October 2014
Bakery apprentices invited to innovative bakery facility
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Three Level 3 Bakery apprentices were invited to bakery giant Bakels’ new Baking Centre in Bicester for a demonstration of the latest technology in dough processing and their ultra-modern facilities.
Apprentices Jess Howard, Amy Hands and Ashley Baker had the chance to see inside this state-of-the-art industry development, which consists of a mini bread plant, six varieties of oven, a range of processing equipment for a bread and confectionery products, an audio-visual system and a presentation suite, which is used as a ‘bridge’ between the multiple retailers and their baking partners.
Professional bakers at Bakels also showed the students how to produce a range of pastries and breads to a high quality. For Artisan Breads they used a Crustinette, which enables easy production of long-fermented rustic breads with high water content. For breads and sweet doughs a Polyline was used, which helps create a range of fine pastries with ease and efficiency.
“It was a really great experience,” said Ashley. “Seeing all the new equipment, and how quickly it sped up the overall baking process, was mind-blowing.
“There was an adjoining meeting room for partners which also contained a one-way mirrored wall, giving them an insight to the product development process. It was useful to see what the baking industry is doing to remain innovative and competitive.”