HISTORY AND FACTS ABOUT BAKING

Baking, process of cooking by dry heat, especially in some kind of oven. It is

probably the oldest cooking method. Bakery products, which include bread,
rolls, cookies, pies, pastries, and muffins, are usually prepared from flour or
meal derived from some form of grain. Bread, already a common staple in
prehistoric times, provides many nutrients in the human diet.

Baking cookies Using science to make better chocolate chip cookies

History
The earliest processing of cereal grains probably involved parching or
dry roasting of collected grain seeds. Flavour, texture, and digestibility were
later improved by cooking whole or broken grains with water, forming gruel or
porridge. It was a short step to the baking of a layer of viscous gruel on a hot
stone, producing primitive flat bread. More sophisticated versions of flat bread
include the Mexican tortilla, made of processed corn, and the chapati of India,
usually made of wheat.

Baking techniques improved with the development of an enclosed baking

utensil and then of ovens, making possible thicker baked cakes or loaves. The
phenomenon of fermentation, with the resultant lightening of the loaf structure
and development of appealing flavours, was probably first observed when
doughs or gruels, held for several hours before baking, exhibited spoilage
caused by yeasts. Some of the effects of the microbiologically induced changes
were regarded as desirable, and a gradual acquisition of control over the
process led to traditional methods for making leavened bread loaves. Early
baked products were made of mixed seeds with a predominance of barley, but
wheat flour, because of its superior response to fermentation, eventually
became the preferred cereal among the various cultural groups sufficiently
advanced in culinary techniques to make leavened bread.

Brewing and baking were closely connected in early civilizations. Fermentation

of a thick gruel resulted in a dough suitable for baking; a thinner mash
produced a kind of beer. Both techniques required knowledge of the “mysteries”
of fermentation and a supply of grain. Increasing knowledge and experience
taught the artisans in the baking and brewing trades that barley was best
suited to brewing, while wheat was best for baking.

By 2600 BCE the Egyptians, credited with the first intentional use of leavening,
were making bread by methods similar in principle to those of today. They
maintained stocks of sour dough, a crude culture of desirable fermentation
organisms, and used portions of this material to inoculate fresh doughs. With
doughs made by mixing flour, water, salt, and leaven, the Egyptian baking
industry eventually developed more than 50 varieties of bread, varying the
shape and using such flavouring materials as poppyseed, sesame, and
camphor. Samples found in tombs are flatter and coarser than modern bread.
The Egyptians developed the first ovens. The earliest known examples are
cylindrical vessels made of baked Nile clay, tapered at the top to give a cone
shape and divided inside by a horizontal shelflike partition. The lower section is
the firebox, the upper section is the baking chamber. The pieces of dough were
placed in the baking chamber through a hole provided in the top.

In the first two or three centuries after the founding of Rome, baking remained
a domestic skill with few changes in equipment or processing methods.
According to Pliny the Elder, there were no bakers in Rome until the middle of
the 2nd century BCE. As well-to-do families increased, women wishing to avoid
frequent and tedious bread making began to patronize professional bakers,
usually freed slaves. Loaves molded by hand into a spheroidal shape, generally
weighing about a pound, were baked in a beehive-shaped oven fired by
wood. Panis artopticius was a variety cooked on a spit, panis testuatis in an
earthen vessel.

Although Roman professional bakers introduced technological improvements,

many were of minor importance, and some were essentially reintroductions of
earlier developments. The first mechanical dough mixer, attributed to Marcus
Virgilius Euryasaces, a freed slave of Greek origin, consisted of a large stone
basin in which wooden paddles, powered by a horse or donkey walking in
circles, kneaded the dough mixture of flour, leaven, and water.
Guilds formed by the miller-bakers of Rome became institutionalized. During
the 2nd century CE, under the Flavians, they were organized into a “college”
with work rules and regulations prescribed by government officials. The trade
eventually became obligatory and hereditary, and the baker became a kind of
civil servant with limited freedom of action.
During the early Middle Ages, baking technology advances of preceding
centuries disappeared, and bakers reverted to mechanical devices used by the
ancient Egyptians and to more backward practices. But in the later Middle
Ages the institution of guilds was revived and expanded. Several years of
apprenticeship were necessary before an applicant was admitted to the guild;
often an intermediate status as journeyman intervened between apprenticeship
and full membership (master). The rise of the bakers’ guilds reflected
significant advances in technique.

A 13th-century French writer named 20 varieties of bread varying in shape,

flavourings, preparation method, and quality of the meal used. Guild
regulations strictly governed size and quality. But outside the cities bread was
usually baked in the home. In medieval England rye was the main ingredient of
bread consumed by the poor; it was frequently diluted with meal made from
other cereals or leguminous seeds. Not until about 1865 did the cost of white
bread in England drop below brown bread.
At that time improvements in baking technology began to accelerate rapidly,
owing to the higher level of technology generally. Ingredients of greater purity
and improved functional qualities were developed, along with equipment
reducing the need for individual skill and eliminating hand manipulation of
bread doughs. Automation of mixing, transferring, shaping, fermentation, and
baking processes began to replace batch processing with continuous
operations. The enrichment of bread and other bakery foods with vitamins and
minerals was a major accomplishment of the mid-20th-century baking
industry.
Ingredients

Flour, water, and leavening agents are the ingredients primarily responsible for
the characteristic appearance, texture, and flavour of most bakery products.
Eggs, milk, salt, shortening, and sugar are effective in modifying these
qualities, and various minor ingredients may also be used.

Flour
Wheat flour is unique among cereal flours in that, when mixed with water in
the correct proportions, its protein component forms an elastic network
capable of holding gas and developing a firm spongy structure when baked.
The proteinaceous substances contributing these properties are known
collectively as gluten. The suitability of a flour for a given purpose is
determined by the type and amount of its gluten content. Those characteristics
are controlled by the genetic constitution and growing conditions of the wheat
from which the flour was milled, as well as the milling treatment applied.
Low-protein, soft-wheat flour is appropriate for cakes, pie crusts, cookies
(sweet biscuits), and other products not requiring great expansion and elastic
structure. High-protein, hard-wheat flour is adapted to bread, hard rolls, soda
crackers, and Danish pastry, all requiring elastic dough and often expanded to
low densities by the leavening action.
Leavening agents
Pie doughs and similar products are usually unleavened, but most bakery
products are leavened, or aerated, by gas bubbles developed naturally or folded
in. Leavening may result from yeast or bacterial fermentation, from chemical
reactions, or from the distribution in the batter of atmospheric or injected
gases.
Yeast

All commercial breads, except salt-rising types and some rye bread, are
leavened with bakers’ yeast, composed of living cells of the yeast
strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A typical yeast addition level might be 2
percent of the dough weight. Bakeries receive yeast in the form of compressed
cakes containing about 70 percent water or as dry granules containing about 8
percent water. Dry yeast, more resistant to storage deterioration than
compressed yeast, requires rehydration before it is added to the other
ingredients. “Cream” yeast, a commercial variety of bakers’ yeast made into a
fluid by the addition of extra water, is more convenient to dispense and mix
than compressed yeast, but it also has a shorter storage life and requires
additional equipment for handling.

