Welcome to the fourth season of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Stephen Hallam, brand ambassador for Dickinson & Morris and chair of judges for the Tiptree World Bread Awards, explores the elements of artisan bread baking that can — and should — be incorporated into commercial bread production. This episode focuses on mixing and how it can impact the artisan process, especially on a commercial scale.
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Joanie Spencer: Welcome to Troubleshooting Innovation, a Commercial Baking podcast. I’m your host, Joanie Spencer, editor-in-chief for Commercial Baking. I’m speaking with Stephen Hallam, brand ambassador for Dickinson and Morris and chair of judges for the Tiptree World Bread Awards, which will take place at IBIE 2022, Sept. 18 – Sept. 21 in Las Vegas. This season, we are exploring the principles of artisan bread baking that can — and should — be incorporated into commercial bread production.
Spencer: This episode is focused on mixing and how it can impact the artisan process, especially on a commercial scale.
Spencer: Hi, Stephen, thanks for joining me.
Stephen Hallam: Hi, there, Joanie.
Spencer: This is another really great topic that we’re going to dive into this week. We’re taking a step back from what we discussed last week, which was time and temperature, and we’re gonna focus on mixing. It’s so important, because if you get the mix wrong, you might not know until the bread comes out of the oven. Let’s first talk about what are the key elements of properly mixing artisan dough?
Hallam: I don’t think this is something you can necessarily bespoke to an artisan or artisan bakers. For any baker before we start mixing, you need to think about what your ingredients are. You need to make sure that you’ve weighed down the ingredients according to the recipe as they should be. Because remember baking is a science, there’s a balance there. Some percentage of whatever it is you’re putting in, will achieve the result you want. The weighing of ingredients shouldn’t be taken lightly, and is a responsibility not to be dumbed down. If it’s weighed down wrong, then you’re not going to get the right result to start with. I think that’s worth highlighting. The biggest ingredient when it comes to making the dough is going to be the flour, usually. We’re very dependent as bakers of receiving a consistent flour from the miller or wherever we buy our flour from. More often than not, if something is not as it should be, either with the dough or the result and bread, quite often the last person that we ring up to say that something has gone wrong is the flour supplier, the miller. On the other hand, it sometimes should be the first because we expect 365 days a year that we’re getting a consistent supply of flour. But remember the miller’s task (and we’ve touched on this in an earlier episode) of producing consistent flour when he’s got the materials and grains, grown every year in different conditions, can be quite challenging. He has all the tools at his hands with all his equipment. They have all these extensive graphs to ensure that the flour he’s producing has the correct water absorption, starch content, damage starch content, all of that. We have talked a little bit about that, because we assume all that is consistent. If we’re consistent in what we do in the mixing process, and the dough isn’t right, then perhaps the miller is the first person we call to say, “Is something wrong with the flour?” It typically is when it’s a change of harvest. We’re moving on from the old wheat to the wheat from the new harvest. Millers won’t stream it all in 100% new wheat in one go, they’ll do it gradually. Sometimes that can create a huge effect. The classic one is water absorption.
Hallam: When you’re mixing and following the recipe for your dough, it will call for a certain percentage of water and that can vary. It can vary not just for the reasons I’ve explained, but also where the flour has been stored and how old the flour is. The purpose of mixing is that we’re adding water to the flour and it’s going to make a dough. The mixing action that is developing from the proteins to form this mass called gluten. There are three proteins in wheat flour: gluten, glide and globulin. They come together to form this fairly sticky, indigestible product or gluten. The action of mixing is to stretch and develop the dough for it to become elastic and extensible. Those two qualities of elasticity and extensibility is all down to the gluten and making sure that the gluten develops properly. If the dough doesn’t develop all the way, that could be because you either haven’t mixed it together enough or you haven’t added a sufficient amount of water. Then you’ll end up with what baker’s described as a tight dough. It could tear in the process of dividing and molding it into whatever shape you need. When it comes to its final proof, it won’t be quite as free and silky as you’d expect. When the dough goes into the oven, you won’t get the rise and get that oven spring that we might like to see. Again, this depends on what kind of loaf we’re making.
