With all the options available to bakers nowadays, picking the right equipment that suits your vision for your bakery in terms of quality, quantity and the baked goodies you want to provide can get confusing, especially if you’re a home chef planning to go bigger.

Moreover, a lot of ISO uncertified bakery equipment is currently being sold in the market that leads to a lack of standardization of quality and thus, long-term losses. It is always essential to check for safety and quality certifications, as well as look out for reviews from previous customers.

1. How To Pick The Right Oven – Rotary Rack, Convection, Deck, or Tunnel Ovens?

Investing in a good oven can be make or break for your bakery. Let’s look at the different types and what would be the best for your bakery.

• • Rotary Rack Ovens

Versatile and easy to operate, commercial rotary rack ovens provide consistency through every batch of baked goods and the best utilization of space to produce large quantities. Almost everything can be baked in a rack oven – cookies, cakes, pies, biscuits, muffins, puffs, croissants, and more. They have multiple adjustable settings that allow you to easily accommodate new products based on market trends. Since they have vertically aligned racks, they can bake abundant goodies at once, and since all the trays can be unloaded at the same time, consistency in baking is maintained. Even heat distribution, good airflow design, and sturdiness are key to a good rotary rack oven. The model to be chosen depends on the size of the bakery and the number of goods to be produced. Different models come with different power and voltage specifications, as well as a varying number of trolleys.

• • Convection Ovens

Commercial Convection Ovens are slowly replacing Deck Ovens. Deck ovens have stone or ceramic soles and can deliver heat either to the top or bottom of the oven, thus more advantageous for certain artisanal bread. However, they are bulky, expensive, and usually require a vent. Convection ovens are easy to use and maintain, speedier at baking, more efficient, inexpensive, require less space, produce fewer fumes, provide uniform airflow and baking, and now even come with a steam function. Convection ovens have fans that uniformly distribute hot air throughout the oven, providing for uniform baking and consistency, and thus, better texture and flavour. They can be used to bake a wide variety of goods like bread, cakes, brownies, pies, pastries, puffs, biscuits, and so on. For small bakeries and restaurants, especially, convection ovens are perfect and come in different sizes.

• • Tunnel Ovens

These are universal ovens and can be used to bake virtually anything – bread, cakes, rusk, pies, pizzas, etc. They have conveyors through them that allow for continuous baking. Multiple products can be baked together by changing the speed of the conveyor belt they are on and thus changing the baking time. They are speedy and allow for large quantities to be baked at a time. Tunnel ovens require a continuous supply of dough and thus, automation or manpower for loading them. They also take up a vast amount of space and more maintenance. They are thus, most suitable for large bakeries and manufacturing plants.

2. What Kind Of Dough Mixers Will You Require? Planetary Mixers, Spiral Mixers, or Both?

When starting a bakery or production line, every product must be evenly textured and smooth. For this, quality flour is essential & the dough must be mixed thoroughly and uniformly – best done by dough mixers. The choice of whether to go with a planetary mixer or spiral mixer depends entirely on your establishment and the kinds of goods produced.

• • Planetary Mixers

Commercial Planetary mixers are seen in most commercial kitchens for evenly mixing dough. Interchangeable vessels can be used for other purposes such as to whip batter, make cream, shred vegetables, whisk eggs, and mash potatoes. They also come with different mixer attachments such as dough hooks, beaters, whips, and scrapers. They come in varying capacities and have a wide range of speed settings. However, their lifespan tends to be shorter than that of spiral mixers especially if they’re constantly run at high speeds. They are useful in bakeries, cafes, and restaurants.

• • Spiral Mixers

Spiral mixers are used for the mixing of much larger quantities of dough. They may have fixed or removable bowls. Spiral Mixers are useful in commercial or industrial establishments concerned with mixing large quantities of the same dough. Although they are quicker and more energy-efficient than planetary mixers, they cannot mix anything other than dough making them less versatile in comparison. They are suitable for bakeries, pizza shops, and production plants.

3. Flour Sifting – For Smooth Cakes & also, Safe Hygienic Ones.

The purpose of sifting is to remove any lumps in the flour giving you uniform dough and thus, uniform smooth cakes and bread. Sifting also removes any impurities and thus, is essential from a safety standpoint as well. Although we often skip sifting the flour we buy when baking at home, it is essential for bakeries and manufacturing units. Sturdiness, speed, the variety of flours that can be sifted, and the size of impurities removable from it are essential features to look out for when buying a sifter.

4. Dough Dividers, Rounders, Moulders, and Sheeters.

Dividing and moulding the dough based on the product and the type of pan/mould it needs to fit into is usually the final step in the makeup stage of the production of baked goods.

• • Dough Dividers

When it comes to choosing a good dough divider, it is essential to understand your product and how much water content it has. Dough dividers vary in the moisture content of dough they can handle. Another essential to look out for, besides capacity, durability, and energy consumption, is whether the machine stresses or warms the dough, thus changing its properties which will hinder the desired outcome.

• • Rounders & Moulders

Based on the size, automation, and type of shaping required, there are various types of commercial and industrial machinery available in the market for different baked goods. This is usually the final step in the makeup stage in the production of bread, rusk, buns, and so on.

