we changed a few things from a production standpoint to gain the advantage and efficiency of the larger batch size. simply multiplying made things awkward. we use a pre-ferment (biga) which we used to mix in the mixer, but reformulated to be higher hydration and mixed with a paddle in their buckets. we re-jiggered the formula to where a full batch now uses a full 50# batch of flour (one less thing to measure), other smaller ingredients and 2 buckets of the biga preferment and water from our water meter, making for a 150# batch. this new formula is also easily scaled down to a half batch, both sizes being in the mixer’s “sweet spot”. we have successfully mixed one dough as little as 20#, being below the sweet spot, which just meant it needed extra time as the hook wasn’t in contact with the dough blob for most of the bowl’s rotation. we also took the opportunity to up the overall hydration from 56% to 60%, something that have wanted to do, but changing one thing in a formula that had years of muscle memory for the dough guys was hard to do, but since everything was new to learn, it was a good time to make little tweaks.
we had some tweaking to do to the mix time. original mix time in hobart was 10 min on speed 1. initial mix time on spiral was 30 sec on reverse to incorporate ingredients, 2 min on speed 1, and 6 min on speed 2. we were experiencing some tearing of skin on on some balls, my thinking was that it was a little over developed and that we’d knock the mix time down by 30 sec or 1 min , but it ended up actually needing 1 min more mix time.
one glitch we encountered at our demo (and they and we both caught) was that in speed 2 the bowl went the correct direction but the hook was going the reverse direction. had something to do with the 3phase wiring and was easily corrected (by them) by changing the jumping of some internal wiring. we were wondering why it was taking so long for the dough to develop and dough was also riding up on the hook constantly. we initially thought our dough wasn’t suited for speed 2. they corrected that before delivery and has been flawless since.
i am so thankful to this group to steering me to LBC. i had forgotten that they were in our backyard and when our hobart died and we had to scramble, research new mixers in an afternoon, them having the model we needed in stock, taking a field trip down there the next day to learn more and try the mixer with our formula, arrange to buy the mixer and pick it up and install it the following day, all went flawlessly. the whole thing couldn’t have turned out any better. if i had all the time in the world to research mixers, mayyybee would have made a different decision, but likely would have ended up in the same place. from what i have learned in my research here, the web and some at pizza expo, the LBC hit all the right marks and the price is very good value. so, i’m very happy with the purchase and my interactions with them.
