You may look at any Irish Pride breads and think it’s just another bread product. But we’re bakers, and we bake our bread daily in the traditional way. See our process below.
1BEST INGREDIENTS
2MIXING STAGE
3DIVIDING STAGE
4MOULDING STAGE
5PROOVER STAGE
6BAKING STAGE
7COOLING STAGE
8SLICING STAGE
9DELIVERY STAGE
1. BEST INGREDIENTS
The bakers at Irish Pride Fine Foods are dedicated to ensuring that Irish Pride breads are baked using only the finest quality ingredients and they work closely with our suppliers to make sure that all our ingredients meet their high standards. This guarantees that our breads are delivered fresh to you every day.
Close
2. MIXING STAGE
The main ingredients used to make bread are flour, water, yeast and salt. The ingredients are carefully measured out and then placed in a large mixer at a high speed for 3 minutes.
Close
3. DIVIDING STAGE
Once our bakers are happy that the dough has been mixed to the correct consistency it is passed through a machine that divides the dough into the weight needed for a loaf of bread. These pieces are shaped into balls and left for a few minutes to allow the yeast to start to work and the dough to rest.
Close
4. MOULDING STAGE
Next, the dough pieces are flattened like a pancake using two rollers and then rolled up like a swiss roll and cut into four pieces that are dropped into a tin. This stage is very important as it ensures that the end loaf will have an even texture.
Close
5. PROOVER STAGE
The dough then moves into a proover which has a warm, moist environment that creates the perfect conditions for the yeast to work and make the loaf rise. The dough spends 50 minutes at this stage and our bakers check that it has risen properly before it moves to the oven for baking.
Close
6. BAKING STAGE
The dough is baked in a preheated oven of 280 degrees for 20 minutes. As the bread passes into the oven the bakers decided what shape they want to create. If they are baking square bread for sandwiches or toast a lid is placed on top of the tins and this gives you the perfect square shape you find on Irish Pride Sandwich or Irish Pride Big Toast, however if the baker wants to create a round top loaf such as Irish Pride Wholemeal Sliced Pan they do not add a lid to the tin and this allows the loaf to continue to rise during baking and creates a round top. After 20 minutes the baker checks that the loaf has reached 92 degrees to ensure it is baked properly and the bread then moves into the cooler.
Close
7. COOLING STAGE
The bread spends 2.5 hours in the cooler which allows the bread time for the temperature to fall from in excess of 92 degrees to 26 degrees. The bakers control the atmosphere in the cooler to ensure that the breads stay soft.
Close
8. SLICING STAGE
Once the bread has cooled properly it is sliced and wrapped quickly to ensure it maintains its softness.
Close
9. DELIVERY STAGE
Once the bread is wrapped it is ready to be packed onto trays or into baskets and it is then loaded onto our trucks to be delivered to your local store. We deliver our best to you every day because it’s a matter of pride!
Close