Hallam: Coming back to the actual mixing, the type of machine or the way in which the dough is mixed, could alter how much water is absorbed by the flour. The flour itself will have absorption rates which is an optimum amount of water that the protein and the starch in the flour will absorb. If you put too much in, the dough will be waterlogged. There was a danger of this many, many years ago in the days when sandwich bread was first prevalent here in the UK, because the dough was being put into a tin had a bottom and four sides. There was a belief that you could put more water in the dough because the tin would hold the dough up. But the sort of bread that was coming out was more like cotton wool, and didn’t have any structure to it. Now that was a classic example of too much water. If the dough is not mixed sufficiently, then the gluten won’t be developed enough and you will get some poor looking loafs in particular. During the proving process, it could fall apart because it’s so tight, that it is just not mixed enough. So is every dough the same? Not necessarily. We come back to what I started with, you’ve got to assume that you’re getting consistent flour and that it has been weighed correctly, all the ingredients been weighed down correctly. These are crucial, critical points in the process. Assuming that is the case, there are times when the dough may just take a little bit more water, because it needs it. Not because you’re trying to make it stand up as it was, but because water is considered to be the least expensive ingredient in the dough. The knowledge of the dough maker is quite crucial here. I wouldn’t say that there’s an aroma, but there is a visual sight when you’re doing this regularly and all the time. You do see whether something is not right, whether it needs more water, whether it needs less. If it need less water, is that because it has not been weighed properly or is it because there’s something wrong with the flour? At that point, you might not know. That’s the crucial part of mixing, just put everything in a machine and press a button and say, “It’s all right.” There needs to be lots of control points before that to ensure that it’s consistent. In a big commercial operation, if you’ve a dough that is particularly sticky because it has too much water in it, this could mean flour is not as it should be, that could cause umpteen issues when the dough is divided and then when it’s on intermediate proof and proving baskets, etc. because it could stick to everything. The baker’s answer can sometimes be to throw lots of flour on it except that then introduces other problems in that it won’t mold properly. You get skinning, you get holes in the final bread, etc. There’s a number of bottles on the wall, dominoes, that you just got to get in the right order. But the person actually mixing is quite crucial.
Spencer: Absolutely. Listen, I’m gonna tell you a story that is probably going to make you scream as an artisan baker. I’ll preface it with I was not in a bread bakery. It was probably seven or eight years ago, I was in a bakery that was very close to being what they call a “lights out” bakery and they told me as long as we have someone here to turn on the mixer, this entire line can run without anybody as long as one person is here to turn on the mixer.
Hallam: That’s a shame really, that something that’s probably run by an accountant, not a baker. There’s not a lot of passion in that.
Spencer: I feel like it exemplifies the two schools of thought that are prevalent in our industry right now because we are in such a shortage of not only labor, but also bakers. I hear so much that we don’t have any more “dough heads” — that’s what they call them here in the States is “dough heads” — the ones that can look at or touch the dough and know there’s a problem and have thoughts on how to solve that problem. I think in one direction, total automation is the key to solving that. Then the other direction is we cannot just populate the industry with operators. We need to teach them the process and we need to teach them what is happening when they turn on the mixer. I like the term that you used “dough maker,” that they’re not a mixer operator, they’re a “dough maker.”
Spencer: Let’s take a break from this episode of Troubleshooting Innovation. To talk about Commercial Baking’s partnership with the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE). As IBIE’s Gold Media Partner, Commercial Baking has provided all new media products to help attendees and exhibitors get the most from this year show. Check out our IBIE monthly newsletter, IBIE ShowGuide digital edition and our IBIE Booth Trailers by visiting commercialbaking.com. And don’t forget to come see us at IBIE Booth #3125 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. We’ll see you at IBIE.
Spencer: So I talked to another baker recently who gave me the analogy of customer service. They are teaching their line workers that the person at the mixer is serving the person at the makeup line. The person at the makeup line is the mixer’s customer. They have to make sure that they’re getting the dough ready for it to be properly processed down the line so then the oven is the makeup operator’s customer and so on. I am curious as to your thoughts on how you teach someone, like what are the fundamentals that a person new to the industry needs to know if they are put at the mixer, at the mixing station? What do they need to look out for? What happens next after they push that button?
