Being in the baking business is a great opportunity for anyone with a love and talent for making baked goods. Simply said, bread has always been a staple food, and even though it may undergo considerable changes with the recipes and ingredients due to the various health trends that come and go, it’s not likely it will lose its status any time soon.
Moreover, you’ve also got plenty of other delicacies to give a go if you don’t want to simply limit your options on bread, choosing from the various types of pizzas, pastries, cookies, and cakes your customers could enjoy. Still, given that it takes more than love and talent to succeed in the competitive baking industry, your primary focus as an entrepreneur should be on putting together an efficient and up-to-date bakery machine collection to meet your needs.
This is simply crucial regardless of whether you’re planning on opening a big or small bakery as it’s one of the first steps to take when starting up a business. If you have no clue where to begin with the quest for the perfect machinery when venturing into the business, here are some ideas.
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The Dough Essentials
Considering dough is the basis for practically any baked item, it’s one of the important aspects to have in mind when going shopping for the required bakery machines. The following are some that would certainly come in handy:
A Mixer
Unless you plan on spending all your effort into mixing it with your bare hands, which can be very physically draining and time-consuming to say the least, you’re going to need the help of a commercial mixer. Luckily, there’s a wide range of practical dough mixers equipped with various features you can pick from for your baking needs.
Not only do they differ in sizes and shapes suitable for the variety of volumes of dough you wish to produce, but there are also two different types of mixers to choose from: the planetary, and the spiral. Depending on what your focus would be as a baker, whether it’s having more options of doughs as well as mixing it up with other ingredients, or simply a variety of breads and bagels, you can base your decision on this very matter.
The distinction is obvious in the attachments created for these types – while you get all the tools with the planetary type specialised for pastries, cookies, and pizzas among other baked goods, in addition to those made for slicing vegetables, making batter, chopping meat, and grating cheese, the spiral doesn’t offer any of this as its meant for airier and artisanal bread doughs. What you can be sure of is both of them are a type of bakery machine created to improve production quality.
A Divider
If consistency and uniformity are what you’re after for your products, then you have to invest in a quality divider. Created to assist a baker with the dividing, cutting and rounding of the dough with ease at the push of a button, it’s the piece of equipment that would greatly benefit your business as it reduces manual labour.
You’re also going to love it for the durable machine it is, as it offers you the utmost service without requiring much maintenance over the years. Even if you aren’t up for this kind of investment for the time being, especially if you’re starting on a smaller scale, it’s advisable to think of your business in the long run and whether or not you plan on expanding your production in the future.
If so, then the right time to buy a divider is now. As there’s a vast array of models of dividers, you can be sure you’re making the right decision when you take certain features into account, such as the fit, the dough moisture levels, the ease of cleanliness, the weight and scaling accuracy, the consistency, and the speed.
A Sheeter
As a high-performance piece of bakery equipment same as the divider, the sheeter is designed to knead and flatten the dough and it’s much more time-efficient than you having to do so yourself with a rolling pin manually. Since the results are consistent every time, you get the same kind of products with the same kind of quality over and over again which isn’t to be expected when you’d do the kneading by hand.
Not to mention, it’s also one of the steps to take to make working and living with arthritis and joint weakness easier. Furthermore, besides being the ideal machinery for baked goods like breads and pizzas, it’s perfect if you’re interested into attracting a wider clientele by broadening your production with pastries – particularly those that are more complex to be made manually as in the case with light and flaky croissants.
A Proofer
Fermentation is a process required for the dough, which is exactly what the proofer is created to do – make for the ideal warm and humid conditions that are key for the rising dough before baking. Such a useful bakery machine is in the form of a cabinet, and since it differs in size, you can choose the right one for your business based on your capacity requirements as well as the type of dough you intend to use it for and its specific temperature needs.
Now, if apart from getting consistency from proofing you’d also benefit from cabinets that serve for holding the ready products hot and perfect for serving, then you’d certainly do the right choice if you opt for investing in holding/proofing cabinets. As you’d have the chance to use both operations in one single piece of equipment, besides saving up precious time, you’d get to save up on space too. In addition to considering the size, it’s recommended that you take the door type and configuration into account, along with the controls, the style and the capacity of the model of the cabinet when shopping.
Oven as the Baking Essential
Not less important than the dough bakery machinery, the oven also has a say in the quality of your baked goods. Basically, it comes down to convection and modular ovens, both of which offer their own benefits. For one, the convection is an affordable type, which is perfect especially when you’re trying to get a hold of your budget with the investments. It’s also one famous for the outstanding heat distribution handy for the repeatable results you’re after as a successful baker.
The counterpart is known for offering a great deal of flexibility when it comes to getting a custom design in terms of space and capacity and it’s ideal if you plan on expanding the business in the future. In terms of how you want your oven to work, you’ve got the electricity and gas options of the two. Include handy features in your decision-making process, and you’d be able to say you’ve chosen wisely.
