Pittsfield Rye News

Pittsfield Rye Forges New Direction
Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, contributing editor

By moving to frozen and par-baked dough production and investing in a new plant, this wholesale bakery transformed its business and cleared a path for future success.

Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads’ new business model may seem like a complete 180. But, that implies a lack of planning and potential loss of key elements that made the bakery successful in the first place, which is not the case for Pittsfield co-owners Rick and Renee Robbins. When the husband and wife team purchased the bakery six years ago, the couple knew the business needed to change — and change big. The Robbins researched new market potential, invested heavily in new equipment and infrastructure and overhauled the bakery’s production process with new focus on frozen and par-baked specialty breads. All the planning not only set up the bakery for future growth, but the company also has maintained the history and product integrity with which it was founded.

Rick and Renee Robbins, third generation owners of Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Co., recently moved into a new facility that will accommodate the significant growth of their bakery’s wholesale products.

In 1929, Charlie and Tillie Robbins opened a full-line retail bakery in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. Particularly popular was the rye bread made from a recipe Charlie had brought from Brooklyn. In fact, the bread earned such a widespread following, the Robbins named their bakery after it.

When third generation baker Rick and his wife bought Pittsfield Rye from his parents, Arnie and Linda, the couple almost immediately eliminated all of the pastry items to focus on fewer and unique types of breads and rolls, and renamed the bakery Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Co. to emphasize its core product line.

Pittsfield Rye generates more than $2 million annually, but with the new production facility recently in full operation, the Robbins expect annual sales to more than double by the end of this year. The company also maintains a small retail storefront, which accounts for about 10 percent of sales. Product mix for the bakery is about 60 percent frozen dough and 40 percent par-baked and fully-baked artisan breads.

At a Glance: Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Co.
Pittsfield’s conical rounder uses oil instead of flour to prevent dough from sticking to the chute.

Making the move from retail to wholesale first required researching the market area. The company saw potential in supplying breads to supermarkets, restaurants, delis and other wholesale accounts, but Berkshire County has a limited number of these types of operations. Becoming a frozen dough and par-baked bread manufacturer allowed the company to expand its reach.
Its sales area has expanded further into Massachusetts and Connecticut. And, by partnering with a bakery distributor, the bakery’s market recently has grown to include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
“It wasn’t like one day we said we were going to get into frozen products, and the next day we were fully ready to go,” Robbins says. “We spent a lot of time training, product developing and researching the frozen dough process — how to implement it, what types of products could or couldn’t be used and where the market place was.”

To ramp up for expansion, the Robbins moved their operation from its original 8,000-sq.-ft. Pittsfield facility to a 10,000-sq.-ft. building on 14 acres, less than three miles away, and invested about $2.5 million in the new property and equipment.

Instead of the two-story, twisting floor plan of the first bakery, the new one is designed for better production flow and incorporates additional freezing technology. The more spacious facility allowed them to construct a linear bread line with an automatic divider, moulder, conical rounder and overhead proofer system that turns out 1,500 loaves per day compared to the 1,200 produced by their original bread line. A new silo holds and aerates 75,000 lb. of flour.
The Robbins’ have been pleased with the performance of their Sancassiano spiral mixers, which have a cylindrical breaker bar that thoroughly incorporates ingredients.

In place of the old revolving oven, which took more than seven hours to heat up and had to be left on 24 hours per day, the bakery installed a five-deck stone oven that requires less than one hour to heat and has a separate steam function for each deck for more consistent baking. As a result, the bakery’s monthly gas bill has been reduced by 40 percent. Fruit breads, such as apple-cinnamon-raisin and pecan, are baked in rotary rack ovens. Robbins prefers the rack ovens for breads with softer crusts because the rack ovens’ temperature is easier to control.
To implement frozen production, the bakery installed a separate blast freezer and storage freezer that has shelving capacity to hold more than 100 pallets. “Our dough production room is environmentally controlled. We have a dough production area separate from the baking area. This enables us to keep the dough temperatures closer to what we like,” Robbins says.

The mixing stage is a critical step in Pittsfield’s production process. Before mixing begins, about 20 bowls of specialty ingredients, except for flour, water and yeast, are scaled and ready to incorporate. An overturnable spiral mixer handles 500 lb. of dough at a time. Robbins prefers a spiral mixer because its gentle motion is the closest to hand-mixing, and it is able to handle the higher hydration artisan doughs.

“It adds life to the dough and allows our breads to develop their distinctive textures,” he notes.