Bakers’ yeast performs its leavening function by fermenting such sugars as

glucose, fructose, maltose, and sucrose. It cannot use lactose, the
predominant sugar of milk, or certain other carbohydrates. The principal
products of fermentation are carbon dioxide, the leavening agent, and ethanol,
an important component of the aroma of freshly baked bread. Other yeast
activity products also flavour the baked product and change the dough’s
physical properties.

The rate at which gas is evolved by yeast during the various stages of dough
preparation is important to the success of bread manufacture. Gas production
is partially governed by the rate at which fermentable carbohydrates become
available to the yeast. The sugars naturally present in the flour and the initial
stock of added sugar are rapidly exhausted. A relatively quiescent period
follows, during which the yeast cells become adapted to the use of maltose, a
sugar constantly being produced in the dough by the action of
diastatic enzymes on starch. The rate of yeast activity is also governed by
temperature and osmotic pressure, the latter primarily a function of the water
content and salt concentration.

Baking soda

Layer cakes, cookies (sweet biscuits), biscuits, and many other bakery products
are leavened by carbon dioxide from added sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).
Added without offsetting amounts of an acidic substance, sodium bicarbonate
tends to make dough alkaline, causing flavour deterioration and discoloration
and slowing carbon dioxide release. Addition of an acid-reacting substance
promotes vigorous gas evolution and maintains dough acidity within a
favourable range.
Carbon dioxide produced from sodium bicarbonate is initially in dissolved or
combined form. The rate of gas release affects the size of the bubbles produced
in the dough, consequently influencing the grain, volume, and texture of the
finished product. Much research has been devoted to the development of
leavening acids capable of maintaining the rate of gas release within the
desired range. Acids such as acetic, from vinegar, or lactic, from sour milk,
usually act too quickly; satisfactory compounds include cream of tartar
(potassium acid tartrate), sodium aluminum sulfate (alum), sodium acid
pyrophosphate, and various forms of calcium phosphate.
Baking powder

Instead of adding soda and leavening acids separately, most commercial

bakeries and domestic bakers use baking powder, a mixture of soda and acids
in appropriate amounts and with such added diluents as starch, simplifying
measuring and improving stability. The end products of baking-powder
reaction are carbon dioxide and some blandly flavoured harmless salts. All
baking powders meeting basic standards have virtually identical amounts of
available carbon dioxide, differing only in reaction time. Most commercial
baking powders are of the double-acting type, giving off a small amount of
available carbon dioxide during the mixing and makeup stages, then remaining
relatively inert until baking raises the batter temperature. This type of action
eliminates excessive loss of leavening gas, which may occur in batter left in an
unbaked condition for long periods.
Entrapped air and vapour

Angel food cakes, sponge cakes, and similar products are customarily prepared
without either yeast or chemical leaveners. Instead, they are leavened by air
entrapped in the product through vigorous beating. This method requires a
readily foaming ingredient capable of retaining the air bubbles, such
as egg whites. To produce a cake of fine and uniform internal structure, the
pockets of air folded in during beating are rapidly subdivided into small
bubbles with such mixing utensils as wire whips, or whisks.

The vaporization of volatile fluids (e.g., ethanol) under the influence of oven
heat can have a leavening effect. Water-vapour pressure, too low to be
significant at normal temperatures, exerts substantial pressure on the interior
walls of bubbles already formed by other means as the interior of the loaf or
cake approaches the boiling point. The expansion of such puff pastry as used
for napoleons (rich desserts of puff pastry layers and whipped cream or
custard) and vol-au-vents (puff pastry shells filled with meat, fowl, fish, or other
mixtures) is entirely due to water-vapour pressure.

Shortening

Fats and oils are essential ingredients in nearly all bakery products.
Shortenings have a tenderizing effect in the finished product and often aid in
the manipulation of doughs. In addition to modifying the mouth feel or texture,
they often add flavour of their own and tend to round off harsh notes in some
of the spice flavours.
The common fats used in bakery products are lard, beef fats, and
hydrogenated vegetable oils. Butter is used in some premium and specialty
products as a texturizer and to add flavour, but its high cost precludes
extensive use. Cottonseed oil and soybean oil are the most common processed
vegetable oils used. Corn, peanut, and coconut oils are used to a limited extent;
fats occurring in other ingredients, such as egg yolks, chocolate, and nut
butters, can have a shortening effect if the ingredients are present in sufficient
quantity.
Breads and rolls often contain only 1 or 2 percent shortening; cakes will have
10 to 20 percent; Danish pastries prepared according to the authentic formula
may have about 30 percent; pie crusts may contain even more. High usage
levels require those shortenings that melt above room temperature; butter and
liquid shortenings, with their lower melting point, tend to leak from the
product.
Commercial shortenings may include antioxidants, to retard rancidity, and
emulsifiers, to improve the shortening effect. Colours and flavours simulating
butter may also be added. Margarines, emulsions of fat, water, milk solids, and
salt, are popular bakery ingredients.
Fats of any kind have a destructive effect on meringues and other protein-
based foams; small traces of oil left on the mixing utensils can deflate an
angel food cake to unacceptably high density.

Liquids

Water is the liquid most commonly added to doughs. Milk is usually added to
commercial preparations in dried form, and any moisture added in the form of
eggs and butter is usually minimal. Water is not merely a diluent or inert
constituent; it affects every aspect of the finished product, and careful
adjustment of the amount of liquid is essential to make the dough
or batter adaptable to the processing method. If dough is too wet, it will stick to
equipment and have poor response to shaping and transfer operations; if too
dry, it will not shape or leaven properly.

