Choosing the Right Mixer for Your Restaurant or Bakery

Choosing the wrong mixer for your desired application will lead to costly equipment breakdowns, inconsistent or unacceptable doughs, and a lot of stress and hassle. Thankfully, Vollrath has provided us with an extremely handy chart (along with some helpful tips) that will make finding the best mixer for you much simpler. Every Vollrath mixer comes with a Dough Hook, Flat Beater, and Wire Whisk so you can focus on finding the capacity that is right for you and not worry about the accessories!

Tips for Finding the Perfect Vollrath Mixer

- When it comes to mixing doughs, the AR - absorption ratio - is easy to calculate and an essential variable in your hunt for the best mixer. The AR can be found by dividing your water weight by your flour rate; e.g. if your recipe includes 10 lbs of water and 20 lbs of flour, you would divide 10 by 20 (then multiply the result by 100 to turn it from a decimal into a percent) to get a 50% AR.

- In the below chart the provided ARs are as follows: Bread & Roll Dough - 60% AR, Heavy Bread Dough - 55% AR, Pizza Dough, Thin - 40% AR, Pizza Dough, Medium - 50% AR, Pizza Dough, Thick - 60% AR, Raised Donut Dough - 65% AR.

- Just in case you don't have every measurement conversion memorized: 1 gallon of water = 8.3 lbs and 1 quart of water = 2.08 lbs.

- Keep in mind that the chart's capacities are based on 12% flour moisture at a water temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

- If your recipes call for high gluten flour, you will need to reduce your dough batch by 10% when compared to the amounts in the chart.

- Do NOT use 2nd speed on mixtures with less than a 50% AR, as that could overload your mixer.

- While the below chart is a great place to get more information on what mixer is best for you, it should be used as a guideline only. Many factors, such as the type of flour you use, can affect your batch size.