Tom Lehmann - Replacement for Vegatable Oil

Tom -

I have a dough production commissary that services my small independent DELOC chain. We use a time delayed proofing process (day 1 - production & cold storage deposit; day 2 - transfer to stores & cold storage deposit; days 3 - 5 proofing & use).

Presently after rounding the dough we manually lubricate the dough balls with vegatable oil before placing in stackable plastic dough trays. I would like to move away from the manual application and move to an semi-automated/automated spray applicator. Is there a product(s) that you would recommend that we could use (preferably with European distributor) to spray onto the dough balls once they’re placed in the plastic dough trays that can be used in place of vegatable oil? Is there also a standard spray applicator system out there that you would recommend (also with European distributor)?

We’ve tried applying vegatable oil via a manual spray bottle and had very poor results. Is it possible that vegatable oil is the best (cost/quality) emulsifer for this application & perhaps a change in the applicator (high pressure sprayer vs manual sprayer) is all that’s needed ?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Jerry

Jerry;
I’m not aware of anything that will work as well as oil for application onto the dough balls. If cost is an issue, check to make sure you’re using the most cost effective oil available to you. As far as an applicator, you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned high pressure applicators. When I had my auto repair business, I had what was called a pressurized paint can. This was a container that I put the paing into and then pressurized it with an air compressor, it had a long hose that was used to attach the spray gun to the pressure can. This allowed me to move around freely while painting, but more importantly, it allowed me to paint, uninterrupted, for a significantly longer time as I did not need to stop to refill the spray gun paint cup while painting a car. In your case, the can would be filled with oil, that you could spray onto the dough balls. You might only need to change out the hose to one that is approved for food contact. I wouldn’t expect that this would be a problem. Using a spray gun, possibly one of the new, HVLP (high volume low pressure) guns might also work well in this application. They would reduce the amount of overspray common to high pressure guns.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Tom - Guess I’m on my way to research high pressure sprayers. I once had the opportunity to tour a Domino’s commissary and thought that the emulsifer that they were spraying on the dough post-positioning in the dough box was somehting other than vegatable oil. Guess somethimes the simplest solutions really are the best solutions.

Thanks again for your time/expertise

Jerry

What about a “Home & Garden” type hand-pressurized pump-up sprayer?

Allow me to bring in some knowledge from my 34 years in the NAPA trade prior to jumping into the pizza game. Your better hardware, or certainly a decent auto parts store will sell a pressure can. Most are a 1qt size metal can, you unscrew the top, fill your product then put the top back on, there is a schrader core (tire stem) type fill valve where you’ll pressurize the can using any air compressor. It’s all hose-free from that point. You’ll get a surprising amount of spray time on one charging with air. Most brands sell a variety of nozzles to give a different spray pattern but the std. one should give you an ample width spray pattern to quickly coat your dough balls. This type of pressure can is used in many applications in the auto and farm industry to give a nice mist coat of oil or even a quick cheap paint job, it will certainly handle some veggie oil.

Deacon & Tom -
Funny how information & knowledge from one business can be used to solve a problem in another…take the your experiences with the auto parts/repair industry and applying the knowledge to the pizza industry. Now if we could just get all the delivery vehicles to run on dough balls or active yeast we’d all have it made !

Thanks again for the ideas.

Jerry

Jerry;
You would not want to use an emulsifier on the dough balls as this would serve to hold/bind water to the dough, something we don’t want to do in pizza production as it can help lead to the development of a gum line. For this same reason, we don’t want to use an emulsified shortening or oil in the dough. Emulsifiers are used in the dough for such things as white pan berad production where they help to hold water in the dough as well as interact/complex with the starch and protein fractions of the flour to produce a softer bread, as well as a bread that will stay soft longer. Like I said, not exactly what we’re typically looking for in a pizza. If that ain’t enough, they’re expensive too, at least more expensive than oil, even the high priced stuff. There is a hand held sprayer, approved for food application, and commonly used in bakery applications, typically for spraying iol into dough troughs, it’s called a Big Shot Sprayer. You might check with Hantover, at <www.hantover.com> to see if they carry them. At least then, you’re good to go right from the start.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor