Equipment supplier Baker Perkins has created two new innovations for its Multitex4 bread moulder, enabling it to enrobe standard loaves with seeds or grains and/or create swirled loaves.

According to the company, the demand for seeded breads is growing strongly and is usually met by sprinkling seeds or grains on to the top of the loaves as they exit the prover. However, with this method, less than 25% of the loaf’s surface is covered and there is no way of pressing the seeds into the dough, so a lot could be left in the bag.

Baker Perkins’s technique involves rolling the coiled dough piece in seeds or grains before panning to achieve good coverage and avoid waste. Metered quantities of seeds and grains are deposited on the moulding conveyor to be picked up and lightly pressed into the surface of the dough piece as it rotates under the moulding board. The company claims there is no waste and any leftover seeds drop into the pan with the dough piece.

The second method interspersed inclusions with the coils of the dough in a technique used to make pain aux raisins or cinnamon swirls, for example. The close-coupled four-roll sheeting head of the Multitex 4 progressively reduces the dough thnickness to produce a long thin sheet on to which the filling or inclusions are sprinkled or spread. The length of the sheet determines the number of coils and the Multitex4 can achieve up to 4.5 coils. Inclusions are added to the dough sheet on a transfer conveyor placed just after the dough sheeter and the sheet is then coiled and moulded as usual.

Via this method, damage to delicate inclusions, such as seeds, nuts dried fruit and chocolate chips is avoided, said the firm.

Both innovations are available with new Multitex4 machines or can be retrofitted to existing moulders.