Rye bread
Rye bread is a regular bread type. It is baked of dough from broken or grinded rye. It used to be eaten as daily bread, but wheaten bread is eaten more these days, because of the light structure. Rye bread contains a lot of fibres and iron.
Rye bread can be divided into two types:
- Frisian rye: made of broken rye, no yeast is used, sweetish taste
- Brabantine rye: made of grinded rye, yeast or leaven is used, sourish taste.
The Frisian- and Brabantine rye are concerning ingredients and process so different that they are almost incomparable. Both production processes will be described.
Production process Frisian rye bread
Frisian rye bread is a very dark product with visible rye grains. The product has little cohesion.
Ingredients
The recipe which is used for Frisian rye bread is: 100 kg broken rye, 70 kg water, 1kg salt, 0.35 kg lactic acid and 15-25 kg old rye bread. Malt, syrup, preservative or flour are sometimes added.
- In most bread types meal or flour is used. A fine grinded form of wheat or rye. In Frisian rye bread are broken rye grains used. These grains have a section of approximately 1 mm. The starch and protein are still in the grain. This means that the grains can not built a structure with the other grains.
- The large amount of water is needed for the liquid absorption of the rye grains.
- Salt is used as a taste intensifier.
- Lactic acid is used to give the bread the fresh, sourish taste.
- Old rye bread is the finished product from a previous charge. Because this bread is already baked. The starch from the grains is already stiffened. It is therefore cooked or soaked before it is added. This gives the dough a certain cohesion. The old rye bread should be spread fine (grinded). In addition should it not be too dark, for this would give dark dots in the end product.
- Malt or syrup gives a sweeter taste and darker colour to the end product.
- Preservative gives a longer tenability to the product. It slows down the growth of moulds and ferment.
- Flour gives the bread more cohesion. The starch from flour is fairly accessible and stiffens through that easily. A moderate flour type is usually used, so no rye meal. A moderate flour type gives a better cohesion.
Mixing
All ingredients are mixed. The water is very hot (almost boiling) while added. The grains absorb the water faster because of the high temperature. After the mixing the dough has no cohesion yet.
Resting
The dough is left to rest for 1 up to 2 hours. The dough temperature is now 50°C. The rest time gives the grains more time to expand. The dough stiffens because of this and is easier to process.
A zoetpanne is sometimes used. This is a mixture of broken rye grains and water. This is placed in an oven for one night (at 60°C). During this rest, the enzymes (amylasen) break down a part of the starch to dextrins and sugars. The dextrins stick and provide the cohesion in the bread and make it a tender product as well. The sugars give the bread a sweeter taste.
Shaping and rolling
The dough pieces are shaped. They are then rolled through (burned) brans and placed in closed trays. These closed trays prevent flowing out of the dough.
Baking
The bake time of the rye bread depends on the desired colour and taste. The bake time is between 8 and 24 hours at 110°C. The bread is warmed up quickly by spraying steam in the oven at the beginning of the baking process. The steam condenses on the cold dough and increases the heat transfer. In addition the condensed steam postpones crust forming and brown colouring, because it keeps the crust a bit longer ‘wet’. Otherwise the outside of the bread would be coloured too much because of the long bake time. Burning of the crust would be possible too. The long bake time is needed for the inner part of the dough to get the heat treatment as well. The heat transfer is slow because the dough is so compact and contains no air bubbles. The dextrinating of the starch continuous during the baking. This gives the sweeter taste to the bread. The bread gets a dark brown colour because of the Maillard reactions (reactions between proteins and reducing sugars). The temperature during the baking process is low (110°C). This prevents the bread from colouring too heavily and burning.
Cooling
The rye bread can be cooled after the baking. Also cooling takes a long time because of the low heat transfer. Cooling tunnels are used to speed up the cooling process which also reduces the chance of contamination.
Cutting
The Frisian rye bread is generally sold as a sliced bread. The slices are just a few millimetres thick. The chance of contamination during the cutting is big.
Packing
The rye bread is packed in plastic cups with foil or in cling film. The bread often contains preservatives, but has not yet enough shelf life.
Pasteurize
After the packing, the rye bread is pasteurized to cut off contamination. The bread is pasteurized for 15 minutes at 80°C to guarantee a shelf life of several weeks up to a few months. This time and temperature is for the inner part of the rye bread, the actual heating takes a lot longer.
Production process Brabantine rye bread
The Brabantine rye bread can be divided into sweet and sour rye bread. At the rise of sweet rye bread, yeast is used. Leaven is used for the sour rye bread. More information is given at ‘ingredients’. The production process of both types are almost the same and comparable with the production process of wheaten bread. Brabantine rye bread is a product with a build up gluten network. The colour is much lighter than the colour of Frisian rye bread.
Ingredients
The basic recipes of the two types of Brabantine rye bread are:
- Sweet rye bread: 100 kg rye meal, 1 kg yeast, 1kg salt and 50 kg water.
