Bäckerhaus Veit produces an extensive range of artisan products, including breads, flat breads, rolls, pretzels and baguettes. The company’s main selling point is quality, and the bakery goes to great lengths to ensure that this principle is achieved throughout the plant. "The challenge we have is making bread that traditionally is made by hand on the equipment we have here," Sabine Veit, Bäckerhaus Veit’s president and chief executive officer, says.

The Woodbridge, Ontario-based company produces the majority of its products, including ciabatta and sliced breads, on a stress-free makeup line. The stress-free line allows the company to produce fermented breads with an open, airy structure.

There are hundreds of bakeries throughout the world using similar stress-free lines. And although purists may scoff at calling something "artisan" when it was crafted by machines, some of the leading bakeries in the country are supplying restaurants and in-store bakeries with products that would satiate the most ardent artisan purists.

The crux of a no-stress line is the divider, which transforms a batch of dough into a sheet without exerting mechanical force on the dough. No-stress systems accomplish this task through a gentle sheeting process that does not round the dough or run it through a traditional ram and shear divider.

Instead, dough is pumped into a hopper and gravity takes control. A series of roller bars gently massage the dough into a sheet. This process requires no divider oils, allowing bakeries to create organic and natural products. The process also eliminates mechanical force on the dough, which removes the need for overhead proofing. Dough simply is sheeted, reduced to the desired width and thickness, and moulded.

The elimination of mechanical force also allows bakers to create doughs with high absorption levels. For example, stress-free systems may process dough with hydration levels as high as 80%.

Labriola Baking Co., Alsip, Ill., employs stress-free equipment at its plant. The bakery has three no-stress dividers. Two systems process the company’s artisan breads and the other divider manufactures buns and rolls.

Labriola Baking purchased its first stress-free divider more than five years ago to increase capacity at its manual labor bakery. Shortly after this purchase, the company installed a completely automated stress-free line. This technology allows Labriola Baking, as well as Bäckerhaus Veit and countless other bakeries, to quickly and efficiently produce high-quality artisan breads.

Problem Solver Quick Tip
Although purists may scoff at calling something "artisan" when it was crafted by machines, some of the leading bakeries in the country are using stress-free systems to supply restaurants and in-store bakeries with products that would satiate the most ardent artisan purists.