How bread is made
The principles of baking bread have been established for hundreds of years. The
basic ingredients are flour, yeast, salt and water.
All bread making processes rely on 4 key steps:
- Mixing
- Proving/Fermenting
- Baking
- Cooling
There are two main methods of making bread:
- Bulk Fermentation Process (BFP)
- Chorleywood Bread Process (CBP)
BFP is a traditional method. Ingredients are mixed together to form a dough and
left to ferment for up to three hours. During fermentation the dough changes from
a
short dense mass into an elastic dough. The time taken to reach this state
largely depends on the amount of yeast and the dough temperature.
CBP The modern commercial process used in large bakeries is known as the Chorleywood Bread Process and was developed in the early 1960's by the Flour Milling and Baking Research
Association at Chorleywood. This method produces bread and other fermented bakery
goods without the need to ferment the dough in bulk. Dough development in CBP is achieved during high speed mixing by intense mechanical working of the dough
in a few minutes. Not only does this save considerable time (which helps keep
down the cost), it also produces bread which is better in respect of volume,
colour
and keeping qualities. CBP is now by far the most common method used throughout all sectors of the bread
baking industry.
The same base ingredients – flour, water, yeast and some salt are used. In
addition, to achieve the shelf life expected by today's consumers, a small amount
either fat or emulsifiers are also used. These help to stabilise the bubbles in
the
dough that give the bread its characteristic soft texture.
Bread Improvers (flour treatment agents), usually Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), are
used in commercial production. These help to stabilise the bubbles in the dough
that give British bread its characteristic soft texture. All these ingredients
are clearly identified on pack in the ingredients list.
The plant bread production process takes around 4 hours from end to end.
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