Water hydrates gluten, permitting it to aggregate in the form of a spongy

cellular network, the structural basis of most bakery products. It provides a
medium in which yeast can metabolize sugars to form carbon dioxide and
flavouring components and allows diffusion of nutrients and metabolites
throughout the mass. Water is an indispensable component of the baking-
powder reaction, and it allows starch to gelatinize during baking and prevents
interior browning of bakery products.
Water impurities affect dough properties. Water preferred for baking is usually
of medium hardness (50 to 100 parts per million) with a neutral pH (degree of
acidity), or slightly acid (low pH). Water that is too soft can result in sticky
doughs, while very hard water may retard dough expansion by toughening the
gluten (calcium ions, particularly, promote cross-linking of
gluten protein molecules). Water sufficiently alkaline to raise the dough pH
may have a deleterious effect on fermentation and on flour enzymes. Although
strongly flavoured contaminants may affect the acceptability of the finished
product, chlorides and fluorides at concentrations usually found in water
supplies have little influence on bread doughs.
Eggs

The differences between yolks and whites must be recognized in considering

the effect of eggs on bakery products. Yolks contain about 50 percent solids, of
which 60 percent or more is strongly emulsified fat, and are used in bakery
foods for their effect on colour, flavour, and texture. Egg whites, containing
only about 12 percent solids, primarily protein, and no fat, are important
primarily for their texturizing function and give foams of low density and good
stability when beaten. When present in substantial amounts, they tend to
promote small, uniform cell size and relatively large volume. Meringues and
angel food cakes are dependent on egg white foams for their basic structure.
Although fats and oils greatly diminish its foaming power, the white still
contributes to the structure of layer cakes and similar confections containing
substantial amounts of both shortening and egg products.
Egg products are available to bakers in frozen or dried form. Few commercial
bakers break fresh eggs for ingredients, because of labour costs, unstable
market conditions, and sanitary considerations. Many bakers use dried egg
products because of their greater convenience and superior storage stability
over frozen eggs. Processed and stored correctly, dried egg products are the
functional equivalent of the fresh material, although flavour of the baked goods
may be affected adversely at very high usage levels.
Sweeteners

Normal wheat flour contains about 1 percent sugars. Most are

fermentable compounds, such as sucrose, maltose, glucose, and fructose.
Additional maltose is formed during fermentation by the action of amyloytic
enzymes (from malt and flour) on the starch. Glucose and sucrose are the
sugars most frequently added to doughs and batters. The action of yeast
rapidly converts the sucrose to fructose and glucose (i.e., invert sugar). Invert
sugar can also be added.
Sweetening power is an important property of added sugars, but sugars also
provide fermentables for yeast activity. Crust colour development is related to
the amount of reducing sugars present, and a dough in which the sugars have
been thoroughly depleted by yeast will produce a pale crust.

Doughs with high concentrations of dissolved substances retard fermentation

because of the effect on yeast of the high osmotic pressure (low water activity)
of the aqueous phase. Sugars constitutethe bulk of dissolved materials in most
doughs. For this reason, sweet yeast-leavened goods develop gas and expand
more slowly than bread doughs.

Yeast-Leavened Products
Breads and rolls
Most of the bakery foods consumed throughout the world are breads and rolls
made from yeast-leavened doughs. The yeast-fermentation process leads to the
development of desirable flavour and texture, and such products are
nutritionally superior to products of the equivalent chemically leavened
doughs, since yeast cells themselves add a wide assortment of vitamins and
good quality protein.
White bread
Satisfactory white bread can be made from flour, water, salt, and yeast. (A
“sourdough” addition may be substituted for commercial yeast.) Yeast-raised
breads based on this simple mixture include Italian-style bread and French or
Vienna breads. Such breads have a hard crust, are relatively light in colour,
with a coarse and tough crumb, and flavour that is excellent in the fresh bread
but deteriorates in a few hours. In the United States, commercially produced
breads of this type are often modified by the addition of dough improvers, yeast
foods, mold inhibitors, vitamins, minerals, and small quantities of enriching
materials such as milk solids or shortening. Formulas may vary greatly from
one bakery to another and between different sections of the country. The
standard low-density, soft-crust bread and rolls constituting the major
proportion of breads and rolls sold in the United States contain greater
quantities of enriching ingredients than the lean breads described above.
Whole wheat bread
Whole wheat bread, using a meal made substantially from the entire wheat
kernel instead of flour, is a dense, rather tough, dark product. Breads sold as
wheat or part-whole-wheat products contain a mixture of whole grain meal
with sufficient white flour to produce satisfactory dough expansion.

Rye bread
Bread made from crushed or ground whole rye kernels, without any wheat
flour, such as pumpernickel, is dark, tough, and coarse-textured. Rye flour
with the bran removed, when mixed with wheat flour, allows production of a
bread with better texture and colour. In darker bread it is customary to add
caramel colour to the dough. Most rye bread is flavoured with caraway seeds.
Pastrami sandwich; rye breadPastrami sandwich, traditionally made from
beef brisket or navel that has been cured in brine, seasoned with a spice rub,
slow-smoked, and then steamed, before being sliced and served hot on rye
bread.

Potato bread
Potato bread, another variety that can be leavened with a primary ferment, was
formerly made with a sourdough utilizing the action of wild yeasts on a potato
mash and producing the typical potato-bread flavour. It is now commonly
prepared from a white bread formula to which potato flour is added.
Sweet breads

Ingredients

Sweet goods made from mixtures similar to bread doughs include “raised”
doughnuts, Danish pastries, and coffee cakes. Richer in shortening, milk,
and sugar than bread doughs, sweet doughs often contain whole
eggs, egg yolks, egg whites, or corresponding dried products. The enriching
ingredients alter the taste, produce flakier texture, and improve nutritional
quality. Spices such as nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, coriander, and ginger are
frequently used for sweet-dough products; other common adjuncts include
vanilla, nuts and nut pastes, peels or oils of lemon or orange, raisins, candied
fruit pieces, jams, and jellies.

Danish dough

Although various portion-size sweet goods are often called “Danish pastry,” the
name originally referred only to products made by a special roll-in procedure,
in which yeast-leavened dough sheets are interleaved with layers of butter and
the layers are reduced in thickness, then folded and resheeted to obtain many
thin layers of alternating shortening and dough. Danish doughs ordinarily
receive little fermentation. Before the fat is rolled in, there is a period of 20 to
30 minutes in the refrigerator, allowing gas and flavour to develop. Proof time,
fermentation of the piece in its final shape, is usually only 20 to 30 minutes, at
lower temperatures. When properly made, these doughs yield flaky baked
products, rich in shortening, with glossy crusts.

