News

CALCULATION EXAMPLE

Scale ice in the bakery sector

Bakeries often have problems maintaining the ideal dough temperature for their doughs.
For this reason, cold water has been used for dough preparation for some time. However, since cold water can only correct the temperature in the dough within a narrow range, scale ice has recently been used to a greater extent for dough preparation.

Ice has a much higher cooling power than cold water, as it requires a lot of heat energy at the moment of dewing
and extracts it from the dough. The following experiment clearly shows that scale ice has a much higher cooling power than chilled water.

Example: You want to cool down 1 l of water from 15°C to 8°C.

» 1l water + 0.090 kg flake ice = 1.090l water (8°C)
» 1l water + 2,000l cooling water = 3,000l water (8°C)

Scale ice is recommended for dough preparation, as it has a rapid thawing capacity at a temperature of just below 0°C and can therefore be worked into the dough quickly and evenly.
If you use coarse thick ice, you will quickly notice that the dough formation process and thus the kneading time is prolonged.

Likewise, the cooling power of flake ice can be stored longer than that of cooling water, as the following experiment shows:

Ex: Room temperature 20°C/ Waiting time 1 h.

» Scale ice: Initial temperature: -0.5°C, after 1 hour at 20°C: -0,1°C
» Chilled water: Initial temperature: 4.0 °C, after 1 hour at 20°C: 9.2 °C

Scale ice is produced by using a FUNK® scale ice machine for example. The ice is produced on an internally cooled evaporator-drum which rotates through a water bath. The water freezes in an extremely thin layer on this evaporator-drum and is then broken off by a scraper. This ice can be easily dosed and will not clump together quickly.

Scale ice can be used to prepare dough containing wheat and rye flour. However, you should make sure that you only use as much flake ice as you need to reach the desired temperature in doughs.

Example: Types of dough (ice proportion of the quantity of bulk liquid in %)

• Rolls 30 %
• Bread 20 %
• Pretzels 40 %
• Hot fine dough 20 %

With the ice quantities given above, the desired dough temperature can be achieved even with high ambient temperatures and firm doughs. Dough development is slowed by using scale ice, which is very advantageous at high ambient temperatures. The great advantage of this ice is the possibility to achieve a great cooling effect even with a small amount of cooling.

For easy handling you may add the ice and the bulk liquid into the kneading machine first. This way, the ice extracts the heat energy from the bulk liquid and it melts in the process. The doughs remain cool, but still bind well as there is enough liquid available.

By using scale ice the correct way, you can achieve the optimum dough temperature even in the summer months and maintain the good quality of the baked goods.