Artisan bread is loved for its high-quality crust and texture. But a challenge processing these breads is ensuring steps like dosing, dividing and sheeting don’t damage the dough’s delicate cell structure that supports these qualities.

To help preserve this integrity, John Giacoio, vice president of sales Rheon USA, noted the company offers a dough feed conveyor that can gently dose almost any sized dough batch into the hopper. 

“These conveyors allow the dough to spread out instead of placing it into a hopper that will degas it by the pressure of the dough pushing down on itself,” he explained. “Before stress-free [dividing], bakers would form the dough then need to give the loaves an intermediate proof to recover from the dividing process. Using a stress-free system eliminates the need for this recovery step.”

He added that dividers are a good first step for artisan bakeries just beginning to automate. 

“We have many smaller bakeries that are hand-dividing and hand-forming that we can introduce stress-free dividing to give the bakers a beautiful dough piece that they can now hand shape,” he explained. “As they get larger, we can offer them the forming equipment to replace the hand forming.”

Franck Ellenbogen, North America sales director, Mecatherm, observed there are automated lines today especially made for artisan doughs that are highly hydrated or require a long resting time. Mecatherm’s M-NS divider divides dough with minimal mechanical action, preserving elasticity and viscosity, while the M-RT moulder helps create bread with artisan look and texture.

“The parameters of the equipment enable bakers to adjust the crumb honeycomb according to the market expectations,” he said. “The M-RT moulder also allows them to obtain a thin crust with less flour as the dough piece is constantly in motion. This ensures a shiny and golden colored crust.”

At the sheeter, Hans Besems, executive product manager, AMF Tromp, part of AMF Bakery Systems, added that the company’s sheeting technology lets bakers produce a wide range of goods while still maintaining artisan appearance, taste and texture. 

“With newer sheeting systems, flour removal from the bottom of the dough sheet, in-line rounding systems, and the use of robots for specific tasks/actions can significantly reduce labor costs and improve product consistency,” he said.

Larger sheeting systems are great for boosting production speeds, throughput and product uniformity. And while this may be just what some commercial operations need, for artisan bakers the result could be a significant degradation in product quality. 

“They don’t want to ram product out the door,” said Nick Magistrelli, vice president of sales, Rademaker USA. “The process is a very special part of what they do.”

To increase output without decreasing quality, he noted bakers can opt for lines that are wider, not faster. 

“You’re increasing output without giving up some of that process time,” he explained.

Rademaker offers working widths ranging from 600 mm (24 inches) to 1,200 mm (48 inches). 

Labor savings can also be found in the transferring and loading of artisan products onto peel or boards, Mr. Magistrelli said, a process that generally takes a series of people to complete.

“There are often many products made on an artisan line — that variety comes with the territory,” he explained. “Being able to maximize the physical space a tray has is critical; you want to put those products on there in the best orientation.”

Mr. Besems observed that the biggest labor-saving opportunity is in the finishing area of the bakery. 

“In decoration, AMF Tromp offers targeted application of seeds, corn, bran or cheese onto bread, ensuring toppings are applied to an exact spot on top of the bread as to not waste expensive toppings, which leads to increased savings and thus a short ROI on the automated machine.”

This article is an excerpt from the September 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Artisan Bread Processing, click here.