Freshly made bread is a luxury in modern Singapore. As people seek convenience rather than good taste, traditional bakeries, as a result, diminish from the neighbourhood. Sweetland Bakery is one of the few remaining. It started in the 40s and has since changed hands four times. Despite the previous owners’ decision to quit and move on to other more viable trades, the bakers there, who have decades of experience at this and other bakeries, stay on doing what they know best. Let’s take a peek at how they produce loaves after loaves of wholesome bread.
1. Work begins at two in the afternoon, in the kitchen at the back of the shophouse. There are only sounds of the moving needle in the weighing scale, canvas cloth being shaken out and the oscillating industrial fans. There is hardly any chatter among the bakers, who are on average, in their 50s.
2. The canvas cloth works like a windcheater for the dough, keeping them moist and warm enough for rising. This cloth material is preferred because it does not stick onto the bread.
3. The last rising, which takes place after the dough is shaped into loaves, affects the texture of the bread the most. For a light and fluffy texture, the dough is left at room temperature for an hour, during which it will raise up to three times its original size!
4. The rotary oven, about three metres tall and wide, can hold up to 240 loaves of dough at a time. They are cooped up in the 226 degree Celsius chamber for 30 minutes, during which the smell of the bread floats through the air along Kim Keat Lane, reaching passerby’s noses even before the bakery shop comes into sight.
5. 58-year old Mr Hong catching his breath while the dough is in the oven. He has been a baker for almost 40 years but still feels uncomfortable with the flour dust.
6. The oven’s alarm rings like a school’s recess bell, calling out to Mr Hong and the others to get into their respective work stations.
7. They remove the bread, place them on the shelves and stack up the containers in less than five seconds. Breads freshly out from the oven are too soft to be sliced, and they are usually left to cool in room temperature.
8. Except for the necessary items, one can hardly find any fancy baking equipment in this bakery. Here, they use cut-out gunny sack as gloves to protect their hands from the burning hot containers.
9. These sooty containers have been used for more than 10 years. According to the bakers, they cannot be washed as the smooth and grease-coated surface – a result of many years of usage – keeps the bread from sticking onto them.
10. Besides bread, the bakery also makes French loaf. They are placed in a brick oven fired by electricity, similar to those used in pizzerias. Brick cooking floor absorbs and distributes heat evenly.
11. This bread knife, from Norway, has been a handy weapon for the past 20 years. It is thin and sharp, so that one will not squash the bread when shaving off its skin.
12. Slicing – the final step before the breads are packed.
13. These colourful trays sitting along the corridor have become a trademark of the bakery. They carry the 800 to 900 loaves of bread that the bakery makes every day.
14. Before the sun rises in the next morning, this van delivers the bread to the bakery’s customers including Ya Kun, Sheng Siong and Giant.
