LARGE EQUIPMENT
MIXERS,
OVENS, AND dough-handling equipment take up most of this category
Mixers
Mixers of various types are essential tools
in the bakeshop. While small quantities of doughs
and batters can be mixed by hand, commercial
baking in any quantity would be next to impossible
without power mixers.
Two main types of mixer are used in small and
medium-size bakeshops: vertical and spiral.
Other types of specialized equipment are used in large industrial
bakeries.
Vertical Mixer
Also called a planetary mixer, the vertical mixer
is the most common type used in baking, as well as in cooking. The term planetary is descriptive of the motion of
the beater attachment. Just as a planet spins on its axis while
revolving around the sun, so too does the beater attachment spin on its axis while rotating in an
orbit to reach all parts of the stationary bowl.
Tabletop mixers range in capacity
from 5 to 20 quarts (4.75 to 19 L). Floor models are available
as large as 140 quarts (132 L).
Vertical mixers have three main
mixing attachments:
 |
| j hook |
1.The paddle is a flat blade used for general
mixing.
 |
| wire whip |
2. The wire whip is used for such tasks as beating
egg foams and cream.
3. The dough arm or hook is used for mixing and kneading
yeast doughs. Dough hooks may
 |
| paddle |
be standard J-hooks or spiral hooks.
Be sure to use the right-size
attachment for the bowl. Using a 40-quart paddle with a
30-quart bowl could cause serious
damage the equipment. Make sure both the bowl and the
mixing attachment are firmly in
place before turning on the machine. Always turn off the machine
before scraping down the bowl or
inserting a scraper, spoon, or hand into the bowl.
Additional special attachments
are also available. These include the following:
## The sweet dough arm combines the actions
of the dough arm and the flat paddle and is
used for mixing sweet doughs.
## The wing whip is used for mixing
materials too heavy for the standard wire whip.
## The pastry blender is used to blend fat
and flour, as in making pie doughs.
The availability of such a
variety of attachments points up one of the main advantages of the planetary
mixer: its versatility. With a single machine, the baker can produce a great
variety of doughs, batters, creams, meringues, and other goods. In addition,
vertical mixers have an attachment hub that can be used to power many other
tools, such as grinders and slicers. This makes vertical mixers useful in the
kitchen as well as the bakeshop.
Spiral Mixer
Spiral mixers are designed for
doughs and heavy batters and are used primarily for making
large quantities of yeast doughs
for breads and bagels. Unlike vertical mixers, spiral mixers do
not have interchangeable bowls
and agitator arms. The agitator arm is in the shape of a spiral,
and both the bowl and the spiral
arm rotate to develop the dough quickly and efficiently. In a
typical model, the bowl may be
set to rotate in either direction.
Dough capacities range from 5 to
30 pounds (2.3 to 14 kg) for small machines to more than
500 pounds (230 kg) in large
machines.
Three
main varieties of spiral mixer are available:
4. Fixed-bowl mixers. These have a nonremovable bowl. The dough must be lifted out by
hand.
5. Removable-bowl mixers. These have a bowl that may be removed from the machine, usually
on
a wheeled trolley. They are useful for high-volume operations, because a new
bowl
of
ingredients may be wheeled into place as soon as the earlier batch is removed.
6. Tilt mixers. On these machines, the entire machine tilts up to deposit the finished
dough
onto
a tray or another container.
Horizontal Mixer
 |
| Horizontal Mixer |
Horizontal mixers are large, industrial-size
machines capable of handling as much as
several thousand pounds of dough at a
time. Each model is designed to work best
with a specific range of products, such as
bread doughs, pastry doughs, or soft doughs and
batters. Beater or agitator designs differ for each of these specialized models.
Many horizontal mixers are equipped with water jackets that surround the mixing container.
Water of the desired temperature is circulated through the jacket, enabling the operator to control the dough temperature with great precision.
Dough-Handling Equipment
Dough Fermentation Trough
This item is used to hold mixed
yeast doughs during fermentation. Small operations might simply
use large mixing bowls on stands
instead.
Divider
Dividers cut scaled pieces of
dough into equal portions by means of a die or cutter attached to
a hydraulic or mechanical lever
assembly. For example, a divider may cut a 3-pound piece of dough (called a press) into 36 pieces, 1 1⁄3 ounces each, for making dinner rolls.
