Commercial Mixer recommendation?
Hi, all.
A somewhat unusual question for most, but I'm confident we have maybe some former or even still current professional bakers "on board" who might be able to help me out.
I bake breads for the local Farmers Market. Right now, I mix my doughs in 13-quart stainless steel bowls and Stretch&Fold them on the counter. It's somewhat difficult to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients in the bowls, especially when I get to 18 pounds of dough. Since I might actually start making even larger batches, I'm wondering if I should look at getting a 30-qt commercial mixer (or maybe a 20-qt would still be big enough?). I know that Hobart is top of the line, but since I would only be using the mixer for a couple of minutes at lowest speed, do I need a Hobart? Are there other brands out there that might give me what I'm looking for, at a lower price?
I'm pretty sure I'd continue the S&F even if I had a mixer that could handle the large volume of dough. The kind of breads I make develop awesomely when prepared on the bench as opposed to in a bowl. But, I would need something that would make it easy for me to combine the dry ingredients with the water and then incorporate the salt and/or dry yeast later.
Thanks in advance for any recommendations you might have.
Stephan