• • Bun Divider & Rounder

For perfectly rounded hot cross buns, a Commercial Dough Divider and Rounder can automate the entire process, requiring you to enter only the weight of dough you want divided and adjust the type of shaping and rounding you require. This makes it extremely useful for producing large quantities of buns and reducing the workload of the staff and saving money, while also producing consistently perfect buns. They’re also easy to maintain and require much less space than a traditional workstation.

• • Conical Rounder

After dividing the dough, its surface will be sticky and uneven. This may cause it to stick to the equipment and break, and also causes escaping of air. This is why the dough has to be evenly rounded by stretching out its outer surface. It is essential to the production of bread, buns, pizzas, and rolls. The Conical Rounder is the most common equipment commercially available for uniformly rounding the dough. It has a central rotating cone with a runway around the cone for the dough to revolve around it, leading to rounding and sealing by friction.

• • Long Moulder

Also known as the Economic Moulder. It is useful for producing long bread & loaves of bread and rusk. The dimensions required can be adjusted.

• • Dough Sheeters

Dough Sheeters take a ball of dough and flatten it out evenly to the size and thickness required. Rollers are arranged such that the gap is reduced gradually as the dough passes in-between. This provides for controlled flattening of dough, without which the gluten and gas structure of the dough would be irreparably damaged. It also provides for consistency in terms of the thickness of dough for pizzas and pastries. Commercial Dough Sheeters are massive time and labour savers and are especially useful in larger bakeries and manufacturing plants with high output. They come in both automatic and manual forms, and often even have dough rollers attached to them, for quick sheeting and rolling of dough.

Automatic and semi-automatic dividers, sheeters, and moulders are usually a part of the make-up line of the bakery or production unit working tangentially with the other equipment.

5. Is Proofing Of Dough Really Necessary?

Short answer: It is. Proofing of dough is the process wherein the yeast is activated. It ferments the carbohydrates in the dough and releases carbon dioxide that causes the dough to rise. This process is usually carried out after shaping the dough but before baking it. It allows for the creation of air bubbles and gives the final pastry flaky, fluffy layers, while also increasing its flavour and aroma.

Proofing requires warm and humid conditions. These aren’t easily attainable naturally, and since professional bakeries require perfectly baked goods to maintain consistency and to keep their customers coming back, investing in a high-quality, durable industrial proofer is quite necessary.

6. Slicing Machinery – Industrial and Table Top Slicers

If you’re making loaves of bread at your bakery or production unit, you will most likely require slicing machinery for cutting even slices of bread as well as to save time. For small bakeries, a commercial table top slicer with the capacity of slicing up to 500 loaves an hour will do, though for medium to large bakeries an industrial slicer fitted in the automated line is more useful. It has a conveyor belt system with adjustable speed depending on how many loaves you want to slice and how quickly.

7. Machines Required to Make Cream Rolls

A Spiral Mixer to mix the dough, a sheeter to turn the dough into smooth sheets, a cream rolling machine to roll the dough spirally, a rotary rack or convection oven to bake them into crunch rolls, a planetary mixer to whip up delicious cream and a cream injector to fill it in. This process makes perfect, standardized cream rolls in abundance, ready to be packaged and served.

8. Croissant Making Machine

An automated customizable croissant make-up line is especially useful for medium to large bakeries and production units for making large quantities of repeatable, consistent croissants. After mixing and kneading the dough adequately with planetary/spiral mixers, the dough must be put through dough sheeters, dough rollers, and dough cutters before proofing and baking. If a filling is required it can be done manually or through a commercial Cream Injector Device. Making croissants seems like a difficult task, but with the right chef and the right machinery, the production of large quantities of delicious croissants can be made easy.

9. Conveyor Belts & Other Automation Devices

Bowl lifting & tilting devices, conveyor belts for dough, auto-panning equipment are all intermediate machines for the automation of the make-up line. Transporting dough from one machine to another, lifting bowls and tilting them to pour in their contents, automatically adding dough to the moulds and trays in which they are to be proofed or baked can all be automated. These devices not only help save time and labour but are also hygienic as they provide for minimal handling of the product at every stage of production.

10. Moulds, Trays & Other Accessories

Anti-corrosive, durable material, non-toxic, high-tech, heat resistant, perfectly shaped moulds and trays are necessary for ensuring perfection in baking. Corrugation and non-stick properties will depend on the final product you desire. Bread moulds, cupcake moulds, rusk moulds, fruit pans, cookie trays, bun trays and multiple other options, including customization, are available widely.

Pro-tip: If you are just starting out, consider buying equipment packages/make-up lines.

Buying the commercial baking equipment in packages or buying the make-up line for a product helps easily procure all the required equipment.These packages are based on the size of the bakery you’d like to open and can be modified based on specific needs. From small bakeries and cafes to large ones and manufacturing plants, all equipment can be readily bought.

It is essential to buy high-quality, technologically advanced, commercial bakery equipment to ensure long-term success. Starting a bakery business can be confusing, but we hope this guide helped simplify things better for you.