- Sour rye bread: 100 kg rye meal, 2.2 kg leaven ( from 10 kg rye meal, 10 kg water and 0.200 kg yeast), 2 kg salt and 47 kg water.
Wheat meal and/or preservative is often added.
The functions of the basic ingredients are mentioned in the art of Frisian rye bread. The wheat meal gives a better gluten network, for rye itself contains just a small amount of gluten protein. A brew is often used with the use of a preservative because the preservative restrains the work of yeast. A brew is a mixture of 20 kg rye, 20 kg water and the entire amount of yeast. The brew is kept at 32°C for 30 minutes. This activates the yeast and the preservative will then restrain the yeast less.
Leaven
Leaven is only used in sour rye bread. It is a dough from 10 kg rye meal, 10 kg water and 0.200 kg yeast. This mixture is prepared 20 hours before the production of the rye bread and put away on a warm place (>30°C). Yeast multiplication, lactic acid bacteria growth and lactic acid production (by lactic acid bacteria) take place during the resting phase of this dough. Because the production of leaven takes a lot of time and the quality can differ a lot, also pure cultures are used often nowadays. These are lactic acid bacteria cultures that are ready for use.The taste of this is more constant and it saves a lot of time. Yeast is then also added to the dough.
Kneading
All the ingredients except the preservative are mixed and kneaded. The kneading time depends on the type of kneader. The kneading takes only a few minutes with a intensive high-speed kneader. But with a conventional kneader, the kneading can take 45 minutes. During the kneading, the proteins unwind themselves and form bonds with one another. This forms the gluten network.
Weighing out
When the gluten network has developed sufficiently, the dough can be divided in dough pieces. Every piece forms a rye bread eventually.
Shaping
Shaping the dough pieces makes all the dough pieces of equal length and nicely rolled up. The dough pieces can then be placed in a greased baking tin.
Rising
To help the yeast with the CO2 (carbon dioxide) production, the dough pieces are placed in a rising case. The circumstances are favourable for the carbon dioxide production and the bread does not form a crust, because of the high humidity. If the bread would get a crust as effect of dehydration, this crust would tear during the rising. The rising takes 1-1.5 hours at a relative humidity of 85% and a temperature of 35°C.
The process of shaping and rising can possibly be repeated. In that case the structure will become finer. The formed, large gas bubbles are split in multiple, smaller gas bubbles during the shaping. The small gas bubbles will grow and become large bubbles again during the rising.
Baking
The dough pieces are now ready to be baked. At the beginning of the baking process, steam is injected into the oven. This steam condenses upon the bread. This prevents the immediate forming of a crust and also improves the heat transfer. The crust should not immediately be formed, because the bread is still rising and otherwise would tear the crust up during this volume increase of the bread. The baking process takes 2-4 hours at a temperature of 200-220°C. This baking temperature is considerable shorter than the baking time of the Frisian rye bread. Brabantine rye bread contains a relative large amount of gas bubbles, which speeds up the heat transport.
Cooling
The rye bread is cooled after the baking. The cooling of the Brabantine rye bread takes less time than the cooling of the Frisian rye bread. But to speed up the cooling process, also for this bread the cooling tunnels can be used.
Cutting
Also the Brabantine rye bread is generally sold a slices bread. The slices are only a few millimetres thick. During the cutting the chance of contamination is big.
Packing
The rye bread is packed in plastic cups with foil or in cling film. Brabantine rye bread does not always contain preservative. The shelf life is therefore shorter than that of Frisian rye bread, several weeks.
Pasteurize
After the packing, the rye bread is pasteurized to cut off contamination. The bread is pasteurized for 15 minutes at 80°C to guarantee a shelf life of several weeks. This time and temperature is for the inner part of the rye bread, the actual heating takes a lot longer.
When Aviateur does a job, it does it well
Aviateur Banketbakkerijen B.V. steals market share by focus on food hygiene
More than half a million Dutch short biscuits, almond boats, treacle waffles and almond rounds roll off the production line every hour at the five factories owned by Dutch pastry specialist Aviateur Banketbakkerijen. What started as a small-scale family enterprise in Wogmeer has grown to its current position supplying a long list A-brands in the (inter)national food industry, and as a purveyor to the Royal Household.
Aviateur's head office stands right between two large production units in Broek op Langedijk in the Province of Noord-Holland, looking out onto the Wijde Vaart polder waterway at a particularly pleasant spot on the Spanjaardsdam. Here administration, transport and sales staff work literally side by side with production staff in the factory. The logistics heart of the business is housed in the adjoining distribution centre, where Aviateur trucks are loaded up with the daily production yield from the 6000m2 workfloor of the industrial bakery. The twelve ten-tonners operated by Aviateur distribute the produce and come back fully laden with packaging materials and basic ingredients so that production can keep going. The production lines only go quiet during the daily cleaning cycle.
