Shaping bread rolls

[Serj]

I am in the process of moving into a baker's position at my new job. At my old job, we shaped all of the bread by hand. The new job involves much higher volume - and the chef wants small rolls. The current baker (who is retiring tomorrow) uses an electric dough divider/rounder (Dutchess Model JN) to shape the bread.

How will shaping small rolls using the machine (which I believe is set to the 1 oz setting) - affect the qualities of the bread that you look for when baking an artisan loaf? I have a few recipes that I want to eventually try, that when I have made in loaf form, result in a nice, open crumb. Should I be expecting the little rolls to have similar qualities, albeit on a smaller scale, as the loaves would, or should I expect to compromise on the crumb a little and just make sure the taste is there?

On a related note: with the recipes that I am being taught now- as the rolls come out of the machine, the ones on the outside of the divider need to be shaped again by hand - they are coming out not completely rounded. Should this be happening or should the rolls be coming out fully rounded and equal?

Thanks for any input!

[alanamoana]

Hey Serj,

dough dividers are imperfect. from my experience, you will have to reshape once they come out of the divider. they are also a bit rough on dough. depending on the hydration of your dough, you might have problems using the divider for certain open crumbed doughs.

i'd experiment, if possible, just to see how some of your doughs work out using the machine. see what is practical in your production setting.

i worked at a bakery in germany and they used the divider for small wheat/seeded rolls, but they didn't use the rounding function...so all the machine did was cut the dough (already proofed, etc) into the proper shape which they then took and coated with seeds, etc. that might be something you can do as well.