AU2012100318A4 - Bread baking - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of producing a bakery product including the steps of producing a baking dough, part cooking the baking dough to produce a partly cooked bakery product, and sealing the partly cooked bakery product in a thermoplastic oven 5 bag. The thermoplastic oven bag can be placed directly into an oven to complete cooking of the partly cooked bakery product and produce a freshly bakery product. Prepare Dough Part Cook Dough Seal Part Cooked Dough in Bag Cook Dough in Bag

Description

P/00/012 Regulation 3.2 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 ORIGINAL COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Invention Title: "BREAD BAKING" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 1 TITLE Bread baking FIELD OF THE INVENTION 5 The present invention relates to the field of baking. More particularly, the invention relates to a "bake-in-a-bag" process for baking bread. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Many people consider a freshly baked loaf of bread (or other bakery 10 product) to be a culinary delight. Although home-baked bread is not difficult it is time consuming and requires some knowledge of the use of yeast. Very few people bake bread at home, preferring to purchase bread from a bakery or grocery store. Bread purchased at a bakery may have the flavour and texture of home 15 baked bread but it does not quite have the freshness and is certainly not able to be eaten warm from the oven. Many people would say that bread obtained from a grocery store has neither the same flavour nor same texture as even the bakery bread, and certainly not the same as home cooked bread. 20 OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least alleviate one or more of the above problems. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 25 In one form, although it need not be the only or indeed the broadest form, the invention resides in a method of producing a bakery product including the steps of: 2 producing a baking dough; part cooking the baking dough to produce a partly cooked bakery product; and sealing the partly cooked bakery product in a thermoplastic oven bag. The method may further include the step of placing the thermoplastic 5 oven bag and partly cooked bakery product in an oven and cooking the partly cooked bakery product to produce a bakery product. The baking dough is preferably conventional baking dough but may contain additional preservatives to extend shelf life. Suitably the step of part cooking the baking dough leaves some moisture 10 in the partly cooked bakery product. The step of part cooking is sufficient to stop the action of the yeast in the dough and for the partly cooked dough to maintain shape. The step of sealing the partly cooked bakery product produces a hermetic seal. The step may further include the step of removing air from the bag. Air may 15 be removed by evacuation or by replacement with an inert gas, such as nitrogen. The bakery product is preferably bread. Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. 20 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS To assist in understanding the invention and to enable a person skilled in the art to put the invention into practical effect, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 25 FIG 1 is a flowchart of the process of producing bread according to the invention.

3 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention reside primarily in a "bake-in-the bag" bakery product and a "bake-in-the-bag" bakery process. Accordingly, the method steps have been illustrated in concise schematic form in the drawings, 5 showing only those specific details that are necessary for understanding the embodiments of the present invention, but so as not to obscure the disclosure with excessive detail that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present description. In this specification, adjectives such as first and second, left and right, and 10 the like may be used solely to distinguish one element or action from another element or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order. Words such as "comprises" or "includes" are intended to define a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements 15 but may include other elements not expressly listed, including elements that are inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Referring to FIG 1 there is a shown a simplified flowchart of a process for producing a bakery product, such as bread. In broad terms the process involves producing a partly cooked bakery product hermetically sealed in a thermoplastic 20 cooking bag, which is then cooked in an oven by a person. The partly cooked bakery product commences, conventionally, as a baking dough. The specific baking dough depends on the desired final product. For the purpose of this description bread dough will be described but persons skilled in the field will understand that the invention is not limited to bread dough. 25 In one embodiment the bread dough is conventional dough with the usual content of flour, water, yeast, salt and sugar. Additional preservatives may be added to enhance shelf life of the partly cooked bakery product. The inventor envisages that this will not be required in most cases since, as explained below, the partly cooked bakery product is hermetically sealed in a thermoplastic oven 30 bag. The dough is partly cooked to produce the partly cooked bakery product.

4 The degree of part cooking will vary by product as will be well understood by a person skilled in the art of baking. The degree of cooking is sufficient to stop the action of the yeast such that the partly cooked bakery product has risen to sufficient degree to maintain shape during storage. However, the cooking is not 5 so much as to remove an excessive degree of moisture from the product. The partly cooked bakery product will have higher moisture content than a fully cooked bakery product. The partly cooked bakery product is then sealed in a thermoplastic oven bag. The thermoplastic oven bag may be any plastic bag that has the properties 10 of being able to be placed in an oven at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius without degradation, and able to be hermetically sealed. By hermetically sealing the thermoplastic oven bag the partly cooked bakery product is able to be stored for a reasonable period of time. The inventor envisages that the partly cooked bakery product when sealed in the thermoplastic oven bag may have a shelf life 15 of several weeks. The partly cooked bakery product is sealed in the thermoplastic oven bag using a bagging machine. A suitable bagging machine is a TFS 400 available from Ulma Packaging (http://www.ulmapackaging.com/packaging machines/thermoforming-and-blister/tfs-400). The TFS 400 produces the bag 20 from two rolls of film and welds the films to form a bag. Vacuum or gas flushing are available to remove air from the bag. An alternative machine is a Multivac R 535 (http://www.multivac.com/our-products/thermoformers/high-performance thermoformers/r-535.html). It operates in similar manner to the TFS 400. In due course the thermoplastic oven bag and partly cooked bakery 25 product are placed in an oven and baked to produce an oven-fresh bakery product. The bakery product remains moist because the moisture is baked out of the dough but remains in the bag. The bakery product is effectively steam cooked as much as baked. The inventor has found that the resulting product has a good crust and a near perfect taste and texture. 30 The above description of various embodiments of the present invention is provided for purposes of description to one of ordinary skill in the related art. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to a single disclosed 5 embodiment. As mentioned above, numerous alternatives and variations to the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art of the above teaching. Accordingly, while some alternative embodiments have been discussed specifically, other embodiments will be apparent or relatively easily 5 developed by those of ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, this invention is intended to embrace all alternatives, modifications and variations of the present invention that have been discussed herein, and other embodiments that fall within the spirit and scope of the above described invention.

Claims (5)

1. A method of producing a bakery product including the steps of: producing a baking dough; part cooking the baking dough to produce a partly cooked bakery product; and 5 sealing the partly cooked bakery product in a thermoplastic oven bag.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of part cooking the baking dough leaves some moisture in the partly cooked bakery product.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of part cooking is sufficient to stop the action of the yeast in the dough. 10

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of part cooking is sufficient for the partly cooked dough to maintain shape.

5. A bakery product comprising a partly cooked bakery product hermetically sealed in a thermoplastic bag.