With hundreds of recipe styles and variations, pizza shines in unique colors that speak the local language of snacking around the world. What makes each stand out is the dough.
A thin, chewy crust makes the original pizza, first made in Napoli, instantly recognizable: think margherita, the global menu staple. Since then, each country and region have been creating versions of their own. New-York-style pizza is world-famous, with a thin yet sturdy crust that holds a wealth of ingredients. Chicago’s own deep-dish pizza is another American iteration, which has long surpassed the city’s borders in popularity. Sicilian pizza is often made with a thick crust, and so is its neighbor – Greek pizza. In France, we find Flammekueche, or Tarte Flambée, an Alsatian specialty made with a very thin, crispy crust made without yeast; while the so-called ‘Turkish pizza’ – Lahmacun has a thin and crispy, flatbread-like crust and is topped with minced meat and Middle Eastern herbs and flavors.
Mix and match
These, and hundreds of other unique pizza creations, count on the exact type of dough intended, so that it can handle the mix of toppings and deliver the sensory experience the consumers expect. The preparation requirements of each type of dough vary greatly, starting with the mixing stage. Each formulation and process that follows mixing – whether the dough is sheeted and cut, pressed, or balled and frozen – demands specific hydration levels, gluten development, extensibility, and temperature control. For large-volume operations, continuous mixing is the answer, for any specialty. With a caveat: the process should be precisely set up for the product: “Because no two pizza processes are the same, the continuous mixing system must be precisely adjusted to produce consistent, high-quality dough for each unique application,” specialists in mixing technology from Reading Bakery Systems highlight.
“We’ve implemented process feedback programs that automatically adjust dough temperature and production rates based on downstream conditions.”
Reading Bakery Systems specialists
Optimizing industrial-volume, continuous mixing for pizza doughs is not without challenges, stemming from numerous factors: scaling up from smaller systems, fine-tuning process parameters, and monitoring performance across all stages. “Maintaining consistency at higher throughputs requires tight control and reliable automation,” RBS underlines.
Testing makes the perfect process setup, starting with pilot systems and scaling up data accurately. At the RBS Science & Innovation Center, the company’s experts use pilot-scale continuous mixers to validate pizza dough processes before setting up full production operations. “Our Exact Continuous Mixers can be fully configured to each application, allowing independent adjustment of mixing energy, element configuration, and dwell time. Advanced automation ensures precise ingredient delivery with state-of-the-art controls for both dry and liquid systems. Real-time monitoring of all parameters, including temperature and energy, enables automatic corrections and operator alerts to maintain product consistency,” the specialists explain.
The Exact EX Continuous Mixer model developed by RBS is the best match to the complex processing challenge that is automated pizza dough processing, with all its variables. “This model handles stiff doughs requiring moderate gluten development, thanks to its heavy-duty shaft and customizable paddle configuration. The Exact EX Mixer features a liquid jacket for temperature control and optional liquid circulation through the shaft and chamber pins,” RBS explains. In addition, thanks to its clamshell design, operators have easy access for sanitation and maintenance, which helps minimize downtime. This Exact dough mixer series accommodates smaller and large-scale operations, with possible production volumes ranging from 500 to 17,000 lbs per hour, across seven mixer sizes.
RBS has installed Exact Mixing pizza continuous mixing systems worldwide, in configurations tailored to each bakery’s layout and production goals. For instance, some facilities use dual-mixer setups for higher capacity and built-in redundancy, while others use a single high-output mixer to minimize footprint. “Each installation is custom-
designed to match available space, throughput, and downstream equipment,” RBS underlines.
Consistency and accuracy
Accurate ingredient metering is key to achieving constant mixing results. For continuous mixing, precise dosing is particularly important as it contributes to maintaining the characteristics of large quantities of dough.
Every ingredient that goes into RBS’ Exact Continuous Mixer is measured as a mass flow: “Loss-in-weight feeders meter in dry ingredients and Coriolis systems meter in the liquid ingredients. The control system continuously monitors each flow rate against recipe setpoints, automatically correcting deviations or stopping the process if needed,” the specialist details. Operators can review the system’s performance on-screen at any given time and access historical trend data for optimization and troubleshooting, if required.
RBS continues to improve its continuous mixing technology, with features that further optimize its performance, process control and reliability. “Recent advancements include electronic shear-pin monitoring for drives and upgraded operator interfaces that provide richer, more actionable data. We’ve also implemented process feedback programs that automatically adjust dough temperature and production rates based on downstream conditions,” RBS explains. This intelligent automation helps maintain consistent product quality, reduces waste, and saves operators’ time spent on manual tasks, as it ensures the entire line automatically runs efficiently.
New features are engineered: “Our Exact Mixing R&D team continues to push the boundaries of what continuous mixing can achieve — exploring dough mixing at colder temperatures for the pastry industry and developing solutions for markets that have traditionally relied on batch mixing.”
The goal is to perfect a system that will provide a smarter, more sustainable dough mixing process, continuously. No matter the topping combination, any type of pizza dough can be created and consistently delivered to the pizza processing line.