SofTouch dough moulder

The APV Baker SofTouch dough moulder, featuring a unique sheeting roll configuration, provides plant bakers with benefits in bread quality and contributes to a longer shelf life.

The benefits arise from volume and cell count increases claimed to be around 10%, and an improved crumb structure. Advantages include better 'spreadability', a whiter loaf, up to 18% softer loaf and a strong, straight sided shape that fills the tin well, particularly important for sandwich producers.

Upgrading to the SofTouch moulder offers a low-cost route to the premium quality market for plant bakers: the moulding head can be retrofitted to most existing moulders or supplied as part of a complete new unit. If production costs are a priority, the moulder provides the opportunity to reduce the cost of key ingredients, such as yeast, without sacrificing any existing quality aspects.

The result is a design with four pairs of sheeting rollers, each pair having an individually controlled variable speed and variable gap. This improves end product quality by controlling size, shape and length-to-width ratio and allowing tighter coiling, while at the same time reducing stress to the dough through a more progressive thickness reduction.

The moulder also features centralising rollers before sheeting that contribute to the control of size and shape by ensuring that dough is presented in a consistent manner to the sheeting rollers.

The introduction of the SofTouch moulder will enhance the performance of any mixing system. It particularly maximises the benefits of the pressure vacuum option available with APV Baker 'Tweedy' dough mixers, by retaining the high cell count this process creates in the dough. This leads directly to increased volume and improved texture, and a softer crumb.