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I’m sure the last time you went to a bakery, you probably did not pay attention to what’s behind the counter. You probably didn’t even notice what kind of equipment they have. You probably were only looking at the cakes, cookies, and other pastries on display.
Welcome to the club! That’s what most people look at or look for when they visit a bakery. On the other hand, if you have quite an eye for detail, you would know that bakeries that take their game to the next level as far as texture and flavor are concerned, have the right equipment.
After all, it goes hand in hand if you want to produce the very best products, it goes without saying that you need to have the right equipment to put those products together. These are not separate matters.
Well, I’m not saying that the quality of a bakery good is wholly dependent or exclusively the product of the baking equipment in that bakery facilities. Equipment does play a big role. The worst thing that can happen when you bake something is to use the wrong equipment to mix or process your food.
I’m not saying that you’re not going to be able to do the job, but there’s a big difference between getting something done and doing it the right way. Believe me, once you bite into that cookie, muffin cake, or any other kind of pastry, you are going to know full well the difference between using the right equipment and just doing things randomly.
So, with that in mind, here are the most used pieces of bakery equipment that you probably will find at your corner bakeshop or bakery.
Mixers
Mixers are pretty much the workhorse of the typical bakery. It’s very easy to see why. Mixers, after all, ensure that flour, which is the main foundation of any kind of baking dish or bakery item, is properly put together.
Let’s face it, if you don’t mix flour the right way with sugar, cream, and water, as well as other ingredients, the final product is probably not going to live up to its fullest potential. In fact, in many cases, it’s just not going to meet your expectations at all.
It’s going to be too flat, too tough or the flavors just didn’t mix right. Whatever the case may be, it would be a flat-out disappointment.
That’s how crucial a mixer is. And the good news is, there are all sorts of types of mixers to handle even the most delicate baking procedure.
Oven
In addition to mixers, ovens are extremely important. I would wager that they are more important than mixers because after all, you can mix flour and ingredients manually if you need to. Indeed, this is how it’s been done for hundreds of years before the industrial revolution.
Ovens, on the other hand, are harder to replace because there’s only so much heat you can work with. Given the modern zoning and city regulations, heat sources must be properly controlled and that it must come from the proper type of equipment.
If you were to skip on buying the very best oven you have access to or you could afford, you’re rolling the dice regarding the final products that you’re going to produce with that piece of kitchen equipment. That’s the long and short of it.
If you cannot produce the amount of heat or deliver the kind of quality heat your baked goods require, quality is going to suffer. There are no two ways about it.
It’s important to invest in the right oven and mixer. If given a choice and if you only have so many resources, you probably should prioritize the oven first.
Bakeware
Bakeware is the container type items that you use to put your mixtures. And these are the flour mixtures that will eventually be baked into all sorts of products from cupcakes to muffins, to cookies, to cakes, and what have you.
Bakeware is very diverse. It’s made of many different materials. It has many different production values. At the end of the day, the bakeware’s quality depends on what specific item it is you are baking.
It’s important to be mindful of the interaction between the material that the bakeware is made of and whatever texture or external quality you are looking for in your baked item.
For example, if you are baking a certain type of cake that needs to be very soft on the outside, you probably should use a certain range of bakeware and not others.
Specially designed bakeware is intended for tough crusts or tough exteriors. That’s not the kind of textures that you are looking for your specific recipe.
Bread slicers
Once you have baked your product, you need some sort of separator. This is really what a slicer is. You separate the slices of bread. You separate the cake from its container. You separate the cookie from its sheet. You separate the muffins from the baking pan, and so on.
It’s important to have some sort of separated device because stuff sticks from time to time. Believe it or not, in many cases, people just don’t have the right formula or recipe or ratio in the ingredients. That’s why things tend to be too sticky.
So, do yourself a very big favor. Invest in the right separators or at least some sort of lubrication for the sheets and the pans. With the right slicer or separator, you don’t ruin whatever it is you’re baking when you take them out of the bakeware and store them away.