Final proofing is an essential thermal step in the baking process. Just like oven baking, proofing can also be impacted by certain variables such as time, temperature and relative humidity. Too much or too little of any of these inputs can result in sub-par results. Learn more about ensuring these key factors are balanced and what kinds of tools you can use to track humidity and product temperature for the best outcomes.

If you’re like most baking professionals, the market move toward gluten-free hasn’t been lost on you. For both medical and general wellness reasons, many consumers are making the switch from wheat-based products to gluten-free. But, bakers beware: producing gluten-free baked goods is not a plug-and-play situation. In other words, you simply cannot substitute gluten-free ingredients for traditional ingredients and expect great results. In order to effectively capitalize on the gluten-free opportunity, modifications to bake times, product optimization and oven management are key.

Make sure your baking process is as healthy as the high fiber bread you’re producing! With consumers becoming increasingly health conscious, bread varieties like gluten-free, clean label and high fiber are more popular than ever. But, baking them can be a real balancing act.

Out with the old, in with the new? Not so fast! Make sure you profile that old oven before installing new equipment so that product quality and consistency are preserved. Without a blueprint of your old process -- oven performance included -- ensuring great results and reduced scrap out of the gate may be a difficult proposition.

How do your crackers stack up? Check out this informative guide to cracker ingredients, baking considerations and tips for tools that can help cracker bakers optimize the process for improved yields. ECD’s resident baking and thermal process expert, Ray Pearce, shares the inside scoop. Trust us, the info. is all it’s cracked up to be!

Improve your chances of making more cold, hard cash through optimal frozen dough processing. Learn about the freezing process and how a greater understanding of the freezing operation can ensure higher dough yields and, therefore, increased profits.

Getting clean means big modifications to your baking operation. Younger-generation consumers are all in for clean label baked goods, but is your process set-up to ensure this new breed of customers gets what they want? Sure, they want natural, simple, less-processed ingredients, but….they still demand good texture, taste and consistency. Learn how to produce clean label products that won’t stress you or your process out!

Stop guessing and start optimizing. When you know what’s going on with your dough inside the oven, you know how to control the outcome. Learn more about the benefits of thermal profiling and raise the competitiveness and profitability of your baking operation.

You know what topic garnered the most interest at the BakeWATCH booth during at last month’s iba event? If you guessed food safety and kill step protocols, you’d be close. Overwhelmingly, though, oven balancing was the center of conversation.