Dough preparation

The process most commonly employed in preparing dough for white bread and
many specialty breads is known as the sponge-and-dough method, in which
the ingredients are mixed in two distinct stages. Another conventional dough-
preparation procedure, used commonly in preparing sweet doughs but rarely
regular bread doughs, is the straight-dough method, in which all the
ingredients are mixed in one step before fermentation. In a less conventional
method, known as the “no-time” method, the fermentation step is eliminated
entirely. These processes are described below.
 Commercial bread making
Essential steps in four commercial bread-making processes.
The sponge-and-dough method

The sponge-and-dough mixing method consists of two distinct stages. In the

first stage, the mixture, called the sponge, usually contains one-half to three-
fourths of the flour, all of the yeast, yeast foods, and malt, and enough water to
make a stiff dough. Shorteningmay be added at this stage, although it is
usually added later, and one-half to three-fourths of the salt may be added to
control fermentation. The sponge is customarily mixed in a large, horizontal
dough mixer, processing about one ton per batch, and usually constructed
with heat-exchange jackets, allowing temperature control. The objectives
of mixing are a nearly homogeneous blend of the ingredients and “developing”
of the dough by formation of the gluten into elongated and interlaced fibres
that will form the basic structure of the loaf. Because intense shearing actions
must be avoided, the usual dough mixer has several horizontal bars, oriented
parallel to the body of the mixer, rotating slowly at 35 to 75 revolutions per
minute, stretching and kneading the dough by their action. A typical mixing
cycle would be about 12 minutes.
 Horizontal mixer
The drive and mixing elements of a horizontal mixer.
The mixed sponge is dumped into a trough, a shallow rectangular metal tank
on wheels, and placed in an area of controlled temperature and humidity (e.g.,
27 °C [80 °F] and 75 percent relative humidity), where it is fermented until it
begins to decline in volume. The time required for this process, called the drop
or break, depends on such variables as temperature, type of flour, amount of
yeast, absorption, and amount of malt, which are frequently adjusted to
produce a drop in about three to five hours.
At the second, or dough, stage, the sponge is returned to the mixer, and the
remaining ingredients are added. The dough is developed to an optimum
consistency, then either returned to the fermentation room or allowed “floor
time” for further maturation.
Advantages of the sponge-and-dough method include: (1) a saving in the
amount of yeast (about 20 percent less is required than for a straight dough),
(2) greater volume and more-desirable texture and grain, and (3) greater
flexibility allowed in operations because, in contrast to straight doughs (which
must be taken up when ready), sponges can be held for later processing
without marked deterioration of the final product.

The sponge method, however, involves extra handling of the dough, additional
weighing and measuring, and a second mixing and thus has the disadvantage
of increasing labour, equipment, and power costs.

The straight-dough method

Two of the many possible variations in the straight-dough process include

the remixed straight-dough process, with a small portion of the water added at
the second mix, and the no-punch method, involving extremely vigorous
mixing. The straight-dough method is rarely used for white breads because it is
not sufficiently adaptable to allow compensation for fluctuations in ingredient
properties.

“No-time” methods

One set of procedures intended to eliminate the traditional bulk fermentation

step are the “no-time” methods. Popular in the United Kingdom and Australia,
these processes generally require an extremely energy-intensive mixing step,
sometimes performed in a partially vacuumized chamber. Rather high
additions of chemical oxidants, reducing agents, and other dough modifiers are
almost always required in order to produce the desired physical properties.
“No-time” is actually a misnomer, since there are always small amounts of floor
time (periods when the dough is awaiting further processing) during which
maturing actions lead to improvements in the dough’s physical properties.
Even then, the flavour of the breadcannot be expected to match that of a
traditionally processed loaf.
Makeup

After the mass of dough has completed fermentation (and has been remixed if
the sponge-and-dough process is employed), it is processed by a series of
devices loosely classified as makeup equipment. In the manufacture of pan
bread, makeup equipment includes the divider, the rounder, the intermediate
proofer, the molder, and the panner.

Dividing

The filled trough containing remixed dough is moved to the divider area or to
the floor above the divider. The dough is dropped into the divider hopper,
which cuts it into loaf-size pieces. Two methods are employed. In
the volumetric method, the dough is forced into pockets of a known volume.
The pocket contents are cut off from the main dough mass and then ejected
onto a conveyor leading to the rounder. When density is kept constant, weight
and volume of the dough pieces are roughly the same. In the weight-based
method, a cylindrical rope of dough is continuously extruded through an orifice
at a fixed rate and is cut off by a knife-edged rotor at fixed intervals. Since the
dough is of consistent density, the cut pieces are of uniform weight. Like the
pocket-cut pieces, the cylindrical pieces are conveyed to the rounder.

Dough Divider
The drive, feed, and cutting elements of a dough divider.
Rounding

Dough pieces leaving the divider are irregular in shape, with sticky cut
surfaces from which the gas can readily diffuse. Their gluten structure is
somewhat disoriented and unsuitable for molding. The rounder closes these
cut surfaces, giving each dough piece a smooth and dry exterior; forms a
relatively thick and continuous skin around the dough piece, reorienting the
gluten structure; and shapes the dough into a ball for easier handling in
subsequent steps. It performs these functions by rolling the well-floured dough
piece around the surface of a drum or cone, moving it upward or downward
along this surface by means of a spiral track. As a result of this action, the
surface is dried both by the even distribution of dusting flour and by
dehydration resulting from exposure to air; the gas cells near the surface of the
ball are collapsed, forming a thick layer inhibiting the diffusion of gases from
the dough; and the dough piece assumes an approximately spherical shape.

Dough Rounder
The movement of dough through a dough rounder.
Intermediate proofing

Dough leaving the rounder is almost completely degassed. It lacks extensibility,

tears easily, has rubbery consistency, and has poor molding properties. To
restore a flexible, pliable structure, the dough piece must be allowed to rest
while fermentation proceeds. This is accomplished by letting the dough ball
travel through an enclosed cabinet, the intermediate proofer, for several
minutes. Physical changes, other than gas accumulation, occurring during this
period are not yet understood, but there are apparently alterations in the
molecular structure of the dough rendering it more responsive to subsequent
operations. Upon leaving the intermediate proofer, the dough is more pliable
and elastic, its volume is increased by gas accumulation, and its skin is firmer
and drier.
Most intermediate proofers are the overhead type, in which the principal part of
the cabinet is raised above the floor, allowing space for other makeup
machinery beneath it. Interior humidity and temperature depend on humidity
accumulating from the loaves and on ambient temperatures.

