Baking & Snack - February 2018 - 52

WENNER BAKERY

On the Knots line, two 2,000-lb horizontal mixers
alternate to drop dough into troughs that are lifted to
continuously feed the hopper of a stress-free extruder.
A makeup line is outfitted with reduction stations, cross
rollers, gauging stations and a final reduction system
that ensures the proper thickness of the dough sheet. A
circular cutter slices the sheet, and onto finger conveyors that spread them into individual lanes before they're
guillotined into pieces.
Next, a synchronized team of 12 to 18 skilled workers manually twist-tie the Knots, noted Larry Evans,
the plant's general manager. A retractable conveyor
then drops the precisely aligned pieces onto boards
that travel through two tray proofers. Mr. Evans said
the double proofing process creates the soft, New Yorkstyle pizza dough taste and texture that characterize the
popular Knots.
After baking on a mesh band in a tunnel oven, the
Knots travel up a conveyor to a spiral cooler before blast
freezing, garlic coating and retail packaging - six Knots
to a bakeable retail bag. The Knots also can be bulkpacked for foodservice establishments and served warm
as part of the bread basket or a creative component of an
appetizer with melted cheese, marinara dipping sauce or
a host of other accompaniments, according to Mr. Tey.
To create baguettes, hoagies and an assortment of artisan rolls, the second line relies on three vertical spiral
mixers that feed twin makeup systems - a Mecatherm
operation that produces French-style baguettes and
rolls and another makeup operation for softer, rustic
European-style items. Because it has only one oven, a
single makeup line operates at any one time.
During Baking & Snack's visit, baguette production began with a bowl lift that traditionally dumps the
straight dough into a two-pocket divider. That system
feeds the Mecatherm line to create two rows of 12- to
14-in. baguettes at a rate of 5,000 per hour. The baguettes can also be cut in half to produce specialty rolls
at twice that amount.
After intermediate proofing, the pieces travel through
a sheeter, curling chain and four moulding plates that
gently stretch and lengthen them. The pieces then drop
into 48-piece pans, that transport the dough pieces to
the proofer. Next, an automatic water splitter scores the
products. Mr. Evans noted using water is not only safe
and accurate, but the system also can control the depth,
length and shape of scoring.
After passing through a high-temperature initial baking chamber that provides the necessary oven spring to
the products, they enter the Mecatherm modular oven
with four individual chambers where operators can adFresh baguettes stream out of the tunnel oven at the New Brunswick, NJ, bakery.

52 Baking & Snack February 2018 / www.bakingandsnack.com

"Our products are made
for all tastes, for all
walks of life, for any time
of day - all created in
their own unique way."
Alberto Alvarez, Wenner Bakery

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking & Snack - February 2018

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