My bakery manager keeps shortening our proofing times for bread

Last month, our shop got a new manager who wants to speed up how fast we make bread. He told me to cut the proofing time for our whole wheat loaves by a third to get more batches done. The bread ended up dense and didn't have that nice airy texture. I tried explaining why the full time is needed, but he just points to the clock. Now I feel like our product quality is dropping because of this. Has anyone else faced pushback on proper baking steps from higher ups? What did you do to make them see the importance of timing?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex_murphy411mo ago

Proofing time really can't be rushed without ruining the bread, lol.

wendy_green851mo ago

My last sourdough proofed for 14 hours overnight. I couldn't believe how much better it turned out compared to my rushed attempts. @alex_murphy41, you're right that cutting corners just makes it dense, lmao. The difference in the crust alone is worth the wait.

henderson.brooke1mo ago

Right, like @alex_murphy41 said, you can't cheat time. Could you show him a side-by-side of a rushed loaf versus a proper one?