Molding

The molder receives pieces of dough from the intermediate proofer and shapes
them into cylinders ready to be placed in the pans. There are several types of
molders, but all have four functions in common: sheeting, curling, rolling, and
sealing. The dough as it comes from the intermediate proofer is a flattened
spheroid; the first function of the molder is to flatten it into a thick sheet,
usually by means of two or more consecutive pairs of rollers, each succeeding
pair set more closely together than the preceding pair. The sheeted dough is
curled into a loose cylinder by a special set of rolls or by a pair of canvas belts.
The spiral of dough in the cylinder is not adherent upon leaving the curling
section, and the next operation of the molder is to seal the dough piece,
allowing it to expand without separating into layers. The conventional molder
rolls the dough cylinder between a large drum and a smooth-surfaced
semicircular compression board. Clearance between the drum and board is
gradually reduced, and the dough, constantly in contact with both surfaces,
becomes transversely compressed.
 Drum Molder
The formation of dough cylinders in a drum molder.

Panning

An automatic panning device is an integral part of most modern molders. As

empty pans, carried on a conveyor, pass the end of the machine, the loaves are
transferred from the molder and positioned in the pans by a compressed air-
operated device. Before the filled pans are taken to the oven, the dough
undergoes another fermentation, or pan-proofing, for about 20 minutes at
temperatures of 40 to 50 °C (100 to 120 °F).

Continuous bread making

Many steps in conventional dough preparation and makeup have been fully
automated, but none of the processes is truly continuous. In continuous
systems, the dough is handled without interruption from the time the
ingredients are mixed until it is deposited in the pan. The initial fermentation
process is still essentially a batch procedure, but in the continuous bread-
making line the traditional sponge is replaced by a liquid pre-ferment, called
the broth or brew. The brew consists of a mixture of water, yeast, sugar, and
portions of the flour and other ingredients, fermented for a few hours before
being mixed into the dough.
After the brew has finished fermenting, it is fed along with the dry ingredients
into a mixing device, which mixes all ingredients into a homogeneous mass.
The batterlike material passes through a dough pump regulating the flow and
delivering the mixture to a developing apparatus, where kneading work is
applied. The developer is the key equipment in the continuous line. Processing
about 50 kilograms (100 pounds) each 90 seconds, it changes the batter from a
fluid mass having no organized structure, little extensibility, and inadequate
gas retention to a smooth, elastic, film-forming dough. The dough then moves
out of the developer into a metering device that constantly extrudes the dough
and intermittently severs a loaf-size piece, which falls into a pan passing
beneath.
Although ingredients are generally the same as those used in batch processes,
closer control and more rigid specifications are necessary in continuous
processing in order to assure the satisfactory operation of each unit. Changes
in conditions cannot readily be made to compensate for changes occurring in
ingredient properties. Oxidizers, such as bromate and iodate, are added
routinely to compensate for the smaller amount of oxygen brought into the
dough during mixing.

The use of fermented brews has been widely accepted in plants practicing
traditional dough preparation and makeup. The handling of a fermentation
mixture through pumps, pipes, valves, and tanks greatly
increases efficiency and control in both batch-type and continuous systems.
Baking and depanning

Ovens

The output of all bread-making systems, batch or continuous, is usually keyed

to the oven, probably the most critical equipment in the bakery. Most modern
commercial bakeries use either the tunnel oven, consisting of a metal belt
passing through a connected series of baking chambers open only at the ends,
or the tray oven, with a rigid baking platform carried on chain belts. Other
types include the peel oven, having a fixed hearth of stone or brick on which
the loaves are placed with a wooden paddle or peel; the reel oven, with shelves
rotating on a central axle in Ferris wheel fashion; the rotating hearth oven; and
the draw plate oven.
Advances in high-capacity baking equipment include a chamber oven with
a conveyor that carries pan assemblies (called straps) along a roughly spiral
path through an insulated baking chamber. The straps are automatically
added to the conveyor before it enters the oven and then automatically removed
and the bread dumped at the conveyor’s exit point. Although the conveyor is of
a complex design, the oven as a whole is considerably simpler than most other
high-capacity baking equipment and can be operated with very little labour. As
a further increase in efficiency, the conveyor can also be designed to carry filled
pans in a continuous path through a pan-proofing enclosure and then through
the oven.
In small to medium-size retail bakeries, baking may be done in a rack oven.
This consists of a chamber, perhaps two to three metres high, that is heated by
electric elements or gas burners. The rack consists of a steel framework having
casters at the bottom and supporting a vertical array of shelves. Bread pans
containing unbaked dough pieces are placed on the shelves before the rack is
pushed mechanically or manually into the oven. While baking is taking place,
the rack may remain stationary or be slowly rotated.
Most ovens are heated by gas burned within the chamber, although oil or
electricity may be used. Burners are sometimes isolated from the main
chamber, heat transfer then occurring through induced currents of air. Baking
reactions in the oven are both physical and chemical in nature. Physical
reactions include film formation, gas expansion, reduction of gas solubility,
and alcohol evaporation. Chemical reactions include yeast
fermentation, carbon
dioxideformation, starch gelatinization, gluten coagulation, sugar
caramelization, and browning.

Depanners

Automatic depanners, removing the loaves from the pans, either invert the
pans, jarring them to dislodge the bread, or pick the loaves out of the pans by
means of suction cups attached to belts.
Chemically Leavened Products

Many bakery products depend on the evolution of gas from added chemical
reactants as their leavening source. Items produced by this system include
layer cakes, cookies, muffins, biscuits, corn bread, and some doughnuts.
The gluten proteins of the flour serve as the basic structural element in
chemically leavened foods, just as they do in bread. The relatively smaller
amounts of flour, the weaker (less-extensible) protein in the soft-wheat flours
customarily employed, and the lower protein content of the flour, however,
result in a softer, crumblier texture. In most chemically leavened foods, the
protein content of the flour, inadequate in quantity and quality to support the
amount of expansion required in bread, produces a product of higher density.

Prepared mixes and doughs

Prepared dry mixes, available for home use and for small and medium-size
commercial bakeries, vary in complexity from self-rising flour, consisting only
of salt, leavening ingredients, and flour, to elaborate cake mixes. Mixes offer
the consumer ingredients measured with greater accuracy than possible with
kitchen utensils and special ingredients designed for functional compatibility.