Pittsfield keeps temperatures for its frozen doughs below 63°F (17°C) during the mixing stage. Temperatures for doughs to be proofed and baked range from 75°F to 80°F (24°C to 27°C) in the mixing stage. “There are different reasons for doing this. First of all, you want a lower dough temperature for your frozen dough because you want your yeast to remain dormant, and you want it activated when it gets to the end user,” Robbins says. “Whereas, if you proof and bake, you want the opposite. You want your yeast activity and your fermentation process to work; you want your gasses to build and create your flavor.”

Before the breads are placed in the cooler, one loaf from every batch is placed on a separate tray and labeled with a number and date to signify the batch from which it came. The date and number also are recorded in a notebook, and the racks are clearly labeled. If a proofing problem with a particular sample arises, the batch can be easily identified and the issue examined.

This practice comes in handy, particularly when dealing with supermarket in-store bakeries. Robbins sites one supermarket bakery that was having trouble proofing its Italian breads, which were selling out. “The store manager told the employee to put extra in the cooler on Friday so they’d have it for Sunday. Product was fine on Saturday. On Sunday, there was no yeast activity left,” Robbins says.
“Direction was coming from the store manager, who’s not a baker, because he wanted the shelf to be full all the time.”

Whatever the issues are, Pittsfield usually can pinpoint the problem, whether it is in its process, at the distributor stage or the end user. And, Pittsfield is counting on supermarkets as key customers for the bakery’s distinctive line of breads. Robbins believes a major selling point for his products is their flavor profiles and the bakery’s ability to customize products for specific customers. Bases and proprietary blends of natural flavor enhancers help him to create breads that are consistent and cannot be easily duplicated by other bakeries, he explains.
Cinnamon chips replace swirls to more evenly distribute bursts of flavor in his breakfast breads. Rye chops and coarse pumpernickel flour give the bakery’s black Russian pumpernickel extra textural complexity.

Other best sellers include the bakery’s signature Jewish-style rye (available in original, seeded, onion and marble varieties); 12-grain; three-seed farmers bread (also called Berkshire Bread), topped with rolled oats and sunflower seeds; Tucsan Italian; Kalamata olive and rosemary; and breakfast/dessert breads: apple-cinnamon-raisin and pecan; Cinnamon Burst and Death by Chocolate. A recent addition, Tex Mex, also has been well received, Robbins adds. The new loaf features bold flavors, such as crushed red pepper, jalapeño peppers, chili powder, garlic and cumin.

With its renewed focus on the breads that gave Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Bread Co. its name, the company is primed and ready for more growth. The bakery has room for more freezer space and an additional 14 acres for potential facility expansion.

Robbins is getting a positive response to the bakery’s changes both locally and in new territory. “[Berkshire-area customers] have always liked what we were, but they’re happy that we’ve evolved into more,” Robbins says. “In Manhattan, we’ve been pleasantly surprised how well our product is received because Manhattan has some really nice bakeries as well. It’s a big city, and they probably have the best of everything. For us to come in from Pittsfield, only time will tell how far we’ll go. We’re at the beginning stages of this, and it’s a work in progress. But, we can see the writing on the wall.”

Energy-efficiency is a priority for the Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Co. owners Rick and Renee Robbins, for both ecological and financial reasons. A few months ago, they had an independent energy audit of their new bakery facility and, since then, they have made changes to make their operation more “green” and reduce energy costs.

For example, rack compressors automatically adjust the blast and storage freezers’ cooling levels as the loads inside and outside increase and decrease. Instead of escaping into the atmosphere, a portion of the heat generated by the compressors is reclaimed by being piped through two large condensing units back into the production area, Rick Robbins says. This provides a green and free source of heat for that part of the building, Robbins adds.

The rest of the building uses hydronic radiant heat from tubes filled with circulating hot water. Robbins explains that this system holds heat better than traditional heating systems. Light bulbs with minimal amounts of mercury use only 10 percent of the energy of regular bulbs and require changing less frequently.
Location: Pittsfield, Mass. 
Primary business: wholesale 
Market served: Northeastern United States 
Number of locations: 1 
Key personnel titles: Rick and Renee Robbins, owners 
Web site: www.pittsfieldrye.com 
Product line: frozen dough, par- and fully-baked artisan breads and rolls 
Facility size: 10,000 sq. ft. and attached 1,000-sq.-ft. freezer 
Production methods: starters, scratch and bases 
Major equipment: spiral and horizontal mixers, water meter, water chiller, bread line, flour silo, bread divider, manual bun divider/rounder, automatic divider/rounder, baguette moulder, cooler, freezer, blast freezer, roll divider/rounder, deck and rotary rack ovens, proofer, lift oven loader, bread line with divider, rounder, overhead proofer, long and round moulders, bread slicer, bread bag tier, tape sealing machine
 
Breaking Down Frozen Dough’s Intricacies
Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM, by Paula Frank, chief editor

As more fresh bakeries venture into the frozen arena, caution must be taken to minimize changes to product quality.

