I am trying to figure out what kind of equipment I need to open a small place (something comparable in scale to a Domino’s). One thing I haven’t figured out is the best way to mix dough.
I know most places use mixers. Right now, I’m making small amounts of pizza for my church, and they have an old Hobart Kitchenaid K5-A mixer. I hate it. It makes a mess every time. It will not mix dry ingredients. It does a poor job of mixing the dough, because the stuff at the bottom stays dry. I also have problems with the dough residue inside it drying out between batches; it has no lid to prevent evaporation. It takes forever to make a small batch of dough.
At home, I use a 3 1/2-quart food processor. It handles up to 4 cups of flour. It doesn’t make a mess. It mixes anything, wet or dry, almost instantly. I can cover it to prevent dough residue from drying out. It’s very easy to add small amounts of water or flour to change the hydration of the dough after I’ve made a mistake; that’s incredibly hard with the mixer. I can make a batch of dough almost as fast as I can fill and empty the machine.
I noticed that Robot Coupe makes huge food processors called “blixers.” They’re not cheap, but you can get them in 24-quart and 30-quart versions. Does anyone here use a machine like this to make dough? Is there a cheaper type of machine out there that will do the same basic thing? I don’t want to knead the dough. I just want to mix the water/yeast mixture into it quickly and thoroughly.