Prepared doughs for such products as biscuits and other quick breads,
packaged in cans of fibre and foil laminates, are available in refrigerated form.
These products carry the mix concept two steps further; the dough or batter is
premixed and shaped. Unlike ordinary canned products, refrigerated doughs
are not sterile but contain microbes from normal ingredient contamination.
Spoilage is retarded by low storage temperature, low oxygen tension, and the
high osmotic pressure of the aqueous phase.
Many boutique cookie bakeries and muffin shops that operate in shopping
malls and similar locations generally use frozen batters shipped from a central
plant. These batters are thawed a day or so before use, and a measured
amount is scooped from the container and placed on a baking pan immediately
before insertion into the oven. In this way, freshly baked cookies or muffins can
be prepared in many varieties with a small amount of unskilled labour and a
minimum of specialized equipment. In some cases, a central commissary
supplies fully baked but frozen products, which are simply thawed (and
sometimes iced and decorated) before sale.
Dough and batter formulas

Hot breads

Hot breads, such as biscuits, muffins, pancakes, and scones, constitute a large
and important class of chemically leavened bakery foods. They consist of
flour, baking powder, salt, and liquid, with varying amounts of eggs, milk,
sugar, and shortening. Other variations include the addition of fruits such as
raisins, condiments such as peppers, and adjuncts such as cheese. In corn
breads a considerable proportion of the flour is replaced by cornmeal. Mixing
and forming methods, and the baking conditions applied, also affect product
appearance, texture, and flavour. For example, a batter suitable for making
corn bread might also be used to make muffins or pancakes, and each kind of
finished product would vary not only in appearance but also in flavour and
texture. Recipes for hot breads usually contain not more than about 15 percent
shortening and 5 percent sugar. Eggs, when used, are customarily whole
eggs. Milk is often used both for flavour and for its texturizing and crust-
coloration properties.
Cakes

There are traditional rules for assuring “formula balance,” or the correct
proportioning of ingredients, in layer cakes. For every 10 parts of flour, yellow
layer cakes should contain 10 to 16 parts sugar by weight, and white layer
cakes should contain 11 to 16 parts sugar. Shortening should range from 3 to
7 parts for each 10 parts of flour. The weight of liquid whole eggs should equal
or exceed that of the shortening in the mixture. Total water, including the
moisture in eggs and milk, should exceed the amount of sugar by 2 1/2 to
3 1/2parts. Baking-powder weight should equal from 3 to 6 percent of flour
weight; salt should equal 3 to 4 percent of flour weight. If the amount of sugar
in a formula is increased, the egg content should be increased an equal
amount, and more shortening should be added when the percentage of eggs is
increased. Additional water is rarely added when the formula contains dry
milk, but if the formula water is not sufficient to equal the reconstitution water
for the milk, about 1 percent of water for each additional percent of milk solids
is added.
Common cake varieties include white cake, similar in formula to yellow cake,
except that the white cake uses egg whites instead of whole eggs; devil’s food
cake, differing from chocolate cake chiefly in that the devil’s food batter is
adjusted to an alkaline level with sodium bicarbonate; chiffon cakes, deriving
their unique texture from the effect of liquid shortening on the foam structure;
and gingerbread, similar to yellow cake but containing large amounts of
molasses and spices.
Cookies

Recipes for cookies (called biscuits or sweet biscuits in some countries) are
probably more variable than those for any other type of bakery product. Some
layer-cake batters can be used for soft drop cookies, but most cookie formulas
contain considerably less waterthan cake recipes, and cookies are baked to a
lower moisture contentthan any normal cake. With the exception of soft types,
the moisture content of cookies will be below 5 percent after baking, resulting
in crisp texture and good storage stability.
Cookies are generally high in shortening and sugar. Milk and eggs are not
common ingredients in commercial cookies but may be used in home recipes.
Sugar granule size has a pronounced effect on cookie texture, influencing
spread and expansion during baking, an effect partly caused by competition for
the limited water content between the slowly dissolving sugar and the gluten of
the flour.
Equipment
Mixing

The horizontal dough mixers used for yeast-leavened products may be used for
mixing chemically leavened doughs and batters. Mixers may be the batch type,
similar in configuration to the household mixer, with large steel bowls, open at
the top, containing the batterwhile it is mixed or whipped by beater paddles of
various conformations. In continuous mixers the batter is pumped through an
enclosed chamber while a toothed disk rapidly rotates and mixes the
ingredients. The chambers may be pressurized to force gas into the batter and
surrounded with a flowing heat-transfer medium to adjust the temperature.
Sheeting and cutting

Chemically leavened doughs can be formed by methods similar to those used

for yeast-leavened doughs of similar consistency. In the usual sequence, the
dough passes between sets of rollers, forming sheets of uniform thickness; the
desired outline is cut in the sheet by stamping pressure or embossed rollers;
and the scrap dough is removed for reprocessing. Many cookies and crackers
are made in this way, and designs may be impressed in the dough pieces by
docking pins (used primarily to puncture the sheet, preventing formation of
excessively large gas bubbles) or by cutting edges partially penetrating the
dough pieces.

Die forming and extruding

In addition to the sheeting and cutting methods, cookies may be shaped by die
forming and extrusion. In die forming a dough casing may be applied around a
centre portion of jam or other material, forming products such as fig bars; or
portions of dough may be deposited, forming such drop-type cookies as vanilla
wafers, chocolate chip, and oatmeal cookies. Extrusion is accomplished by
means of a die plate having orifices that may be circular, rectangular, or
complex in outline. The mass of dough, contained in a hopper, is pushed
through these openings, forming long strands of dough. Individual cookies are
formed by separating pieces from the dough strand with a wire passing across
the outer surface of the die or by pulling apart the hopper and oven belt (to
which the dough adheres).
Rotary molding

Cookies produced on rotary molders include sandwich-base cakes and pieces

made with embossed designs. A steel cylinder, the surface covered with shallow
engraved cavities, rotates past the opening in a hopper filled with cookie dough.
The pockets are filled with the dough, which is sheared off from the main mass
by a blade, and, as the cylinder continues its revolution, the dough pieces are
ejected onto a conveyor belt leading to the band oven.

Baking

Most commercial ovens for chemically leavened products are the band types,
although reel ovens are still used, especially in smaller shops or bakeries where
short runs are frequent.

Air- And Steam-Leavened Products

Air leavening
Air-leavened bakery products, avoiding the flavours arising from chemical- and
yeast-leavening systems, are particularly suitable for delicately flavoured cakes.
Since the batters can be kept on the acidic side of neutrality, the negative
influence of chemical leaveners on fruit flavours and vanilla is avoided.

