Mixers and Application

12 April 2022
Mixers and Application | Bakery Academy

-              Kitchen mixers

-              Planetary mixers

-              Horizontal mixers

-              High speed mixers/ Blenders

-              Continuous mixers

-              Continuous aerating mixers

-              Spiral mixers

-           Spindle mixers

-           Z-Mixers

 

-       Of the several types of mixers on the market, the vertical mixer is designed for cracker sponges. The doughs are fermented in two stages, the sponges are mixed in the dough tubs and then be taken to a fermentation room. When the fermentation time is finished the tubs are returned to the mixer where the rest of the ingredients are mixed in and fermented again for the second stage.

-          Spindle mixers can be used for most other types of dough.

-          There is a vertical machine that has more possibilities and is used for rotary and other types of soft dough products.

-          For one stage dough preparation the horizontal mixer can be used for any type of dough. Most of these mixers have better controls, a jacket for cooling or heating, power input and temperature.

-          Continuous mixers are not very common but can be used for the production of large volumes dedicated production lines.

-          For some items planetary mixers can be used. Soft doughs for the wire cutter or the depositing machine are examples.

-          For products containing eggs with air incorporated in the batter like Ladyfingers, the use of a planetary mixer with a wire is common. For the latter a batch mixer followed by a continuous mixer is ideal.

When mixing equipment is acquired, it must be clear which types of dough must be prepared, what the volume per batch is, the number of batches per hour, the needed controls, time, temperature, the need for cooling, the time to feed the raw materials in the machine, unloading etc. It is important that the mixer delivers the number of batches to feed the production line. The size of each batch should be such that the dough characteristics does not affect processing and cause differences the finished product, 20 minutes per batch is considered ideal for non-fermented products. Namely the consistency of dough changes from the time its leaves the mixer until the processing is finished. This is different for each type of dough and must be considered to assure a constant quality of the final product.

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