Joe the Baker

Hello. This is Joe the Baker, a former commercial bread baker. I fell in love with the process enough to keep me baking bread for my friends and neighbors in the colder months of the year on Sunday mornings.

Most bread lovers are completely unaware of how bread is born and ends up on the shelves of their favorite bakeries and stores and probably take it all for granted. It's all about manpower, machines, ingredients, packaging, attention, and time. There's the dough mixers and formers, and an oven specialist. There are baggers and salespeople and deliverers. These are also part of the cakes and pastry departments.

Most bakers show up for work so early in the morning the birds aren't even up yet and most of you are sleeping comfortably at home, not even anticipating the day's sunrise. We know we have multiple batches of dough to make every day, so right away we start the first one. Three or four hundred pounds of flour, gallons of water, some yeast and salt. And if called for, things like shortening and a dough conditioner or preservative.

Checking for the proper softness and firmness of the dough, and of course mixing it to perfection, it has to be removed to what we affectionately called, "the dough trow" (trough). Think of it as a stainless steel bathtub for the first rise. This step is usually a matter of hours, so while waiting, the baker will check the day's forecast for orders to be filled and retail amount of loaves for the day's inside sales. Add up how many pounds of dough are still needed. Is it a two-batch or a three-batch day, and so on. Then the mixer will be set up for the next batch.

Our storeroom was on a different level and by now it was known how much product was needed for the day so it could be brought to the production level. As you can imagine, the first batch was very heavy. When the first rise was done, the dough was turned onto itself in the dough trow, starting the second rise.

So now we spell out how many 16-oz loaves, 12-oz, 8-oz, 2, 3, & 4 pound roll presses we need, and so on. The press will make 36 equally portioned dough balls. The next step is called, "taking to dough" (scaling). This is the most labor-intensive part of the process. One or two staff members armed with dough knives and scales measure the dough into proper weights. The other staff around the table will round these, forming them into long loaves and putting them into special raising boxes lined with empty cotton flour bags for the next rise. Now that the dough trow is empty, we can start the second batch.

Lest we forget, we have these plywood boards known as PEELS that are used to transfer the goods from their rising rack and into the oven. So, while waiting for the next step, these peels have to be covered with cornmeal so the goods will easily slide into the oven. When the rolls are properly seeded (or plain), they are transferred to peels and put on a rack to PROOF (rise to oven-ready condition).

Let's fast forward. It's time to load the oven. The delicate loaves are carefully and masterfully transferred to their respective peels and inserted into the oven. They spend the proper amount of time there until golden brown, then are removed to a cooling rack. Bagging a hot loaf is not recommended.

Are you worn out yet? The bakers aren't. They've got one or two more batches to go. The good news for the morning bread shift is that it should be over before noon. Just before that, the afternoon shift will arrive. They generally make the products that are partially proofed overnight in the cooler: sourdoughs, ryes, pumpernickels. The oven staff will pull them out and put them in a proof box (a warm, moist place), to proof them until oven-ready.

Well, that's the way things went at my first bread baking job. I had previous though minor experience as the oven man at a BAGEL NOSH in Brookline, MA. No mixing or rolling. Just check the bins and proof and bake what I thought we would need for the rest of the day. I also made roast beef in that oven. And if allowed to say, to perfection.

At home, the whole process is much simpler. I'll make 3 or 4 loaves and 2 or 3 Fat Pretzels. Same dough. And using "Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast", gets me out of the kitchen in around 3 hours. I know I've left out a few things like slicing the tops of the loaves for proper expansion in the actual baking stage. I hope you've enjoyed your little trip to the bakery. I did it and still do for love.

Thanks for dropping by,
Joe the Baker