Foams and sponges

The albumen of egg white, a protein solution, foams readily when whipped. The
highly extended structure has little strength and must be supported during
baking by some other protein substance, usually the gluten of flour. Because
the small amount of lipids in flour tend to collapse the albumen foam, flour is
gently folded into egg white foams, minimizing contact of fatty substances with
the protein. Gluten sponges are denser than the lightest egg-white foams but
are less subject to fat collapse.
The foam of egg yolks and whole eggs, as in pound cakes, is an air-in-oil
emulsion. Proteins and starch, scattered throughout the emulsion in a
dispersed condition, gradually coalesce as the batter stands or is heated. Fats
and oils, in addition to yolk lipids, can be added to such systems without
causing complete collapse but never achieve the low density possible with
protein foams and usually have a tender, crumbly texture, unlike the more
elastic structure of albumen-based products.
Wafers and biscuits
Rye wafers made of whipped batters are modern versions of an ancient
Scandinavian food. High-moisture dough or batter, containing a substantial
amount of rye flour and some wheat flour, is whipped, extruded onto an oven
belt, scored and docked, then baked slowly until almost dry. Alternatively, the
strips of dough may be cut after they are baked.
Beaten biscuits, an old specialty of the American South, are also made from
whipped batter. Air is beaten into a stiff folded dough with many strokes of a
rolling pin or similar utensil. Round pieces cut from the dough are pricked with
a fork to prevent development of large bubbles, then baked slowly. The baked
biscuit is similar to a soft cracker.

Steam leavening
All leavened products rely to some extent on water-vapour pressure to expand
the vesicles or gas bubbles during the latter stages of baking, but some items
also utilize the leavening action produced by the rapid buildup of steam as the
interior of the product reaches the boiling point. These foods include puff
pastries, used for patty shells and napoleons, and chou pastes, often used for
cream-puff and éclair cases.

Puff pastry
Puff pastry, often used in French pastries, is formed from layered fat and
dough. The proportion of fat is usually high, rarely less than 30 percent of the
finished raw piece. The dough should be extensible but not particularly elastic;
for this reason mixtures of hard and soft wheat flour are often used. The fat
should have an almost waxy texture and must remain solid through the
sheeting steps. Butter, although frequently used, is not particularly suitable for
puff pastry because its low melting point causes it to blend into the dough
during the sheeting process. Bakers specializing in puff pastry often use special
margarines containing high-melting-point fats.
There are several methods of making puff pastry. In the basic procedure dough
is rolled into a rectangular layer of uniform thickness, and the fat is spread
over two-thirds of the surface. The dough is next folded, producing three dough
strata enclosing two fat layers. This preparation is next chilled by refrigeration,
then rolled, reducing thickness until it reaches approximately the area of the
original unfolded dough. The folding, refrigeration, and rolling procedure is
repeated several times, and after the final rolling the dough is reduced to the
thickness desired in the shaped raw piece.

Correctly prepared puff pastry will expand as much as 10 times during baking
because of the evolution of large volumes of steam at the interface between
shortening and dough. The focuses for gassing are the microscopic air bubbles
rolled into the dough during the layering process. If layering has been properly
conducted, the finished pieces will be symmetrical and well shaped, with crisp,
flaky outer layers.
Chou paste
Chou paste, used for cream puffs, is made by an entirely different method.
Flour, salt, butter, and boiling water are mixed together, forming a fairly stiff
dough, and whole eggs are incorporated by beating. Small pieces of the dough
are baked on sheets, initially at high temperature. The air bubbles formed
during mixing expand rapidly at baking temperatures, filling the interior with
large, irregular cells, while the outside browns and congeals, forming a rather
firm case. The interior, largely hollow, can be injected with such sweet or
savoury fillings as whipped cream or shrimp in sauce.
Unleavened Products:

Pie Crusts
Pie crusts are the major volume item of unleavened products prepared by
modern bakeries. Small amounts of baking powder or soda are sometimes
added to pie-crust doughs, mostly in domestic cookery. This addition, although
increasing tenderness, tends to eliminate the desirable flakiness and permits
the filling liquid to soak into the crust more rapidly.

Pie crusts are usually simple mixtures of flour, water, shortening, and salt. The
shortening proportion is about 30 to 40 percent of the dough. The amount of
water is kept low, and the mixing process is kept short to minimize
development of elasticity, which leads to shrinkage and development of
toughness on baking. For flaky crust, the fat should not be completely
dispersed through the dough but should remain in small particles. Commercial
producers often employ special mixers using reciprocating, intermeshing arms
to gently knead the dough. The doughs are chilled before mixing and forming to
reduce smearing of the shortening.
Flakiness is also related to the type of shortening used. Lard is popular in
home cookery for this reason and also because of its satisfying flavour.
Because shortening should be solid at the temperature of mixing, oils are
undesirable.

Milk or small amounts of corn sugar may be added to improve crust browning
and for their flavour effect. About 1 to 2 percent of the dough will be salt.

Flat Breads
A large part of the world’s population consumes so-called flat breads on a daily
basis. Tortillas and pita bread are representative examples. Traditional tortillas
are made from a paste of ground corn kernels that have been soaked in hot
lime water. Corn tortillas contain no leaveners, although a wheat-flour version,
which is gradually replacing the corn product, frequently contains a small
amount of baking powder. Pita bread is a very thin disk of yeast-leavened
dough that has been prepared so as to cause separation of the top and bottom
surfaces of the baked product except at the circumference.
The dough portion of pizzas also can be considered a type of flat bread. Other
examples can be found that vary widely in size, shape, and composition,
although nearly all of them are based on a lean, yeast-leavened dough of rather
tough consistency.

Mixing and forming

The mixing and bulk fermentation (if any) of flat-bread doughs can be
performed in conventional equipment and vary only in minor details from the
procedures used for loaf bread. There are two basic methods for forming the
dough into circles: (1) separating the dough mass into pieces of the correct size
for individual servings, rounding the chunks into roughly spheroidal shape,
and passing the balls between pairs of rotating steel cylinders that flatten them
into thin circles and (2) forming the dough mass into a continuous sheet of
uniform thickness from which circles are cut. In addition, some pizzas are
made by placing the dough balls on a baking pan and then pressing them to
the desired thickness with a descending steel plate.

