For other products, the robotic system first may set bowls aside to allow fermentation for five minutes to as much as one hour.
Maison Cousin engineers and production staff were challenged to mate the mixing system with the automated makeup line, which Fug6re notes, is not designed to hand fermented 'doughs. "But, we wanted to have floor time to achieve the product quality customers want," he says. "We had to view the process differently."
Enzyme supplier assisted
Extended floor time creates bucky doughs, which the makeup line's 8ft. sheeter/moulder cannot shape into elongated pieces, Fug6re explains. The goal was to retain floor time and still produce extensible doughs.
With assistance from the company's enzyme supplier, Fug6re and his staff reformulated the doughs to allow extended floor time and produce doughs that the makeup line could process. "The supplier gave us very good suggestions that helped us fine-tune the final formulations, he says. "This also shows that having skilled bakers makes the difference between getting what we want and compromising with less desirable results."
Fug6re and his crew also faced a problem in selecting yeast. Under ideal conditions, a bakery might use one type of yeast to get 60 minutes of floor time and 90 minutes' proofing, and another type of yeast for no floor time and minimal proofing, Fug~re says. "In a high volume operation like ours, we must use the same yeast all the time," he notes. The yeast company helped us identify the best type of cream yeast to hand all of our needs. This simplified the formulation and mixing procedures."
From the chunker, dough blocks fall into the hopper of a one-pocket ram divider, which divides the dough into 650 g (23-oz.) pieces. Other scaled products range from 30 g (1.1 ozs.) to 1 kg (2 lbs. 3 ozs.).
The pieces pass though an intermediate proofer for six minutes, then are sheeted, moulded and loaded onto baking screens, six across. They travel through a vertical proofer for 100 minutes at 28V and 75% humidity.
At the proofer exit, an automatic scoring unit makes three diagonal cuts on each screen's six loaves simultaneously. The one-piece scoring head allows for custom cutting with one to three cuts, each from 0% to 180% and at different depths.
Oven offers much control
Scored French loaves move into a vertical, six-chamber, indirect-fired oven to be baked to 80% completion. The first three chambers are set at 190%C, while the last three bake at 175%C. Fug6re says the first two units are critical because they control oven spring. The third chamber, which provides the most baking time, also injects steam. The final three units control crust color and moisture evaporation.
Needed manufacturers' support
The bakery's fully computer-controlled line requires only six production employees per shift: one in the ingredient handling and mixing control room; one in the mixing and makeup area; one in the proofing, scoring, baking and ambient cooling area; and three in packaging. Further, the bakery requires only one sanitarian daily, supported by the production employees who maintain their areas.
"When designing the bakery, our engineers examined several different manufacturers to create the most efficient par-baked bread system possible that would emulate the quality of Maison Cousin fresh bread and rolls," says Michel Doyon, executive vice president. "We needed the support of the manufacturers, while our engineers used their expertise to make the final selections and coordinate the installation."
Production of 650 g (23-oz.) French loaves reflects how Maison Cousin is achieving greater efficiency while maintaining high quality. The bread, as other products, is made with flour containing about 12% protein, is drawn pneumatically from one of three 43,000 kg (94,700-lb.) silos. The silos, which contain white and whole wheat flour, are enclosed in a room that will accommodate a fourth unit.
Flour is sifted and pumped to one of two refrigerated batching systems, which mix it with refrigerated air to cool flour temperature to 10%C. The unit blends the cooled flour with salt, malt and enzymes and pumps the ingredients to the mixing area.
The robotic mixing system features three spiral mixers and ten 250 kg (550-lb.) capacity bowls. "We use spiral mixers to give our crusty bread the best possible cell structure," explains Richard Fug6re, Maison Cousin director of production. "This was important so that we could replicate the texture of hand-shaped product made at our Montréal6al plant."
Nine available mixing stages
Nine different mixing stages are available to handle nearly any dough, he adds. Each is determined by speed, time and direction of bowl rotation. The system's computer schedules a new dough each eight minutes and 20 seconds.
Dry ingredients, cream yeast and water are pumped to the first mixer, whose bowl rotates for about one minute to incorporate them as they fall into it. For the French bread, the system transfers the bowl to one of the other two mixers, which mixes the dough for three minutes at first speed and nine minutes at second speed.
