Baking & Snack - June 2022 - 86

MIXING
EVEN THOSE LUCKY BAKERIES
WITH FEW WORKPLACE ISSUES
ARE SEEKING TO SIMPLIFY
THE MIXING PROCESS.
Ms. Gay concurred that energy tracking provides a
good way to ensure consistency and repeatability by
monitoring the gluten network's viscosity and formation
from premixing to the end of the mixing process.
" It is more reliable when you wish to achieve similar
results on various pieces of equipment, " she said.
" However, for this method to be truly reliable, you must
make sure that the settings are perfectly adjusted. If the
mixing tool's settings are not, or if the motor is worn
out, it can impact the energy provided. In this scenario,
you can have very different results from one mixer
to another. "
The sheer number of variables is why bakeries often
rely on their most experienced bakers to oversee the
mixing department, even with the latest in automation.
" Controlling the temperature makes it possible
to manage product development, " Ms. Gay said.
" Meanwhile, continuous metering and weighing devices
for all the recipe ingredients, including liquids,
are also essential to ensure the repeatability of the produced
doughs. "
Most bakeries still mix to time because it's simple to
do. Additionally, old habits often die hard in the baking
industry.
" If you're mixing to time, it's easy, so you really don't
have to train people that much, " Mr. Falkenberg said.
" Mixing to energy can get quite complicated, so that's
why people mix according to time. "
However, advances in digital technology may have
simplified the use of mixing to energy and given bakeries
another tool to consider in their battles to control
costs and alleviate the skilled labor gap.
Knead for speed
Many high-volume bakeries are taking an additional
look at prehydration to quash their thirst for saving energy
and lowering overhead through quicker mix times
and improved operational efficiency.
" I believe the next technology leap in the mixing
of doughs is automatic prehydration of dry ingredients, "
Mr. Warren said. " More manufacturers of both
batch and continuous mixers offer some type of automated,
in-line prehydration process. This improves
consistency, reduces energy and speeds up the mixing
process. "
86 Baking & Snack June 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
Mr. Bartsch said AMF Bakery Systems and RBS,
which are both owned by Markel Food Group, are collaborating
on how to incorporate hydration to enhance
product quality and mixing efficiency in horizontal mixers.
In addition to eliminating the need to incorporate
ingredients during the initial low-speed part of the mix
cycle, he added, initial testing of prehydration shows a
15% reduction in high-speed mix times and about a 3%
increase in the amount of water in a dough. Together,
they lower energy while providing a higher yield.
" With less mixing time, there are energy savings as
well as not as much heat buildup from friction in the
bowl, " Mr. Bartsch said. " Because we're hydrating much
more efficiently at the micro level, we're able to get more
water into the dough compared to dumping all of the ingredients
into a mixer. "
There are other options for prehydration that are also
commonly used. Ms. Gay said VMI's horizontal premixer
improves the quality of dough by allowing a wider
range of hydration from 40% to 110%. Flour, sugar and
other baking ingredients are initially hydrated to form
a homogeneous dough and the beginning of a gluten
network.
Mr. Falkenberg points out that a pre-dough mix includes
yeast, water and flour that typically ferments
at 80˚F in anywhere from 2 to 18 hours. The amount
of yeast is miniscule - typically 0.5% in the batch -
but the extended fermentation time provides several
benefits.
" You get a natural fermentation, which allows you to
better develop the gluten and experience better volume
without using dough improvers, " he said. " If you have a
pre-dough, you have flour and water incorporated already;
the mix time is much shorter. "
He added that a chilled pre-dough often eliminates
the need for ice or cooling jackets to maintain the
dough temperature during the spiral or horizontal mixing
process.
Mr. Bartsch suggested that combining prehydration
with a premix can potentially provide greater savings
because all the ingredients are hydrated as they enter
the mixer. He said many liquid brews contain 40% flour
that's later added to 60% dry flour during the mixing cycle.
Additionally, the brew's long fermentation adds the
flavor to breads that many bakers desire.
" We're taking 100% of the flour and hydrating it before
we're putting it into the horizontal mixer, " he said.
" Instead of putting the brew on top of unhydrated flour,
you are putting it on top of hydrated flour. "
By looking outside of the bowl, bakeries can explore
new ways to automate and revisit multiple mixing processes
that together could provide a helping hand at a
time when many operations need it most.
*
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Baking & Snack - June 2022

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