Question

how is bread made in a bakery?flowchart

Answer 1

How bread is made

Bread has been baked for hundreds of years, and the same basic process is still used today. The main ingredients are flour, yeast, salt and water. The flowchart shows the processes used in an industrial bakery. If you baked bread at home, you would use similar principles but on a smaller scale! Also available at the bottom of the page is a video showing an bread being made in an industrial bakery.

Delivery and storage
Flour is delivered daily to the bakeries. The bakery also needs stores of salt (to add taste and aid proving), vinegar (a preservative), yeast (to make the bread rise) and vegetable fat (to make the loaf lighter and airier and extend its shelf life).

Mixing, dividing and first proving
The ingredients are mixed at high speed in under 5 minutes. The dough is removed and divided into individual pieces by machine. It passes along a conveyor belt and is left to ‘prove’ (when the yeast fills the dough with gas, causing it to rise).

Kneading and preparation
The dough is continuously kneaded for about two minutes, as it circles through a spiral-shaped machine. The kneaded dough passes along a conveyor belt until it is dropped into pre-greased tins.