When it comes to commercial food equipment, many bakery and pizzeria owners think that the only thing required for juicy and delicious dough is a good retarder proofer. As much as retarder proofers are important, they wouldn’t be able to live up to their purpose without a high-quality dough mixer to speed up the time required for producing large batch sizes.
However, choosing from the cake or pizza dough mixers for sale can be a daunting task, especially once you stumble upon the huge range of different types that are packed with different features. To make things much easier for you, here’s what you need to consider when choosing the best option for your business.
Types of Commercial Mixers
Before you decide to get a commercial pizza or cake mixer machine for your business, it’s crucial to get to know the different types and their functionalities. That said, we can split commercial dough mixers into three general categories.
Planetary Mixers
If you’re looking for a standard commercial mixer that will allow you to make delicious dough for cakes, pastries, pizza and other doughy goodies, don’t hesitate to go for a planetary commercial mixer. These mixers always come with interchangeable tools such as dough hooks, spirals and whisks along with their bowls that let you choose the best option for the specific dough you’re mixing.
When it comes to the mixing process itself, planetary mixers work by rotating the specific tool against their stationary mixing bowl. And since the rotating tools tend to generate a lot of heat and friction, planetary cake and pizza mixer machines are most suitable for dough and batters with a relatively high-fat content that isn’t yeasted.
Twin Arm Mixers
Twin or two-arm mixers are mostly suitable for high-hydration doughs and doughs containing low-protein flours. This is due to these mixers developing the dough very slowly by mimicking the process of kneading by hand, which results in no heat input and no friction at all. In other words, two-arm mixers will allow you to produce dough with a maximum of gluten development, without worrying that you’ll overwork the dough.
However, keep in mind that to achieve this formula, twin arm mixers will mix your dough for around 30 minutes, which results in high power consumption. They also aren’t much suitable for processing small amounts in relation to the maximum capacity, like some other types of mixers can.
Spiral Mixers
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a high-quality bread dough mixer, we recommend getting a spiral mixer for your bakery. Unlike planetary cake mixer machine models, spiral mixers are packed with the ability to minimize the heat input into any yeasted dough and help the dough to properly develop a gluten structure without overworking the dough.
In fact, spiral industrial bread mixers work by rotating their bowl around the stationary spiral hook. This results in small amounts of dough being mixed at a given time, while the rest of the dough in the bowl is able to rest before it gets kneaded.
Size
The size of your mixes plays a huge role, as it’ll determine the quantity of dough you’ll be able to make at once. This is why it’s very important to determine how much dough you will be mixing at once, as well as what kind of dough you need.
For instance, a small restaurant can take care of most dough needs with a smaller 10 to 20l mixer. This won’t be enough for larger bakeries and pizzerias, as these kinds of businesses require constant use of mixers that produce high volumes of dough. Hence, there’re many mixers that can produce up to 40l of dough at a time.
However, keep in mind that your mixing bowl can be filled to the brim, but different ingredient features can affect the size of the final batch. For instance, high-protein flours, low-water temperatures and high-mixing speeds can result in smaller batches, regardless of your bowl being full to the maximum before starting to mix.
Drive Systems
Every pizza and cake mixing machine comes with either a belt-driven or gear-driven system. Each system has its own conveniences and drawbacks.
- Belt-driven systems are more likely to loosen and slip over time, which results in less powerful rotation and insufficient grip. On account of this, these mixers are cheaper to purchase, maintain and fix if something goes wrong.
- Gear-driven systems are more reliable than belt-driven ones, as they remove the risk of loosening and slipping and offer a great grip. This is why they’re more pricy for both, purchasing and repairing.
Speeds
Dough mixing machines come with several operating speeds which can affect how quickly the rotating tool (or the bowl) revolves. Hence, keep in mind that specific mixers are intended to mix better at certain speeds, while planetary mixers will perform differently with different rotation attachments.
At this point, it’s also important to consider whether the mixer allows you to change speeds during operation or not. Mixers that are able to be adjusted while mixing are always a better option to boost your productivity, as some doughs require different mixing speeds at different stages of their “growth”.
Also, keep in mind that not all mixers are designed to handle the mechanical stress of adjusting the speed “on the fly”. Some of them will require shutting the unit off before changing the speed to prevent any internal damages and ensure the user’s safety during operation.
Bowl-Lift
Finally, the mixer bowls are attached to yokes located at the sides or their vertical columns, which can be raised and lowered in one or two ways. Hence, bowl lifts can be split into a couple of categories – manual bowl lifts and electric bowl lifts.
- Manual bowl lifts are the most common type, as they’re able to raise and lower the bowl by using either wheels or levers. In other words, the entire upper housing along with the mixing device is able to tilt back and provide access to the bowl.
- Electric bowl lifts raise and lower the bowls automatically by a press on a button or a similar mechanism. This is why they’re most commonly used on large mixers with large mixing bowls.
Now that you know the most important aspects, it’s time to start exploring the market and choose from the pizza and cake mixers for sale.