Entry into the frozen dough market offers many advantages, including extended shelf life and sales beyond a baker’s immediate fresh market distribution area, and yet numerous factors impact finished product quality and consistency. Although any skilled baker has the ability to control product formulation and the manufacturing process, finishing off the product by thawing, proofing and baking often is left to the unskilled end user. Thus, much is left to chance when all is said and done.

Specialty dough conditioners enable bakers to make yeast-raised products, such as bagels, that go straight from the freezer to the oven.

Optimizing the performance of yeast in frozen dough is one of the most important criteria impacting bread quality. Cryoresistance, or the ability of yeast to survive the freezing process, can be accomplished with the right combination of ingredients and processing parameters. For instance, maintaining proper dough temperature is a critical step in keeping yeast dormant.

In addition, advancements in ingredient technology have resulted in improved stability for frozen product and longer shelf life, notes John Graham, regional sales manager, Red Star Yeast Co., Milwaukee.

Optimizing dough quality
Two of the most important objectives of frozen dough production are to optimize dough development during mixing, while maximizing the cryoresistance of yeast, so it remains dormant during frozen storage. Although these objectives are partially accomplished through formulation, process conditions also are key. Dough temperatures need to be in the 59°F to 68°F (15°C to 20°C) range, notes Jan van Eijk, Ph.D., Lallemand Inc., Montreal. In addition, the time between mixing and freezing needs to be short. Small batches help reduce variation between mixing and freezing.

“The temperature of your dough is achieved by the temperature in your atmosphere, the friction in your mixer and the temperature of your ingredients,” says Rick Robbins, president and owner, Pittsfield Rye and Specialty Breads Co., Pittsfield, Mass. “Some people have water chillers, as we do, although sometimes that in itself is not enough in some seasons to give you your desired dough temperatures, so ice is an option. We actually add shaved ice now. It’s less friction on the mixer and better for the dough as well.”

The amount of ice needed per formulation varies depending on factors, such as the season and the amount of humidity in the air. Bakers can rely on past experience and judge the amount of ice needed based on the dough temperature of the first batch, Robbins adds. Environmentally controlled dough production rooms also are helpful. Pittsfield Rye uses evaporators to cool the dough production room — an area sealed off from the heat and humidity of the proofing and baking processes.
Colder dough is stiffer by nature, causing more wear and tear on dough processing machinery that may need to be upgraded with larger motors and more horsepower, notes Chris Bohm, senior bakery technolgist, Caravan Ingredients, Lenexa, Kan. An alternative is to find the right kind of equipment to accommodate doughs ranging from highly hydrated and sticky to those that are stiffer. Robbins feels he has done just that.

“Some people think a horizontal or a barrel mixer is better because it’s stronger and more rigid,” Robbins says. “But, that being said, I’m a firm believer in spiral mixers. We have three Sancassianos. We actually tried about six different types of spiral mixers several years ago, but these mixers we chose are, I believe, the best we’ve seen. They have a cylindrical breaker bar in the middle, as opposed to some of the spiral mixers that have an L-like bar. The L-like breaker bar sort of slides the dry ingredients, as opposed to the cylindrical breaker bar that incorporates ingredients much quicker. It’s very good for the dough and adds life to it.”
At the Robbins’ bakery, once the dough is mixed, it goes through a divider; conical rounder; intermediate/overhead proofer where it rests for 12 minutes; through a final moulder, where it is degassed; then formed and placed on pans that are set onto racks and then blast frozen. The whole process takes 18 minutes. “Even though we’ve tried to automate and expedite our process, it still is more natural,” Robbins says. “The dough is allowed to rest for 12 minutes after it’s rounded, and then it goes through a moulder. The main attribute to having the yeast remain dormant throughout the resting process is having that lower dough temperature.”
Robbins strives for a mixing temperature of 63°F (17°C) for his frozen dough versus the temperature range of 75°F to 80°F (24°C to 27°C) used for proof-and-bake bread production.