Baking

Thin disks of dough tend to balloon into ball-shaped objects in the oven,
especially if the edges have been sealed by the cutting method (as is usually the
case). Although these balloons collapse in later stages of baking or upon
cooling, the initial rapid evolution of gas in the interior leaves the top and
bottom surfaces more or less separated. Separation is a desirable feature for
pita bread and some other varieties, and it can be enhanced by baking the
dough circles in a very hot oven. For tortillas, on the other hand, separation is
not desirable, so these products are mostly grilled or baked on a hot plate,
heating them first on one side and then on the other.
Ballooning can also be prevented by “docking” (i.e., penetrating the top surface
with many small punctures) or by slow baking. Of course, in the traditional
pizza preparation method, ballooning is prevented by the load of sauce and
other toppings placed on the crust before baking. Matzo dough is unleavened,
but it still needs to be docked in order to prevent excessive expansion of the
thin sheet in the oven.
Market Preparation
Slicing

Bread often is marketed in sliced form. Slicing is performed by parallel arrays

of saw blades through which the loaves are carried by gravity or by conveyors.
The blades may be endless bands carried on rotating drums, or relatively short
strips held in a reciprocatingframe. Most bread is sliced while still fairly warm,
and the difficulty of cutting the sticky, soft crumb has led to development of
coated blades and blade-cleaning devices. Horizontal slicing of hamburger rolls
and similar products is accomplished by circular (disk) blades, usually two
blades in a slicer, between which a connected array of four or six rolls is
carried by a belt. The cutter blades are separated to avoid cutting completely
through the roll, in order to leave a “hinge.”
Freezing

Freezing is an indispensable bakery industry process. Ordinary bread and rolls

are rarely distributed and sold in frozen form because of the excessive cost in
relation to product value, but a substantial percentage of all specialty products
is sold in frozen form. Most bakery products respond well to freezing, although
some cream fillings must be specially formulated to avoid syneresis, or gel
breakdown. Rapid chilling in blast freezers is preferred, although milder
methods may be used. Storage at −18 °C (0 °F) or lower is essential for quality
maintenance. Thawing and refreezing is harmful to quality. Frozen bakery
products can dehydrate under freezer conditions and must be packaged in
containers resistant to moisture-vapour transfer.
Wrapping

Most American consumers prefer wrapped bread, and the trend toward
wrapping is growing in other countries. Sanitary and aesthetic considerations
dictate protection of the product from environmental contamination during
distribution and display. Waxed paper was originally the only film used to
package bread, after which cellophane became popular, and then polyethylene,
polypropylene, and combination laminates became common. Other bakery
products are packaged in a variety of containers ranging from open bags of
greaseproof material to plastic trays with sealed foil overwraps.
Canning

The market for bakery products in tin cans is small, but hunters and campers
find canned foods convenient. Canning protects against drying and
environmental contamination, but texture staling and some degree of flavour
staling still occur. In processing, an amount of dough or batter known to fill
exactly the available space after baking is placed in a can, and the cover is
loosely fastened to allow gases to escape. The product is then baked in a
conventional oven, the lid is hermetically sealed immediately after baking, and
the sealed can is sprayed with water to cool it. Vacuum sealing, needed to
assure storage stability, can be routinely achieved by this method. Special can
linings and sealing compounds are needed to survive oven temperatures, and
the exterior should be dark-coloured (e.g., olive drab) in order to absorb radiant
heat in the oven, avoiding long baking times. Spores of some pathogens are not
killed by the conditions reached in the centre of the baked product, but pH and
osmotic pressure can be adjusted to prevent growth of spoilage organisms.
There is no record of food poisoning attributable to canned bakery food.
Quality Maintenance
Spoilage by microbes

Bakery products are subject to the microbiological spoilage problems affecting

other foods. If moisture content is kept below 12 to 14 percent (depending on
the composition), growth of yeast, bacteria, and molds is completely inhibited.
Nearly all crackers and cookies fall below this level, although jams,
marshmallow, and other adjuncts may be far higher in moisture content.
Breads, cakes, sweet rolls, and some other bakery foods may contain as much
as 38 to 40 percent water when freshly baked and are subject to attack by
many fungi and a few bacteria.

Fungi

To obtain maximum shelf life free of mold spoilage, high levels of sanitation
must be maintained in baking and packing areas. Oven heat destroys all fungal
life-forms, and any spoilage by these organisms is due to reinoculation after
baking. A number of compounds have been proposed for use as fungistats
in bread. Some have proved to be innocuous to molds, toxic to humans, or
both. Soluble salts of propionic acid, principally sodium propionate, have been
accepted and extend shelf life appreciably in the absence of a massive
inoculum. Sorbic acid (or potassium sorbate) and acetic acid also have a
protective effect.
The only widespread food poisoning in which bread has been a vector has
resulted from ergot, a fungus infection of the rye plant. Ergot contamination of
bread made from rye, or from blends of rye and wheat, has
caused epidemics leading to numerous deaths.

Bacteria
Bacteria associated with bread spoilage include Bacillus mesentericus,
responsible for “ropy” bread, and the less common but more
spectacular Micrococcus prodigiosus, causative agent of “bleeding bread.”
Neither ropy bread nor bleeding bread is particularly toxic. Enzymes secreted
by B. mesentericus change the starch inside the loaf into a gummy substance
stretching into strands when a piece of the bread is pulled apart. In addition to
ropiness, the spoiled bread will have an off-aroma sometimes characterized as
fruity or pineapple-like. Formerly, when ropiness occurred, bakers acidified
doughs with vinegar as a protective measure, but this type of spoilage is rare in
bread from modern bakeries.
M. prodigiosus causes red spots to appear in bread. At an advanced stage those
spots of high bacterial population may liquefy, emphasizing the similarity to
blood, which has sometimes led the superstitious to attribute religious
significance to the phenomenon. The organism will not survive ordinary baking
temperatures—unlike B. mesentericus, which forms spores capable of survival
in the centre of the loaf, where the temperature rises only to about 100 °C (212
°F).
Baked goods containing such high-moisture adjuncts as pastrycreams
and pie fillings are susceptible to contamination by food-spoilage organisms,
including Salmonella and Streptococcus. Cream and custard pies are recognized
health hazards when stored at room temperature for any length of time, and
some communities ban their sale during summer. Storage in frozen form
eliminates the hazard.

Staling
Undesirable changes in bakery products can occur independently of microbial
action. Staling involves changes in texture, flavour, and appearance. Firming of
the interior, or “crumb,” is a highly noticeable alteration in bread and other
low-density, lean products. Elasticity is lost, and the structure becomes
crumbly. Although loss of moisture produces much the same effect, texture
staling can occur without any appreciable drying. Such firming is due to
changes in the molecular status of the starch, specifically to a kind of
aggregation of sections of the long-chain molecules into micelles, making the
molecules more rigid and less soluble than in the newly gelatinized granule.
Bread that has undergone texture staling can be softened by heating to about
60–65 °C (140–150 °F). However, its texture does not return to that of fresh
bread, being gummier and more elastic. In addition, care must be exercised to
prevent drying during heating.

Starch retrogradation, the cause of ordinary texture staling of the crumb, can
be slowed by the addition of certain compounds to the dough. Most of the
effective chemicals are starch-complexing agents. Monoglycerides of fatty acids
have been widely used as dough additives to retard staling in the finished loaf.