I would like to do Artisan Bread, what equipment do I need?

I want to make Artisan Bread

Artisan Baking is baking in a more traditional way.

Artisan baking celebrates the role of the individual not industrial values of scale. Our bakers use their senses to produce our bread: a healthy nose to test the fermentation; a skillful touch to knead, mould and shape; and an experienced eye to tell that the bread is ready for baking and just right when it comes out of the oven. The best things take thought and care; engage your senses and enjoy.

Graham from The Village Bakery

It is important to get the right equipment if you are to make the best bread possible:
We have equipment that is ideally suited to the Artisan Baking methods and can assist the Artisan Baker while keeping the traditional processes.

Mixing

Fork Mixer Mixing is the start of the process and is vitally important to achieving good bread. There are two mixers that are favourites and for good reason. The Pavailler Fork Mixer is a traditional French mixer, it has a very smooth action effectively creaming the dough, bringing the mixture together slowly producing exceptional dough cell structure. The Sigma Two Arm Mixer is a traditional Italian Mixer, that replicates the natural human action of mixing with two hands. This smooth action gently mixes without creating excessive heat that affects the dough quality.

Fermentation

Bread is like wine or cheese. Control of the fermentation and the action of natural bacteria can produce anything from a light delicate flavour to a deep, strong, rustic flavour. Just as you might pair wine with food you can do the same with the large variety of artisan breads available. A sweet baguette is perfect with sweet butter and jam. A rustic, hearty country sourdough makes a great sandwich with meat or is good for sopping up stew. The liquid leavain is the basis of the natural sour dough bread, this can be done by hand and relies on skilled a baker understanding temperatures, the maturing process and chemical reactions in the starter. We have a Pavailler Liquid Leavain Machine, that automates this process while this may seem against the principles of Artisan bread, it actually embraces it. By warming and mixing the liquid leavain the culture is developed slowly nurtured at the ideal temperatures to develop the best culture possible every day, day after day. Then slowly cooled to be stabilised in the perfect environment ready use at any time.

Dividing

Dividing Sourdough is very important and unlike commercial bread, this sometimes is a delicate process that requires the care of an experienced Artisan Baker. To assist in this stage we have two dividers ideally suited. The Divitrand a new D20 that is fully adjustable, the pressure can be altered to suit the dough type. The dough can be divided after proving by a gentle pressing and dividing. The beauty of this machine is its flexibility it can divide rolls and loaves. The Cinelli non-stress divider, is high volume divider, that is ideally suited to sour-dough, cibatta and high moisture doughs. It gently divides in a natural action after the dough is proved ready for baking.

Proving

Proving / Retarding - this should be a long, slow process. Long Proving is where the dough is allowed to sit in a warm humid environment for many hours. Retarding is where the dough is allowed to sit for long periods of time in a cold environment (also known as long cold fermentation). Manipulating the temperature and humidity during fermentation is a skill which has a huge impact on the quality of the finished product.Proving correctly is vital to getting the best results. Most bakers use a primitive type prover, based on a box room with a steamer generating intense steam from an uncontrollable boiler.
We suggest that a Retarder Prover is the best way to prepare the finest bread. The Pavailler Retarder Prover enables the Artisan Baker to control the environment perfectly. The temperature and humidity are completely controlled and baker can program the proving process completely whether a slow prove over number of days or quickly over a few hours

Baking

Finally Baking, getting the best quality relies on having the best oven, failure here is deadly. To get the best results you will need a good stone based oven it allows the Artisan Baker to produce crusty, even textured superb bread. We have number of commercial deck ovens depending on your budget and size of your operation. The Edison Deck oven comes in number options and is ideally suited for the small Artisan Baker. This electric oven is a modular design so provides flexibility to expand as you do. The Venturi Deck oven is a gas fired oven available in many different sizes from small compact size to large commercial bakeries. The Leonardo Deck oven is a gas-steam fired oven available in many different sizes from small compact size to large commercial bakeries. We at Australian Bakery and Pizza hope that the preceeding information has been of value. If you would like something similar that we haven't covered - please drop us a note.