The idea is to strike the happy medium between roasting and suffocation. The most widely used breadmaking process in the manufacture of commercial bread is the sponge and dough method. Seven hundred pounds of flour, for example, may be conveyed mechanically from the flour storage bins to the mixer. A yeast suspension is added to the flour, together with enough water to make the total water content about 460 pounds. The ingredients are then combined into the spongy mixture and placed into a dough trough where fermentation is permitted to take place.
Fermentation is the second step in the sponge and dough method.
The dough troughs are large, stainless steel oblong containers with rounded bottoms and are mounted on wheels, to facilitate their being rolled into the fermentation room. Here, where the temperature is held at 80 degrees F., the sponge ferments for about five hours. During this time, there is a chemical interaction of carbonates and acids, causing the sponge to rise. At the completion of the fermentation period, the sponge is ready for the next step in the method, mixing the dough. These ingredients are mixed into a dough, a process which plays an important part in determining the lightness and porousness of the ultimate loaf of bread.