Albert the Baker

From time to time Albert (a retired baker from Germany) comes to the ship -  the Anastasis but now the on the Africa Mercy - to grace us with his presence for about 3 months at a time.  No, I am not making fun.  He can put out crescents, rolls, bread, specialty baked items like nobody's business...he's THE MAN!

The last time he left he really had a passion to have some equipment items he deemed necessary for our small bakery on board.  So he directly went home, raised the money, bought the equipment...and had it delivered to the Dutch office before we even knew what was going on!!!

And we're not talking about a couple of pizza cutters, we're talking about thousands of Euros in money and hundreds of kilos in weight.

[Click picture to make larger]

This mixer is specifically made for mixing dough.  Our other mixer was moved further down and has multiple attachments to do a myriad of other things...So now it is nice to be able to use the older mixer for everyday bulk prep & use in the kitchen without 'bumping' heads with the baker. 

This is a semi-automatic bun roller.  You slide a weight of dough in the machine on one of the 'trays' you see hanging on the side of the machine.  You pull the big handle down for it to cut the dough into equal proportions.  Then you slide over another lever to lock it into gear,

and pull another for it to start gyrating...It's kind of like doing the twist.  Mechanically it gyrates/vibrates (in a circular pattern) the 'tray' under the cut dough until they form separate balls trapped within the cutter.  Stop the machine lift the big handle and pull out the tray for your precise made dough balls for rolls or small breads.

Thanks, Albert!  And all who contributed to these purchases...They are both installed and ready for action when you come back to visit us!  But don't worry the current baker is using them now...the only dust they'll collect is from the flour.