Enzymes are naturally present in flour. Natural sourdough made from water and flour also produces enzymes. However, as professionals in artisan and industrial baking know, the quality of flour varies from one harvest to the next and throughout the year. The addition of enzymes such as lipases or cellulases comes to the rescue of both artisan bakers and industrial bakeries to guarantee consistent bread products. The production of bread and gourmet products such as Viennese pastries and brioches therefore requires enzymes to ensure that the dough swells optimally when baking. This will have a major impact on the texture, volume and shelf life of the finished product.
Do you need help to offer your customers good bread? Are you looking for a solution to guarantee the quality of your bakery and pastry products? The bread market is facing ever-increasing consumer demands. With each new harvest, AIT Ingredients helps millers, artisan bakers and the baked goods industry to maintain all the technical and organoleptic qualities of their products with its complete range of breadmaking enzymes.
Where do enzymes come from?
Enzymes are natural proteins obtained from plants, microorganisms, animals, or derived products. They can be produced by fermentation using microbial sources or by extraction from animal or plant sources (malt).
These processing aids are added to foodstuffs to catalyse a specific biochemical reaction and ensure that it occurs more quickly than in their absence. Enzymes confer certain characteristics on finished products such as baguettes, Viennese pastries and brioches. They can also improve them by acting on the raw materials used during the manufacturing process. These processing aids thus complement the enzymes already naturally present in flour and minimise variations in composition due to climate or soil characteristics.
Good to know: enzymes are considered additives by the regulations when they are still present in the finished product. In this case, they are mentioned in the list of ingredients. On the other hand, an enzyme is not labelled when it is used as a processing aid, i.e. when it is destroyed by heat during baking and is therefore no longer present in the finished product. As it is active during kneading but denatured during baking, it does not need to be declared.
What are the different types of enzymes?
About ten families of enzymes are commonly used by bakers and pastry chefs. Most enzymes used in the industry are derived from fungi and bacteria. The microorganism strain is selected according to the desired activity. Here are the main categories of food enzymes useful for artisan and industrial bakeries and patisseries:
- Fungal alpha-amylase and amyloglucosidase: these enzymes break down starch into sugars and promote fermentation.
- Bacterial alpha-amylase and maltogenic exo-amylase: they colour the crust, improve the freshness of the crumb and extend the shelf life of the product.
- Glucose oxidase: it increases the tolerance and strength of the dough.
- Protease: it improves the extensibility of the dough and facilitates the lamination phase.
- Pullulanase: it promotes the fermentation process and softens the dough.
- Lipase and phospholipase: they improve the volume and softness of the finished product.
Do you run an artisan bakery and patisserie? Are you part of the baking industry? The bakery profession requires proficiency in a wide range of skills. Benefit from AIT Ingredients' expertise to optimise the manufacturing processes of all your bread products: baguettes, white bread, farmhouse bread, sandwich bread, cereal bread, Viennese bread, buns, brioches, galettes, turnovers, chocolate croissants, pastries, etc.
How do breadmaking enzymes work?
As a baker and pastry chef, would you like to learn more about how enzymes work in your bakery products? Added in very small quantities, each enzyme has specific effects on the dough and the finished product. It acts at every stage of breadmaking: kneading, shaping, fermentation, freezing and baking. Here’s an overview of the action of breadmaking enzymes on baked goods:
- forming the gluten network during kneading;
- providing nutritional elements to the yeast and consolidating the gluten network during fermentation;
- improving the resistance of dough pieces to freezing;
- ensuring a good development when baking;
- extending the freshness and shelf life of the finished product.
In short, breadmaking enzymes contribute to the consistency of the properties of the bread dough. This ensures that every loaf of bread produced has a similar appearance, texture and taste.
You can count on AIT Ingredients for tailor-made enzymatic solutions
As wheat flour experts, AIT Ingredients offers enzymatic solutions specially developed for milling and industrial baking. Thanks to breadmaking enzymes, our teams can create solutions that specifically address your problems. In particular, we offer you Clean Label breadmaking solutions that allow you to replace emulsifiers in your formulations. We also offer gluten replacement solutions to bakers in response to the “gluten-free” trend.
Other ingredients in these bread improvers complement the action of the enzymes. They include wheat gluten, dehydrated sourdough, deactivated yeast, malt extracts, sugars, ascorbic acid, lecithin, etc. These mixtures of ingredients, enzymes and additives are precisely dosed to guarantee the consistency of all your bakery products: the famous French baguette, specialty breads, buns, brioche cakes, croissants, chocolate croissants, raisin breads, etc. For fresh bread, fresh packaged bread or frozen bread, we offer tailor-made solutions for both large-scale distribution and artisan bakeries.
To benefit from our personalised support and find out more about enzymes, get in touch with AIT Ingredients! Our experts will be able to advise you and develop a solution tailored to your market and your bakery and pastry products.