MIXING & DEPOSITING
product waste by helping to achieve consistent and accurate weights of deposit again and again, improving consistency and enabling accurate production planning. “Knowing you are going to get a consistent yield from each and every batch will allow the correct amount of product to be mixed, helping to reduce waste,” he says.
Spiral or Wendel? While Simon first pointed out the importance of choosing the right mixing solution, Diosna Dierks & Söhne went on to explain that choosing the right mixing or kneading machine can depend on many factors – including which materials and ingredients are used, how high the required dough yield of the product is, any external influencing factors, and how fast the kneaded dough is required for further processing. The decision between a spiral or a Wendel mixer will depend on the product and batch size. A Wendel mixer – named after its inventor a German baker called Max Wendel – is a horizontal mixer that has a stationary bowl with an agitator that rotates around the bowl. The agitator will typically consist of a central shaft with mixing arms attached that move the dough around the bowl. In contrast, a spiral mixer is a vertical mixer that has a spiral-shaped agitator that rotates around a stationary bowl. As its name suggests, a spiral agitator moves the dough in a spiral motion, allowing for mixing and kneading.
“The use of a depositor will help reduce product waste by helping to achieve consistent and accurate weights of deposit again and again”
result in less mixing being needed, leading to less opportunity for mistakes. “Bakers can also utilise additional machinery like a volumetric depositor, which achieves consistency as a repeatable single shot dose,” continued Simon Simon went on to explain that the Polin Junior multi-head depositor, distributed by Brook Food & Bakery Equipment, can help ensure consistent shapes, deposited directly onto a tray. “The depositor can replicate whatever bakers used a piping bag for and can create macaroons, meringues, Viennese, sheet cakes, muffins, cupcakes and many more products consistently and in repeatable shapes,” he says. Simon believes that the use of a depositor will help reduce
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The main difference between the two types of mixers is the way the dough is mixed. In a Wendel mixer, the mixing arms move the dough around the bowl, whereas in a spiral mixer, the spiral agitator moves the dough in a spiral motion. According to Diosna, medium and large batches, such as bun dough with a dough yield of between 154 and 156 parts of flour will succeed equally well in either a spiral or a Wendel mixer, as will baguette doughs with a water content of between 65 and 68%, measured by the amount of flour. Only for small quantities does it advise against the Wendel mixer. Because, for reproducible results with adequate kneading, a 50% capacity would be required. Here, Diosna believes that the spiral mixer is the best choice, as it can handle even the smallest quantities, due to its spiral tool. For very watery ciabatta doughs, the usability of a Wendel mixer can be improved with the addition of a frequency converter, to control the speed of the vat and the Wendel tool independently, helping to create the optimal kneading process. In combination with a frequency converter, a filling of 30% is sufficient for Wendel mixers.
Diosna would only recommend spiral mixers to a limited extent for most cookie and cake doughs, and it says that they would also not be the first choice for halva or protein
Kennedy’s Bakery Production April/May 2023 19
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