I am a wholesale bread baker and have gotten requests for par-baked bread. Can you suggest a recipe(sour dough or white dinner roll) and even more important, proceedure. thank you.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2001

Answers

Most par bakes are simply a version of your standard products baked 2/3 through, so that the customer may finish the product as needed. This simulates a fresh baked product, and makes it easier to control shelf-life and inventory.

The majority of par-bakes are transported frozen. This manner is preferred, as it does not require the high amount of preservatives necessary in a par-bake left at room temp. Par-baked foods are great mediums for mold and bacteria, please keep this in mind.

If you are freezing the product, you will need an emulsifier of some sort to prevent "freezer burn", a good rotation plan to keep the product fresh, and a good freezing process to freeze the goods quickly.

If you are shooting for ambient temperatures, seek out a good mold inhibitor, good packaging, rotation, and look at methods to keep mold from entering the packaging environment. (air filtration, ozone, etc.)

As far as formula, you can literally choose any, given you modify the formula to fit the process. I would suggest some reading in the Pyler books (www.chipsbooks.com) or check out the American Institute of Baking for some periodicals on this subject.

-- Anonymous, March 08, 2001