Formulation constraints
Yeast used in frozen dough has to survive frozen storage for three to six months. Typically, bakers use the same strain of yeast for proof-and-bake bread production and frozen dough, although the yeast, which is preferably the cream type, should be as fresh as possible, van Eijk notes.
The presence of trehalose, a natural disaccharide sugar with good water retention properties, is a cryoprotective compound that has been associated with yeast. Yeast with higher levels of trehalose tend have lower gassing power; therefore, the yeast tends to stay dormant longer in frozen dough, and activates more slowly, according to Lallemand.

Yeast strains specially engineered to be more cryoresistant also are available in compressed/crumbled and liquid/cream forms, Bohm notes.

Dough conditioning systems are particularly important for protecting the dough throughout freezing. “Generally, the conditioning systems are higher in oxidation, lower in reducing agents and contain high amounts of dough strengtheners and/or enzymes and hydrocolloids,” Bohm says.

High levels of antioxidants are recommended of at least 60 ppm; however, 90 ppm to 120 ppm of ascorbic acid is preferred for optimum oxidation, according to Lallemand. When reducing agents are used to reduce mixing time and speed up dough development, more oxidation is required.

Dough conditioners are very important in frozen dough. Robbins uses all natural vitamin C in all of his make-and-bake and par-baked products. Reportedly, no all-natural dough conditioners exist that work in frozen dough. The emulsifier DATEM (di-acetyl tartaric acid esters of monoglyceride) works very well in frozen dough. “Our product has a lot of tolerance, a nice shelf life and will hold up for the end user,” Robbins adds.

Other new technologies are emerging for both retarder-to-oven and freezer-to-oven processes. Caravan Ingredients has a particular range of dough conditioners that enable bakers to make yeast-raised products, such as pizza, bagels or sweetgoods that go straight from the freezer to the oven. “This is becoming increasingly important in foodservice operations where time and skills are scarce resources,” says Kerrie Medlicott, marketing director, Caravan Ingredients. “What makes this technology so special is that frozen dough manufacturers don’t need to make any changes to their existing formulation or process, so their customers can have the same eating qualities, but in a more convenient format.”

Finishing the process
Frozen dough should be stored and distributed at -10°F to 0°F (-23°C to -18°C). All frozen dough needs a thawing period (retarding) for 12 hours to 16 hours at 36°F to 40°F (2°C to 4°C), notes Bohm.

“From here it is allowed to come to a temperature of around 55°F (13°C) before getting the final proof in a chamber slightly lower in temperature and humidity than what is commonly used for make-and-bake product, 90°F to 95°F (32°C to 35°C) and 80 percent to 85 percent relative humidity,” adds Bohm. “Proof time is generally about 25 percent shorter than that of conventional dough, because the dough is getting some proofing in the retarding stage.”

Freeze/thaw cycling should be avoided during storage and distribution. Thawed frozen dough should not be refrozen. Usually, there is a maximum proof time, which should not be extended indefinitely, van Eijk notes. Maintaining some semblance of control over the thawing and proofing processes is one of the biggest challenges associated with frozen dough. Many variables can fluctuate, from time and temperatures to the equipment used to product rotation by the distributor.
Robbins responded to a product complaint from a customer who “didn’t understand the process.” In wanting to keep store shelves fully stocked, the store manager told his employee to place extra product in the cooler on Friday so it would be available for Sunday. Although the product was fine on Saturday, by Sunday no yeast activity was left. “As you delve further and further, hopefully you find the problem and try and correct it,” Robbins says. “Even if we’re absolutely perfect on our end, there could be problems between the distributor and the end user that need to be ironed out.”

Pros and cons
Many bakers are capitalizing on the benefits frozen dough provides. Distribution can be extended beyond regional boundaries and inventory cost is reduced because of the lower volume and higher density associated with dough before it has been proofed or baked. “A typical carton of frozen dough weighing 30 lb. and containing about 240 individual rolls takes considerably less space than its fully baked and packaged counterpart,” Bohm says. In addition, because frozen dough has an extended shelf life, bakers can draw off of inventory as customer demand calls for it.

In spite of the many advantages of frozen dough, one of the major disadvantages is that finished product quality is so dependent on the finishing process used by the customer, who is more often than not, unskilled in baking. Robbins, whose customer base in Manhattan is growing, sees the industry going more toward par-baked. “Manhattan strictly does par-baked. They don’t have proof boxes because there is not room for them. Space is at such a premium.” Robbins says.

Perhaps advancements in ingredient technology can remove some of the labor-intensive steps and opportunities for error that currently exist in the thawing and proofing steps required for frozen dough. A freezer-to-oven process could certainly go a long way toward maximizing quality of baked products made from frozen dough.

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