Wikijunior:How Things Are Made/Food/Bread

Products edit

Bread is a food that are usually made by bakers.

What do we need to make this thing? edit

Bread is made with three basic ingredients: Grain, water, and bakers' yeast.

Grains are composed of three parts: bran (the hard outer layer), germ (the reproductive component), and endosperm (the soft inner core).

To make wholemeal bread, all parts are ground together to make whole wheat and rye breads.

To make white bread, the bran and the germ must be removed. Since bran and germ contain much of the nutrients in grain, the white flour is often "enriched" with vitamins and minerals.

Water and yeast are mixed with the flour to make dough.

Yeast is actually a tiny organism which feeds off the sugars in the grain, and emits carbon dioxide. The growth of the yeast produces gas bubbles, which leaven the bread.

Depending on type of bread, additional ingredients such as salt, fat, sugar, honey, raisins and nuts are also added in to the receipe.

What is the step by step process? edit

  • Step 1: The sifted flour is poured into an industrial mixer. Temperature-controlled water is piped into the mixer. A pre-measured amount of yeast is added.
  • Step 2: The mixer is essentially an enclosed drum that rotates at speeds between 35 to 75 revolutions per minute. Inside the drum, mechanical arms knead the dough to the desired consistency in a matter of seconds.
  • Step 3: The breads are allowed to ferment naturally. In this instance, the dough is placed in covered metal bowls and stored in a temperature-controlled room until it rises.
  • Step 4: After the dough has fermented, it is loaded into a divider with rotating blades that cut the dough into pre-determined weights.
  • Step 5: A conveyer belt then moves the pieces of dough to a molding machine. The molding machine shapes the dough into balls and drops them onto a layered conveyer belt that is enclosed in a warm, humid cabinet called a "prover." The dough moves slowly through the prover so that it may "rest," and so that the gas reproduction may progress to inflate the bread more.
  • Step 6: When the dough emerges from the prover, it is conveyed to a second molding machine which re-shapes the dough into loaves and drops them into pans.
  • Step 7: From the prover, the pans enter a tunnel oven. The temperature and speed are carefully adjusted so that when the loaves emerge from the tunnel, they are completely baked and partially cooled.
  • Step 8: The bread are loaded on the cooling tower to cool down the bread and moved on to slicing machine
  • Step 9: Vertical serrated blades move up and down at great speeds, slicing the bread into constant sized pieces.
  • Step 10: Metal plates hold the slices together while picking up each loaf and passing it to the wrapping machine. Pre-printed plastic bags are mechanically slipped over each loaf. Lastly the bread bag are tied using Kwik-Lock to ensure the freshness