 11% - 15%. Soft wheat flour is low in gluten so it makes a softer, less expansive and more tender product and is used in mainly in cake flours and mixes. Hard wheat (like semolina), grown on the western prairies of the United States and Canada has the higher gluten content, so is therefore used to manufacture bread flour which produces more expansive loaves of bread.

    FLOUR TABLE

    NAME	GLUTEN CONTENT	INFORMATION
    BREAD FLOUR	high content	Comes from a mixing of milled wheat grains. Because of it's high gluten content it is used for making elastic bread products. It is usually bleached, which results in flour stripped of the bran and germ, so it needs to be enriched for nutritional reasons. Also, since most is milled using steel rollers instead of stone grinding, the higher temperature from the steel rollers destroys more of the delicate nutrients, which then also need to be replaced. Also used to make pastas.
    CAKE FLOUR	low content	Comes from soft wheat, finely ground like a powder and is used to make cakes and other delicate baked goods.
    ALL PURPOSE FLOUR	medium content	A blend of hard and soft wheat flours, usually bleached and enriched. This is a very versatile flour which fills most bread and pastry needs.
    UNBLEACHED FLOUR	medium content	Is a blended flour essentially bleached by the aging process, and enriched with extra hard wheat. This flour is considered by some to be the most similiar to French flour.
    PATENT FLOUR	high content	A "super" blend of hard and soft wheat flours, usually bleached and enriched. Used for making high quality baked bread products.
    PASTRY FLOUR	medium content	Very similiar to Cake flour it comes from soft wheat, finely ground like a powder and is used to make pastries and other delicate baked goods
    SELF-RISING FLOUR	medium content	Is simply ordinary all purpose flour to which baking powder has been added. Should not be used with yeast fermented products, and is generally used for cakes and muffins.
    WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR	medium content	Is usually "stone ground" which results in a higher level of natural nutrients due to this process's lower milling temperature.Contains the germ or fat portion of the wheat kernel and if to be stored for any length of time should be refrigerated
    RYE FLOUR	very low content	Usually blended with white or whole wheat flours to get its gluten content up. Is either white, medium or dark with medium being the one used for rye bread making.
    PUMPERNICKLE FLOUR	very low content	Is coarsley ground rye flour with bran particles left in.

  
• LEAVENERS
  
  • General Information
    Almost all breads of the world are "leavened" ,the most common of which is YEAST. Bread doughs are able to be leavened or expanded by one or all of three gases......
    .........Carbon Dioxide, Hot Air, or Steam. All these gases are trapped by the elastic network of gluten protein strands in the dough mass which causes the product to expand and stretch. This is what we call the "rising" of the dough.
    The modern organization of leaveners classifies them in three catagories....
    Organic, Chemical and Physical Leaveners......
    • Organic Leaveners
      • Yeast
        Comes in two forms, fresh and dried instant which is more concentrated then fresh. Both produce the same results if they are quality products and not outdated. To store yeast keep it refrigerated or even frozen. Cold will not kill yeast only "put it to sleep" until warmth wakes (activates) it up again. Yeast preferrs the temperature range of 84 degrees F to 90 degress F, tolerates the temperature range from 70 degress F to 110 degress F where we begin to see a slow down in the yeast activity down and continues active in baking bread until the internal temperature reaches140 degrees F. which kills the active yeast spores. Note: Temperature control is very important when working with yeast.

        The chemcal reaction of......................
        [yeast + sugar] when warmed yields [CO2 (carbon dioxide) + ethyl alcohol (C2H5-OH)]

        100 grams Sugar + Yeast =YIELDS= 49 grams of CO2 gas + 51 grams Alcohol..............

        Wild or cultivated, the yeast cells will produce CO2 gas,the most common dough "expander", as they feed on sugar and this gas is what helps produces the "rising" of the bread and contributes immensely to it's flavor.

    • Chemical Leaveners
      • Baking Powder and Baking Soda
        Baking Soda's active ingredient responsible for it's leavening action is Sodium Bicarbonate. Baking Powder combines baking soda with cream of tartar or some other acid and has two subclasses.....
        Single Acting which is a one step process and results in expansion all at once. This is of course inconvenient when working with large quantities.

        Double Acting which is much more controllable because it acts in two stages. The first act is when it comes in contact with water at room temperature (normal working and handling temeratures) and produces off CO2 gas. Then when the product is baking and the temperature is increasing the second act produces steam to expand the product a second time. This is of course much more convenient , especially when working with large quantities.
        Because of the quick action of these chemical leaveners, they are used to make products refered to as "Quick Breads".

        The chemcal reaction of[baking soda + water} at room temerature yields [CO2}

        The chemcal reaction of[baking powder + acid} at room temerature with liquid yields [CO2}

    • Physical Leaveners
      • Steam
        This takes advantage of the physical law that when water is hot enough to be converted to steam ( a gas) it expands in volume 1600 times.
        