Hallam: I think it’s deeper than that actually, because the science behind making a loaf of bread is not rocket science. There is a science there. It’s the same science today as it was 20 years ago and will be 20 years from now. This isn’t in terms of fermentation. All the things we’re talking about — breadmaking, fermentation, the materials — usually, the more involved people are, the more they fall in love with, the more passionate they become, the more caring they become. If there is a dearth or lack of colleges, places of education where people can go to learn this, then I would suggest the onus of the industry. Businesses themselves to be putting X amount of their budget, whatever it is, but making it part of their day-to=day business for whether it be with academies or an amount of time given online because all this could be learned online. Initially, the science of how big operation could put aside a room they could call the “baking academy” or whatever the name of the company is. Or people could do it at home online. We have to do it per se for health and safety. We have to do it for food safety, you know, you can’t work in a bakery unless you’ve got your basic food hygiene certificate. That same principle could be applied to bakery knowledge. Each colleague, member of staff, employee then becomes an ambassador of the company. If they’re learning more about what they’re doing, they will be the better for it and that will show in what they do and the company will be the better for it as well. It’s too easy to forget just how obliging and how helpful people will be if they’re asked or they’re given the tools to help them with what they’re doing. If the end game is always looking at the bottom right hand corner of the profit and loss account, I think we’re harping onto something that’s very emotional for me, because I firmly believe in it. And that’s the people. Quality in the bakery business is not just about the products and the materials, and the ingredients that those products are made from.
Hallam: It’s about the people, the respect those people are given the the environment in which they work, the cleanliness of the bakeries, the vehicles, the vans, the whole DNA of the business really should be about quality being a way of life. The more opportunity you give to your colleagues to improve the knowledge of what they’re doing, the greater the business will be for them moving forward. It’s not hard to teach people this science of baking, everybody will be a winner including the customers, who will end up paying for it because they’ll be buying more. The idea that the dough maker passing it on, the next personnel in the processes, the customer is great. But that sounds very clinical to me, you know that. They’re all working for the one company, it shouldn’t need an approach like that. The dough maker will know whether the dough is right or not, they will get a little bit upset if the oven then burns everything, and rightly so. They’re all one team, aren’t they? We come back to that…working as a team. So important. It all comes down to giving people the tools to enable them to do their job better. It’s called training.
Spencer: That is something that we’re going to get into much deeper into in a couple of weeks. Talking about training and the culture and incorporating that into the commercial side of artisan breadmaking.
Hallam: Yes, well coming back to mixing, which is what this episode is sort of about. Yes, I think I’ve made my thoughts fairly clear there on the importance of training and knowledge throughout all the team in the bakery. If the dough isn’t right when it’s made, it won’t get rectified further down the line. Whatever process in dividing, molding, proving, baking, it needs to start right. We’ve talked about stress on the dough, making it right includes giving it enough time to relax. Depending on what we’re making, that could take more time or it might be a dough that we’re making that needs to be processed with rolls. Generally, you want to get on and get those processed because you’re dividing them up into little small rolls and molding etc. During the mixing stage, you’ve put quite a lot of input into the dough. You’ve developed that protein and then you are going to rest it, divide it, molding it will create the tension in there. so you will end up with some nice bold shapes and they will hold their shape. It also gives a better of crumb in the final loaf. Again, this is dependent if you’re doing a sourdough, focaccia or something like that. But it starts with making the dough right. When you’re mixing it out, you don’t have to have something super duper that’s gonna mix it in five minutes. You could have something that takes time and is slowly mixing the dough that allows the protein to absorb all the water because that takes time. There’s a school of thought that the first 30 minutes you don’t mix the dough at all. You just allows the water to be absorbed by the protein and the starch in there. All you do is bring it together and walk away and leave it and then come back to it and then mix it. Because it’s been given time to fully hydrate before you start developing the protein.
