An enticing range of breads is carefully crafted to answer the consumer’s unwavering love for a slice of wholesomeness, whether it’s an artisan-style bread or roll, ciabatta, focaccia, or a baguette. It’s their time to shine, in all creative interpretations, with the technology ready to reliably back up production.

A relaxed dough makes the best bread! For artisan breads of European inspiration (and beyond), dough need not only to be stress-free during the process, but also well-hydrated, in many cases.

Breads and rolls made with Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family lines

The companies in the Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family, BVT, NewCap, Vacuum Cooling and Bakepack, together design turnkey solutions, which can range from mono-lines for bread specialties, for example, baguettes, to multi-bread lines for a multitude of products including artisan breads, rolls, buns, baguettes and many more. There are numerous possible setups to choose from when establishing the design of these custom-made systems. Resulting production volumes, depending on the specialties made, can range from 600 to 12,000 kg per hour, considering that process times are product and bakery-specific. For example, for long-processing specialties, climate control systems can automate dough proofing and storage up to 48 hours. “The setup is always different! We have more than five different extruders, depending on the type of dough, from a press extruder to the NED extruder, where we only cut dough pieces and put them on top of each other. The rest of the line is also customized according to the different end products you want to make,” the Dutch specialists explain.

For the on-trend, highly hydrated doughs, Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family offers two types of stress-free extruders to choose from: one for doughs of up to about 175 TA, and the other is the NED extruder, which processes dough without bringing any stress to it.

To identify the appropriate sheeting solution, the specialist looks at two possible scenarios: an operation that produces a certain product/products and is looking to scale up production efficiently, with no changes to the product characteristics; and small-volume production facilities wanting to increase their capacity and level of automation, following a growing demand. In each case, “The starting point remains the end product,” the company underlines.

For product shaping, relevant equipment supports all possible techniques, from cutting, shaping, molding, and rounding, to depositing fillings and more. In addition, manual and artisanal functions can still be implemented, to preserve each intended unique, signature characteristic of the product.

Features frequently requested in the design stage are related to efficiency and food safety. “Links are made between computerization and automation systems that monitor and utilize real-life data. This information helps in the context of maintenance and preventive maintenance and provides data for traceability,” in Verhoeven’s experience. In addition, the specialists also observe that hygiene is high in demand. The answer can be wash-down capabilities for systems.

Designing a solution with the Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family brings together the list of tasks that the equipment is required to perform with the experience of the baker together with that of the equipment specialist. The line setup undergoes thorough testing to be completed. “Customer requests are often specific product requirements that need to be scaled up in production, for which they need advice regarding technical issues and support on the technology for the process. We have in-house specialists in the field of product management on lines and formulation of recipes,” the specialists at the Verhoeven Bakery Equipment Family say.

With technology providing all conceivable process-related answers, the science is here to support optimized, large-volume production. Then, it’s all down to the art of creating a unique creation, with a generous array of artisan inspiration – from ciabatta to baguette, round bread, rolls and anything in between.

The article is part of an in-depth feature published in Baking+Biscuit International, issue 1 – 2024.

Photos: Verhoeven Family of Companies