      • Hot Air
        This takes advantage of another physical law that when heated, air (a gas) expands and therefore rises.

    
    
  • Brewer's Yeast
    This is not a leavening agent even though it is often used in bread production. It is really a very good source of protein, with a very broad spectrum. Since it has been heat treated it is no longer "alive" or active and cannot be substituted for regular yeast.

  • Starters
    Were historically utilized because of the uncertainty of the yeast, and then usually in combination with fresh yeast. For years they were guarded secrets, continually fed more flour and sugar and kept in heavy porcelain crocks in the warm kitchen. Today the starter is really used to add that special flavor to the product, and like in olden times, but for different reasons, is blended into the batch as a booster with fresh yeast. The most notorious of starters is the..........
    ........sourdough starter......... with the traditional process being to mix flour, water and a bit of sugar then allow it to stand until it had managed to capture the natural wild yeast spores which float in the air everywhere. Once captured they would begin the fermentation process and feed on the flour and water mix. The modern process is to let a natural starter or sponge sit until it has fermented. Frequently some mild is added to speed up this process. When used, part of the sourdough starter goes into the dough mix and the remaining starter is replenished with some of the finished sourdough mix, or just by adding more flour and water to the mother starter.

  • Sponges
    Very similiar in ingredients to the starter. Water, yeast, a bit of flour and sugar are allowed to ferment for a specified time. This concentrated flavor is then add to the mix at the proper time to give the end product a unique flavor depending on the variables involved in the sponge. Sort of like a sour soup.



• SHORTENERS and FATS
  
  • Definition
    Shorteners are fats which "Shorten the length" of the gluten strands by surrounding them with lubricating fat or oil. By being "shorter" the gluten protein strands are more tender, but also easier to break. Shorteners also help to retain moisture, contribute to both flavor and color, and when creamed with sugar (which incorporates the physical leavener AIR) helps to expand a product. In general, they play a bigger role in the pastry shop but when used in the bakery make the finished product more tender and richer in flavor. A dough can be classified as "lean or rich" depending on how much shortening ( and sugar) is used.
  • General Information
    • Animal fats
      Shorten more more then vegetable fats do.
    • Mechanics
      Fats in reality are lubricants allowing the gluten strands to slide easily. If you shorten too much your cake or muffin will fall wile baking as the strands of gluten will have been made too tender.
    • Fat Substitution
      This is risky because of the difference in the saturation level of the fat, amounts of free fatty acids and water content of the shortening. The fats used in the bake shop vary in their make up of these properties, which make the substitution tricky. However, with so much emphasis on lowering of the fat intake, especially of these saturated fats, fat substitution is an ever increasing procedure for health and nutritional considerations.
    • Incorporation
      The more the fat is incorporated or combined, the more it affects the final texture. When put in between layers of dough and then rolled, a product with a flaky texture is produced, like croissants and Danish. If creamed with sugar and mixed with a batter product a cakelike product is produced, like muffins.

      COMMON SHORTENERS

      Butter

      Oil

      Hydrogenated Shortening (solid) Margarine

      Lard

      Heavy Cream

      Milk

      Eggs



• SWEETENERS
  
  • General Information
    One should not forget that sugar / sweetners have been one of man's oldest natural forms of preserving food. The have the ability to naturally retain moisture. Honey, because of it's high acidity and contains "inverted sugar", retains mositure the best and for this reason is used in products which will be stored a long time like holiday cakes. Molasses is similiar to honey but less acidic. Also, do not forget that yeast feeds off of sugar so it needs to be present in some natural form, or added. As baked products that contain sugar /sweetners bake, the sugar undergoes "carameliztion" which add to the finished products' an appetizing dark, baked color. Since sugars vary in their sweetening power below is a small table for reference.

    SUGAR and SWEETENER POWER TABLE

    NAME	RELATIVE PERCENTAGES
    Cane Sugar	100 %
    Beet Sugar	100 %
    Honey	97 %
    Molasses	74 %
    Corn Syrup	30 %
    Saccarin	300 %



• FLAVORINGS
  
  • General Information
    Flavorings are used more in the pastry shop than the bakery, but play an important none the less, going inot the production of danish, coffee cakes, muffins, and some breads. They shyould be used with care to not over flavor but to try and create a product with united flavors.
    
  • Classifications
    Generally can divide into two classes, Natural and Synthetic.

    FLAVORINGS TABLE

    NATURAL	SYNTHETIC	OTHERS
    fruits nuts chocolate vanilla lemon natural extracts natural essences natural concentrates	duplicates of the natural materials synthetic flavorings synthetic extracts and essences	fresh herbs fresh spices starters patience

• WATER
  
  • General Information
    The temperature of the water in very important in for the gluten development and the fermentaion of the yeast also. The temperature for the water and the working area (bake shop) is 75 degrees F or 23 degrees C.

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