Opening a Bakery? You’ll Need These 5 Tools of the Trade

No matter your skills as a baker, you will still need to make sure you have the right equipment to keep your bakery running smoothly. Baking equipment is widely available online, but deciding what tools you need specifically can be difficult. Here are some of the most important and commonly used baking equipment in the industry that you will need to get your business started.

Dough Divider

When you’ve got your dough ready to go, how will you portion it out evenly? One way is to use a dough divider. With a pre-measured amount of dough, you can easily split it up into dozens of equal portions. By having a specific device to handle this part of the process, you make it less likely that the remnants of ingredients from other tools will contaminate our dough. In addition, you will ensure that each and every portion is equal in weight and mass, an important factor when it comes to the precision and presentation of your baked goods.

Food Processor

Although they may often be used for pureeing, food processors can be extremely useful in a bakery. These small tools take all the struggle out of slicing, shredding, grinding up, and blending of your ingredients. As a baker, you can use a food processor to make dough or shred up toppings for a cake, or chop up fruit or nuts to add to flavored doughs, and even make your own powdered sugar in a pinch. They’re also easy to clean, fit handily on a countertop, and don’t make much of a mess. Finding a good-quality, commercial-grade food processor that can handle the heavier load of a bakery business is a must.

Mixers

Mixers come in handy when mixing up thick batter and other similar substances. Ideally, any mixer you purchased would be commercial-grade, but the device can vary widely in size. Far larger scale jobs, a floor mixer can handle up to 60 quarts. If that sounds excessive, mixers fitted to be used on countertops are also available, and in smaller sizes.

If your bakery handles large amounts of flour or thick batters, obtaining an industrial-grade sigma blade mixer may be the best option for your needs. Different mixers suit different jobs, so be sure to research what exactly you will need for your job.

Dough Press

For balls of dough, you can save some time rolling by purchasing a countertop dough press. This tool presses the dough down into a perfect circle–just like a rolling pin, but you can crank out a massive amount of pressed dough in a fraction of the time, saving you energy, resources, and time.

A good dough press will need minimal flouring and should be able to work for long hours processing large amounts of dough. Use this to roll out perfect rolls, pastries, cookies, and more. As with a dough divider, a good dough press will make your bulk-baking needs more efficient, and ensure uniform quality throughout your bakes.

Proofing Cabinet

A proofing cabinet could make a big difference in your kitchen. Their insides maintain a carefully-balanced environment of warmth and humidity to help provide yeast a suitable environment to grow in and help the dough bake as evenly as possible. After your treats are ready, the cabinet also serves as the perfect place to store them until they’re ready to be delivered to happy customers.

Proofing cabinets come in all shapes and sizes, and can be either large, locker-like systems, or small, countertop-sized boxes. Whatever size order and specifications you need, finding a good proofing cabinet can take much of the stress and guesswork out of working with dough that needs to proof for hours at a time.

Baking equipment can get expensive, so make sure every tool and machine you’re spending money on is tailored to the type of goods you’re making. Also, it’s important to keep aware of how much your kitchen staff will be helped by what you buy. Don’t buy a redundant tool if you don’t need to, and above all else, happy baking.

Dixie Somers is a freelance writer who loves to write for business, health, and women’s interests. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three beautiful daughters.

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