What’s A Divider Rounder?
This is a device called a “divider rounder”:
Link to video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMemrpAY3/
A “divider rounder” is used in professional bakeries to create equal weight, round balls of dough. It’ll cost you anywhere from USD $5,000 to $20,000 depending on brand, quality, type, etc.
Pros and Cons of a Divider Rounder
Without a divider rounder, bakers hand cut, weigh, and roll the balls. It works, and thousands of bakers (even professionals) do this.
A divider rounder is faster, more consistent, and saves labor hours. So if you’re a high volume operation and going to be in the same kitchen for a long time, it’s a no brainer.
However, they are expensive, and not very portable. So if you are moving kitchens, only making small amounts of dough, or cash constrained, you hand cut and weigh.
Should We Get A Divider Rounder?
We should probably get a divider rounder, at some point.
But right now:
We don’t know where our kitchen will be in 6 months
We’re currently making max batch sizes of ~ 400 kolaches
So it doesn’t make sense for us.
But it still sucks to hand weigh and cut.
Nah, Let’s Make A Handheld Divider Rounder!
Maybe we should buy a divider rounder, but for now we’re not ready, and hey, it’ll be fun to make one!
Here’s how a divider rounder works:
1. There’s a die that can cut a shape (generally a circle) into N equal area pieces (say 20)
2. There’s an outer retaining wall, like a springform pan for a cheesecake
3. You weigh the FULL big piece of dough to 20 * weight per piece. So for example, if the die is for 20 equal size pieces and you want a 72 gram dough ball, then 1440g BIG ball.
4. Put the BIG ball onto the platter.
5. The cutter has 2 steps. In the first step, (A) it compresses it to be a single uniform height cylinder. In the second step, (B), the die goes through it to produce 20 equal VOLUME pieces, but they are NOT round.
6. The machine just shakes it really hard. Surface tension and slight adhesion of the dough to the lateral walls of the die cause this to create VERY uniform, round dough balls.
We’re currently trying to make our own, hand operated version that we can produce for just a few dollars in material costs.
If it works out, we’ll make some for our baker friends too!