After they are
divided, the individual pieces must be rounded by hand (see p.
115).
Divider-Rounder
 |
| Dough rounder |
This machine divides the dough, as does a simple divider, and it
then automatically rounds the
individual portions, greatly speeding makeup of the dough
products.
Dough
Sheeter
 |
| Dough sheeter |
conveyor belt that feeds the dough through a pair of rollers. To
make thin sheets, the dough
usually must be passed through the rollers several times. The
operator decreases the space between
the rollers after each pass.
Molder
A molder rolls and forms pieces of bread dough for standard
loaves, baguettes, and rolls, eliminating
the need to perform these tasks by hand.
Proofer
 |
| Proofer |
A proofer is a special box in which the ideal conditions for
fermenting yeast doughs
can be created. The box maintains a preset warm temperature and
humidity
level appropriate to the specific dough.
Retarder
Chilling or refrigerating yeast dough slows or retards the rate of
fermentation so
the dough can be stored for later baking. A retarder is a
refrigerator that maintains a
high level of humidity to prevent the dough from drying out or
crusting.
Retarder-Proofer
This machine is, as its name suggests, a combination retarder and
proofer. A dough can
be retarded for a preset time, after which the machine switches to
proofing mode and
warms up to a second preset temperature and humidity level. For
example, breakfast breads
can be made up the previous day, held, and be fully proofed and
ready to bake when the shop
opens the next morning.
Ovens
Ovens are, of course, the
workhorses of the bakery and pastry shop. They are essential for producing
breads, cakes, cookies, pastries,
and other baked items. Ovens are enclosed spaces in
which food is heated, usually by
hot air (except in the case of microwave ovens, which are not
especially useful in a bakeshop).
Several kinds of oven are used in baking.
Steam is important in baking many
kinds of breads, as discussed in Chapter 6. Ovens
used in bakeshops, including deck
ovens, rack ovens, and
mechanical ovens, may have steam
injected into
them during part of the baking
cycle.
Deck Oven
 |
| Deck oven |
Deck ovens are so called because
the items to
be baked—either on sheet pans or,
in the case of
some breads, freestanding—are
placed directly
on the bottom, or deck, of the
oven. There are no
racks for holding pans in deck
ovens. Deck ovens
are also called stack ovens because several may
be stacked on top of one another.
Breads baked
directly on the floor of the oven
rather than in pans
are often called hearth breads, so another
name for
these ovens is hearth ovens. Deck ovens for baking bread
are equipped with steam
injectors.
Rack Oven
 |
| Rack oven |
or uneven baking, because
the mechanism rotates the foods
throughout the oven. Because of
their size, mechanical ovens are
especially
useful in high-volume operations.
Revolving ovens can be
equipped with steam injectors.
A typical revolving oven is
shown in the illustration. Each
of the
multiple trays in such an oven
holds
one or more sheet pans. The
operator
loads one tray at a time through
the narrow
door in the front.
Convection Oven
Convection ovens contain fans
that circulate the air and distribute the heat rapidly throughout
the interior. The forced air
makes foods cook more quickly at lower temperatures. However, the
strong forced air can distort the
shape of items made with batters and soft doughs, and the airflow
may be strong enough to blow
baking parchment off sheet pans. Therefore, convection ovens
are not as versatile for the
baker as are the other kinds of ovens discussed here.
Steam-Jacketed Kettle
Steam-jacketed kettles, or steam
kettles, have double walls between
which steam circulates. Liquids
in the kettle itself are
heated quickly and efficiently.
Although restaurants may use
large floor-mounted kettles for
making stocks, smaller table models
are more useful in the bakeshop
for making custards, creams,
and fillings.
Tilting kettles with a pouring
lip are called trunnion kettles.
Table models range in capacity
from a few quarts or liters to 40
quarts (38 L).
Fryer
Fryers are needed in the bakeshop for doughnuts and other fried items. Small
 |
| Fryer |
operations often use standard deep fryers (or even stovetop kettles), but larger
doughnut fryers are best if you make doughnuts in quantity. They should be used
in conjunction with screens, for lowering the doughnuts into the fat and removing
them when fried.
In the fryer in the illustration, the proofed doughnuts are arranged on the
screen at the right side of the fry kettle. The operator then manually lowers
the screen into the hot fat by means of the two raised handles. The illustration also
shows, on the left side, a batter depositor for cake doughnuts.
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