Cake with your coffee
Dutch people enjoy a cake with their coffee, but even beyond our borders Dutch pastries enjoy great popularity. Aviateur currently exports nearly forty percent of all its products. The producer is aiming to grow its exports further in 2018. Aviateur believes this is achievable since demand for Dutch treacle waffles is growing exponentially in the US and China. As part of its strategy, Aviateur is constructing a completely new line for the production of 40,000 treacle waffles per hour in Broek op Langedijk. This is enough capacity to bring the waffles to the (inter)national market at a competitive price.
The new line is a model of modern industrial design, based on the latest developments in food-safe production facilities. Aviateur has considered every angle in its efforts to eliminate all risks of bacterial contamination and foreign objects entering the food chain - from the stainless steel cooling towers and hygienically designed junction boxes to the easy clean cable conduits for the motor drive of the transport and handling systems. The company is willing to innovate and is not afraid to play an active role by investing in new solutions. Aviateur uses the freedom of choice it has as a family-owned enterprise to focus in on sustainability, user friendliness and food hygiene without compromise.
Safe Food Factory
As Technical Facilities Manager, Jaap Jonk has had charge of the technical facilities at the Aviateur production locations for many years now, including in Broek op Langedijk. He brings a down-to-earth Noord-Holland outlook to his role. According to Jonk, "The best way to ensure maximum food safety is by eliminating all risks of bacterial infection in your production environment. To be able to do this, you first need to identify the risks. Two years ago, I attended a seminar run by SafeFoodFactory on the subject of hygienic cabling which made me look at open cable conduit systems in a new light. Many of the cable conduits, that were previously covered, we have now made more accessible and so easier to clean." 'Less is more' seems to be the guiding principle for Jonk when it comes to maximising food safety. He was guided by the same principle in the standardisation of the production facilities. Jonk explains, "In the past, we would build the production space first and then put the production line in the available space. When we were constructing our new treacle waffle line, we did it the other way round. The internal walls of the production unit were only put in place after the production line had been installed. This will allow us to increase production capacity with a second line at a later stage. We wanted to define a new standard through the new waffle line and to apply all the latest developments and understanding in the area of sustainability, hygiene and user friendliness."
Minimising existing risks
As part of the efforts to minimise food hygiene risks, all fluorescent lamps and all plastic cable ties were removed in succession from the production environments. Jonk: "The presence of breakable glass bulbs in the production environment is a risk factor, so we got rid of them. The same went for tie-wraps. They can break off and their use simply cannot be justified in terms of hygiene, so these had to go too.
All kinds of nasties can accumulate in closed cable conduit systems, so we wanted to find a different hygienic solution for the cable conduits for our new waffle line. We found the answer in Streamline HD cable conduits from Gouda Holland (part of the Niedax Group): they are easy to clean and do not need any cable ties."
Michael Evers - Business Development Manager at Niedax Group - explains, "Not only can cable ties break and get into the food chain; because, by definition, they can't be cleaned they pose a potential risk of contamination. If cable ties are not properly tied off, they also have the potential to cause physical injuries. Hundreds or even thousands of cable ties are used in many production environments. By removing them you remove thousands of risk factors at a stroke." Jonk continues,"In the same way, we looked at the housings used for the machine controls. We consistently opted for Rittal HD housings, which have a sloping roof and effective silicone seals."
Freddy van de Kolk, Account Manager Rittal Hygienic Design: "In the period in which hygienic design products came into common use among food producers working primarily with wet processes, Aviateur was one of the first industrial bakeries to install our Rittal HD housings. Others followed their example and HD products are now used in other dry environments too. This is partly because everyone started to look more closely at and became more aware of the role of peripheral equipment in production environments. No one can or wants to run the risk of a nidus of bacteria in a switch box or cable conduit leading to contamination and the recall of products. The hygienically designed products from Rittal and Niedax minimise the risk of anything like that happening."
Evers, "Through the application of Rittal HD housing and the Niedax Streamline HD cable conduit system, Aviateur can now have greater certainty about the hygienic status of the housings and cables. At Aviateur all employees are involved in the drive for maximum food safety - it's something we go into deeply and because we talk about these issues everyone looks at the processes in their part of the business with a more critical eye. This is the most important step in being able to implement changes and the best guarantee of maximum food safety."
Jonk: "We are happy to research new ways of making our processes even more sustainable and user friendly. The safety of our employees and food hygiene in our products are our most important priorities in this respect. It all starts with maximum hygiene. Eliminating food hygiene risks also makes the work environment more manageable, and we are developing our own construction standards that we can stipulate in specifications for our suppliers. This in its turn delivers savings in time and stock. Investing in hygienic design is not only a given for me – our entire board is of the same persuasion."
Featured expert: Michael Evers
