Applications for Flake Ice Machines in the Baking Industry

Flake Ice for Dough Cooling

Consistent and cool dough temperature is perhaps one of the most important factors for high quality baked goods. The process of mixing dough creates a great amount of heat as it is being mixed. Bakers don’t want their dough to get to hot while in the mixing stage so they find ways to keep the dough cooled by removing the excess heat. There are various ways to remove the heat, the most efficient method add ice as an ingredient instead of the water to better control the temperature. Flake ice is the best choice for commercial baking since it outperforms other types of ice in terms of efficiency, cooling capacity, and compatibility with the bakery equipment.

The greatest cooling effect ice has is when it melts. The melting process absorbs 144 BTU of heat from the dough per pound of ice used. Chilled water only extracts 1 BTU of heat per pound, per degree Fahrenheit as it warms. Flake ice features a thin shape and large surface area that cools dough rapidly and evenly, outperforming other forms such as cubed or crushed ice. The rapid melting allows for uniform incorporation into the mixture of ingredients. It will not damage mixer blades, so bakers can incorporate the ice easily without additional preparation.

Flake ice for dough cooling is the preferred choice in production of various doughs such as bagels, cookies, pie crust, and pizza crust. Howe ice flaker machines meet NSF sanitation requirements and built to run continuously, 24 hours per day with a proven 20 to 30 year design life. Howe has a large range of capacities, from 1,000 lbs per day for small bakeries up to 40,000 lbs of ice per day for large bakeries.

Depending on the size of the facility and the number of batches mixed per hour, adding ice into the dough can be a simple manual process where the bakers add a specific quantity of ice to the batch of dough, or can be a fully automated process in which a calculated quantity if ice is added to the dough for a consistently mixed product.

There are also variables that need to be adjusted due to ambient temperature and length of mixing times.

Howe Corporation also offers ice storage bins for use with our ice machines. These bins are custom made for food processing applications; offering fully welded, smoothed, and coved corners with no visible seams or sealants for easy cleaning and sanitation.

For information about Howe’s flake ice machines for the baking industry, please contact us today!