Abstract: A method for pre-baking treatment of a chunk of frozen bread dough includes placing the chunk of frozen bread dough in a container and keeping an inner temperature of the container in a range of 17° C. to 40° C. and relative humidity in the container in a range of 50% to 75% to thaw and proof the chunk of frozen bread dough continuously. The inner temperature of the container is lowered to a range of −20° C. to 15° C. at a lowering rate of at least 0.2° C./min after proofing the bread dough. A temperature difference between a dew point of air inside the container and a surface temperature of the bread dough is controlled to be within 20° C. during the lowering step. The bread dough is taken out from the container, shaped, and finally proofed in a proofer.

Abstract: A method for pre-baking treatment of shaped and frozen bread dough includes placing the shaped and frozen bread dough in a container and raising an inner temperature of the container to a range of 17° C. to 40° C. at a raising rate of 0.1° C./min to 2° C./min to thaw and finally proof the shaped and frozen bread dough continuously. The inner temperature of the container is lowered to a range of −20° C. to 15° C. at a lowering rate of 0.2° C./min to 0.7° C./min after finally proofing the shaped and frozen bread dough. A temperature difference between a dew point of air inside the container and a surface temperature of the bread dough is controlled to be within 20° C. during the raising and lowering steps.