INGREDIENTS - Hand Test for Flour Strength

A typical small bakery keeps three white wheat flours on hand: cake flour, pastry flour, and a bread flour such as patent.You should be able to identify these three by sight and touch, because sooner or later someone will dump a bag of flour into the wrong bin or label it incorrectly, and you will need to be able to recognize the problem.

Bread flour feels slightly coarse when rubbed between the fingers. If squeezed into a lump in the hand, it falls apart as soon as the hand is opened. Its color is creamy white.

Read More

HAND TOOLS - Sieve

A round metal screen supported in a stainless-steel hoop frame. It is used for sifting flour and other dry ingredients. Also called a drum sieve or tamis (pronounced tah-mee).

Read More

HAND TOOLS - Scrapers

A bench scraper, also called a dough scraper, is a small rectangle of stainless steel with a handle along one of the long edges. It is used for cutting and portioning dough and for scraping tabletops. 

A bowl scraper is a piece of plastic about the same size but with one curved edge and no handle. It is used for scraping out the contents of mixing bowls.

Read More

HAND TOOLS - Rolling Pins

Many types of rolling pins are used in the bakeshop for rolling out doughs. Perhaps the most versatile pin, used for most general rolling tasks, is simply a solid hardwood rod,about 2 in. (5 cm) thick and 20 in. (50 cm) long. A French rolling pin is about 2 in. (5 cm) thick at the center and tapered toward the ends. It is useful for rolling pie doughs and other doughs that must be rolled to a circular shape.

For large quantities or heavy work, a Ball-bearing rolling pins and heavy ball-bearing pin may be used.

Read More

HAND TOOLS - Roller Docker

A tool that pierces holes in rolled-out dough to prevent bubbling during baking. It consists of a handle attached to a rotating tube fitted with rows of spikes.

Read More

HAND TOOLS - Cutters

Many types of cutters are used in the pastry department.

Cookie cutters and pastry cutters, available in many shapes, cut decorative shapes by stamping them from rolled-out dough. Roller cutters have a handle on each end, like a rolling pin, and are rolled over rolled-out dough to cut repetitive shapes quickly and efficiently, with minimal loss of dough to trimmings and scraps. Roller cutters are often used for croissants.

Read More

OVENS

Ovens are, of course, the workhorses of the bakery and pastry shop and are essential for producing breads,cakes,cookies,pastries,and other baked items. Ovens are enclosed spaces in which food is heated, usually by hot air (except in the case of microwave ovens, which are not especially useful in a bakeshop). Several kinds of ovens are used in baking.
Steam is important in the baking of many kinds of breads, and i will discuss them later. Ovens used in bakeshops, including deck ovens, rack ovens, and mechanical ovens, may have steam injected into them during part of t baking cycle.

Read More

Formulas and Measurement

Bakers generally talk about formulas rather than recipes. If this sounds to you more like a chemistry lab than a food production facility, it is with good reason. The bakeshop is very much like a chemistry laboratory, both in the scientific accuracy of the procedures and in the complex reactions that take place during mixing and baking.

Read More