Make or Buy Doughballs?....Tired of Breaking Mixer

[mandyspizza]

Okay…been doing this for 15 years and always made our own dough. Well, the motor went on the Hobart 4 months ago and it was 3200.00. Now, well the main shaft broke, and some other part in there as a result, and now it’s time to decide if another $3400.00 is worth the investment,

Buying a used one is questionable since you do not know the quality.
Buying a new one is ridiculous when you see the prices…even a lease is crazy.

So, how many people here buy their dough and what are the thoughts on doing it vs. repairing this Hobart 660.

Thanks

 

[royster13]

If you do buy dough, maybe a local bakery can provide it…Then at least you can market it as local and fresh…If you bring it in from elsewhere and your competitors catch wind of it, they may be able use it against you…They can make claims they use “fresh” dough not like the folks down the street that get it shipped in…

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

A number of years ago Hobart Corporation got tired of the bad rap that their mixers were getting when they were being rebuilt by some shoddy/shade tree rebuilder and selling them as rebuilt only to have them fail in fairly short order, sometimes the only rebuilding consisted of a new paint job and out the door it went. To get their good name back Hobart went on a buying spree and literally bought up all the used Hobart mixers they could find, at their facility they sorted them out by those not rebuildable and those that they were prepared to rebuild and support. By buying a rebuilt mixer through Hobart you got a factory rebuild and you knew what you were getting, plus they were competitively priced with other rebuilt mixers (usually 55 to 60% of the cost of a new mixer). I don’t know if Hobart still sells rebuilt mixers but if you are in the market for another P-660 (which in itself is a very good mixer), you might contact them. Since I didn’t see any reference to the need to use the mixer for the sauce you might also look into a spiral mixer. Spiral mixers are the Clydesdale of the mixers, I’d highly recommend them to anyone needing a mixer just for dough.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[December]

I buy dough currently, i pay .05 an ounce, the company makes it a quarter mile from me they deliver mon, weds, friday. They pick up the dough trays( which i only scrape clean). Ive actually been pondering making my own recently, im still debating though, you get used to the extra time you have to do other things and when you dont have to lug 50lb fkour bags around its kind of nice.

 

[durbancic]

As a comparison to December, our dough (product cost) is $0.017 per ounce. That is not including labor, electricity, etc. Still, its about 3x cheaper. If you consider it takes a good person 15 minutes to do a 25# batch of dough, that’s about $3 more in labor (on the high side) to a $11.38 batch. This makes the total cost appx $0.022 per ounce.

 

[December]

I hear you on the cost savings, I am experimenting with making my own.
Heres how my first test run went, couldnt get the water the exact temp I wanted. I started mixing it then the phone started ringing, my brother, my partner,starts calling my name to come upfront and help him with the orders we were getting.
I got back to the dough scaled and balled it(it took me way longer than 15 mins) then put them in the cooler. Too much yeast in the batch that time.
2nd attempt start making dough, the phone starts ringing again, my brother starts angrily calling for help again, I go help him, come back and my driver has the table i need to cut the dough covered in cups to start portioning the bleu chhese dressing.
Then the math the mixer cost me $4500, dough trays $$$ cleaning the trays takes water and time.
3rd attempt dough looked terrible right away… Realized put an extra wuart of water in.
I know tgough once I get this workflow thing down ill start doing it, its just been tough for us lately, espcially since I want consistency so finshed dough temps, hydrations, etc mean alot to me.

 

[GotRocks]

For you guys looking to get or replace a planetary mixer;
Please take a look at getting a spiral mixer, having one has made my life so much easier. I set the timer, dump our water & ice in the bowl, then add all my dry ingredients, mix, add oil in the last 4 minutes, and it is perfect every single time. Using IDY instead of fresh or ADY has also been a great stride forward for me

I use 1/3rd of my water weight in ice cubes,

Now, a spiral mixer is not a multi-use machine for grinding meat, shredding cheese, etc etc etc. But they sure make dough easy