Rolling in the Dough
Dough Rollers Make Consistency Easy
By Darrel Vecchio | BIZMATRIX

If you have ever had the pleasure of dining in a pizzeria in Italy, you may have seen the Pizziol(pizza chef) tossing the dough above his head then quickly catching and stretching the dough. Apart from the theatre of the dough making, the motion of dough throwing and spinning is a great way tstretch the dough evenly. Unfortunately there are very few pizza Joints in Australia that have Pizziolo’s that can spin dough by hand as many shops droll dough.

Back in the late 1800’s, before the pizza Industry began, the bakery industry invented a dough press or dough roller with cylindrical pipes that flattened the dough, similar ttwparallel rolling pins. It wasn’t until the late 1955’s when in America the first electric /mechanical dough roller was patented. In the 1960’S, Bertrand in France produced a dough roller for the bakery industry. The designed was used for the now branded Atlas Dough Roller and then in the late 1970’s in Italy several people claimed the first dough roller, which was electric/ mechanical and was used exclusively for the pizza industry for pizza dough.

I asked Joseph Pali, the managing director of Australian Bakery and Pizza Equipment Pty Ltd, why should a pizza joint use a dough roller, when a good Pizziolcan roll around 300 bases an hour? Joe said, “It is all about consistency...having the same pizza dough thickness and correct weight each time. Consistency saves you money and keeps you customers coming back. You have continuous production with minimal excursion and you can teach an operator how troll dough in less than 15 minutes. The most important item, is the health side, an operator rolling dough manually, will suffer from reparative strain injury and or arthritis. With a machine if it breaks you fix it, with people if they get injured, apart form the injury then there is the loss of production and potentially quality.” Some people claim they can roll as many dough bases as a mechanical dough roller. Joe said, ”A good Pizziolcan hand roll and toss around 200- 300 per hour for the first 15 minutes, then they start tslow down. A mechanical dough roller can roll around 300-600 continuously and consistently. When you have multiple of staff and especially when you are doing high quantities of dough bases it is better thave a dough roller! “

APB has customers whneed a heavy duty dough roller, which Joe recommends the Atlas SH500 or for lighter regular loads he suggests the IGF 2300/ B40P. In both cases the machines can be plugged inta standard 10AMP single-phase power point. This year, several pizza companies have introduced frozen dough ttheir stores where the dough is stored frozen and when required is thawed for 24 hours where the temperature of the dough is brought up t4-6C.

When the dough is cold, the bases are rolled through the dough roller. Joe recommends his heavy duty Atlas SH500 that handles the cold dough excellently. The dough is more fluid when cold, and stretches more evenly, and is less likely tstick. If the dough is hot there is a chance the dough will over proof and bubble. When the dough is hot or over proofed, the dough will not roll evenly and the taste will alter.

Should an operator invest in a dough divider, dough baller and/or a dough roller? A dough divider is used tportion the dough in the correct dough ball amounts, portioning the dough batch int120 grams-800 gram dough amounts. The dough baller then forms the dough intballs intball tray. When required these dough balls are rolled through a dough roller or formed on a dough press. These are fantastic pieces of equipment, however the investment costs are around $20,000- $35,000 for all the equipment.

In Melbourne Sofias is a 500 seater restaurant with pizza and other products. The store is open 7 days a week and 24hours Friday-Sunday and they serve around 1500-2500 pizzas on the good nights. In this case the dough divider, baller and roller/press is a good investment in achieving consistency and return on investment in the business. When we talk large quantities of dough production and the dough is fresh made, it is important tinvest in equipment tachieve this aim. Domino’s has over 500 pizza shops in Australia and around 40-45 stores have installed the dough dividers, rounders and roller/presses in tthese stores. These 40 odd stores would be high volume stores producing around 800-3000 pizzas a night. If a pizza operator is achieving 3000 pizzas per hour then the operator needs a bakery divider production systems which would cost $100,000’s tset up.

The pizza dough divider/ rounder produces around 500-600 dough balls per hour consistently. Things tconsider when determining if you need tpurchase this equipment include:

• The dough is correct weight
• Portioned evenly
• When rolled the dough maintains integrity
• The dough can be chilled in dough balls for rolling at 4-6C
• The dough balls are consistent in quality and size There are several brands in Australia when you are ready tpurchase or replace your
• Dough Divider
• Dough Baller
• Dough Press
• Dough Roller

Consider the following before you purchase the equipment:
• What dyou get for your money?
• How many are in the market? Safety:
• Emergency stop switch
• Coveres with trip switches for safety
• Ease of adjustment
• Low voltage
• Food safe
• Ease of cleaning

Duty
• Will it roll cold dough
• Will it roll your dough mixture
• What are the maximum rolls per hour
• Will it roll heavy dough
• Does the motor trip or get hot with standard use?

Training
• Is training included in the price?
• Can you test your dough before buying?
• Whhas purchased these units?

Have any of the major chains bought these units? Spareparts:
• Availability
• Cost of the parts, motors gear boxes
• Service agents Testimonials
• Get references’ you can contact
• Get references’ of customers similar tyour business.
• How many years has the brand been in Australia?
• Is the equipment a main product for the business one product of many?
• How easy is the equipment for cleaning? Cleaning and Maintenance
• A dough roller should be cleaned after every use or if the unit is left unattended for any long periods.
• Never wet the roller when cleaning
• Use a moistened tdry rag tclean down the units
• Keep moisture away from the ends of the rollers
• Never use sharp objects tclean the rollers
• Unplug the power from the unit before cleaning Features when considering buying a Dough Roller
• Width of the rollers
• 1st roll
• 2nd Roll
• Is the width enough ttake your dough sizes
• Horizontal or oblique rollers
• Stainless construction or powder coated
• Hard chrome rollers or Teflon/ nylon
• Heavy duty or light duty
• Safety switches on all covers-
• Covers tstop your fingers from being caught in the rollers
• Foot pedal control available
• Good service back up and good warranties
• Quality construction
• Good sized motor
• Good gear box

Here are just a few suppliers of Pizza Dough Equipment Australian Bakery & Pizza Equipment Contact Joseph Pali 03 9560 0200 www.abpaltas.com.au

Brands: Atlas & IGF SPYRAL PTY LTD Brands: MEC – Dough Rollers Price range $1965-$2575 Plus GST Contact Andrew Morris Ph 1300 779 725 www.spyral.com.au

Fruil Australia PH 03 9438 4926 http://friulaustralia.com.au Brands : Friul dividers, rounders, rollers Rollers: $4,350-$6,950 M&M Australiawide 03 83390188 Brands: Fimar Dough Rollers: Price range $3,000- $6,000

If you would like more information please contact me tassist you ,or your feedback, please dnot hesitate contacting Darrel Vecchi BIZMATRIX Interactive Business Solutions
phone 0411884901
fax: 07 32646539
www.bizmatrix.com.au
Vecchio@ bizmatrix.com.au.