Hallam: Added to that there’s another process whereby you’d hold your salt back. Salt being as stringent as it is, the dough is a little bit looser, it’s freer before you add the salt. If you’ve got quite a soft dough when you add the salt, it’s quite visible to see how it tightens the dough up. That’s the effect of the salt on the protein is not quite so soft. I think any artisan baker that is looking to scale or move up from what they’re doing should be mindful of what do they want to use the machine for? Is it just breadmaking? Or are they going to be baking cakes on there? If you’re going to buy a spiral mixer, that’s principally for doughs, so you’re not really making any cake batters on that. It’s just to take advice from equipment manufacturers to ensure that what they’re buying suits the purpose because there are some machines, planetary mixer, that you can use different attachments on. There’s a dough hook, a beater or whisk that would cover everything in an all-around bakery, from cake making to sponge to batters to dough making. But if the focus is on dough making, then a spiral mixer is considered very efficient in its mixing action. There are other schools of thought that don’t want to mix the dough quite as quickly as a spiral mixer would mix the dough. We’ll just have a single arm mixer, where the turning of the arm rotates the bowl, it’s a very much slower process. And as we’ve previously discussed, speed isn’t always best is it, slowing the job down. I think it’s having a clear mind of where you’re going, what you want to use the machine for space available and matched with the budget as well. I can remember, in my father’s bakery, we mixed all our doughs on a planetary mixer, because that’s what we had, and then he moved to a spiral mixer. The difference in the doughs was unbelievable. We had a much silkier crumb, it developed the protein much better, much more extensible and elastic. We had much softer bread rolls after they’d been baked. This was all down to better mixing because it was more efficient, not so much in terms of time, in the actual stretching of the dough as it was mixing. If you’re feeling aggrieved and you’re at home and want to go and make some bread, don’t because you’ll take it all out on the dough. Generally you’ll never make good bread at home if you’ve a little bit of anger in yourself because you will have taken it out on the dough.
Hallam: I say that tongue-in-cheek. I’m joking, I don’t advise everybody to go and do it. I think you can see the principal in that. I can’t think of a better place than IBIE for any aspiring artisan baker to get the advice of what they need.
Spencer: Yes, there’s going to be a smorgasbord of mixing technology at IBIE.
Hallam: They’re all about the same thing, producing good bread, which can only be a good thing for the industry.
Spencer: You touched on it a few times, thinking about when the mixing is done right. What does that do not only for making the whole process better and more efficient, but also what is that finished product look like when the mixing is done right?
Hallam: The finished products, it’ll have a better appearance, the softness and resilience of the crumb will be better. The softness, you can feel it. When you’ve cut into a loaf, and you stroke the surface of the loaf, it feels soft, it doesn’t feel as if it could take more water. It doesn’t feel waterlogged, it just feels silky and smooth. Resilience is when on the cut surface, if you press your four fingers — not your thumb, but the ends of the four fingers — into the crumb of the loaf, it will spring back. You press it down, not vehemently or hard, but you’re gently press it down and let it go and it comes back, so that’s resilience. If you haven’t mixed correctly to optimum effect, developing of the protein or the right water absorption, you won’t get that. It will have enabled you to have molded the dough so you have really tight tension in your dough shape. That will show on the appearance of the loaf, it will stand out from the other side of the room. Something that’s right. The actual texture of the crumb won’t be too dry or crumbly. It won’t be cohesive it’ll be just right, not too sticky, not too moist. If you are looking at something like ciabatta or baguette, then yes, it’s going to be slightly chewy and have an opening and more porous feel to it. Your taste and flavor aren’t necessarily going to be affected by the mixing, that will be affected by your process. Your flavors coming from the acidity, that’s influenced by the type of flour, the length of fermentation, solve and all of that. But it’s the appearance, the softness, the resilience, the texture of the crumb that’s most prevalent from correct mixing.
Spencer: All right. Well, Stephen, this has been so enlightening. I’ve loved taking 30 minutes or so to talk specifically about how mixing impacts the artisan bread baking process. This has been so interesting. Next week, we’re going to talk about the most important aspects of working with machines in artisan breadmaking because it’s the real factor in modern bread baking. I think some of the entries in the Tiptree World Bread Awards are products that were made with machines. I think you have a lot to offer on that and I’m excited to really pick your brain on those key factors that bakers need to consider when they’re working with automation to make artisan bread products. I’m excited for next week.
Hallam: Me too. I would doubt there’s any baker, artisan or large scale commercial, that aren’t using some form of machinery. In this day and age, it is almost a way of life. So I look forward to it.
Spencer: I do as well. Once again, Stephen, thank you for your time, insight and expertise. This has been wonderful. I will talk to you about machines and automation next week.
Spencer: Thanks for listening to Troubleshooting Innovation, a Commercial Baking podcast. We are excited to join the industry in person as an IBIE Gold Media Partner, be sure to checkout our IBIE monthly newsletter, IBIE ShowGuide digital edition and our IBIE Booth Trailers all available at commercialbaking.com. Be on the lookout for exclusive digital content live from the show and don’t forget to visit us at Booth #3125 in the West Hall. We’ll see you in Las Vegas.
