Various examples are related to making flatbreads such as, e.g., a compact machine for making flatbread in a residential kitchen-type environment or other countertop, tabletop, or space limited applications. In one example, a machine includes a hopper including a mixing chamber configured for bulk addition of raw materials for preparation of flatbread pieces; a mixing assembly configured to blend the raw materials into a flatbread dough mixture; a dough piecing assembly configured to generate a dough piece from an extruded portion of the flatbread dough mixture; a lower platen configured to transfer the pressed flatbread dough piece to a cooking zone on the dough contacting surface for cooking; and a flatbread ejection station configured to remove a cooked flatbread piece from the machine. A second cooking zone can be included to further cook the pressed flatbread dough piece prior to ejection from the machine.

A portable tortilla press assembly for molding a food product into a flat disk with a removable, reversible molding plate that is inserted between a base and a push plate. The tortilla press assembly operates via lever, with a roller along the body of the lever. The lever attaches via a hinge, opposite to and elevated above another hinge connecting to the push plate. When the lever is in the downward position, the roller pushes down on the plates with a rolling motion, smoothly forming a uniform, even tortilla. The molding plate has two sides defining two different forming surfaces, each sized to mold a different-sized tortilla.

A dough-stretching machine, which is particularly adapted to stretch pizza dough, includes a frame associated with which are a support plane for the mass of dough to be stretched; a dough-stretching unit arranged at the top and coaxially to the support plane according to the defined vertical axis of the frame; movement apparatus for moving the support plane towards/away from the dough-stretching unit. The dough-stretching unit includes a modelling body configured to come into contact with the mass of dough; a plate in which a plurality of radial grooves are identified, each of which slidably houses a modelling element for the mass of dough; kinematic apparatus adapted to move the modelling elements along the radial grooves towards the vertical axis or away from the axis itself. The kinematic apparatus comprising a threaded shaft having one end operatively connected to motorisation and the opposite end rotatably associated with the plate; a central core provided with a nut fixed on the threaded shaft; a plurality of rods each having one end hinged to one of the modelling elements and the opposite end hinged to the central core.

A device for forming pizza bases includes at least one supporting surface on which a predefined quantity of dough can be accommodated; the surface is surmounted by a respective supporting frame for a pusher designed to flatten the quantity of dough and to spread it. The pusher has a presser plate to which vertices of at least two contiguous radial laminas are hinged. Between the frame and the pusher, there are interposed at least one central actuator, configured for a vertical translation of the central body between a first configuration of maximum distance from the supporting surface and a second configuration of minimum distance from it, and at least two external actuators, configured for the vertical translation of the outer edge of a respective lamina between a first arrangement of maximum distance from the supporting surface and a second arrangement of minimum distance from it.

A device for spreading a runny batter on a hotplate for manufacturing pancakes or crêpes, including a rotary shaft intended to be disposed almost perpendicular with respect to the cooking face of the hotplate, a plate fixed to said rotary shaft, said plate carrying a spreading and raking means, and at least one abutment designed to bear, run or slide on the heating face of the hotplate. The spreading and raking includes at least one rake, the working free edge of which is rectilinear, making it possible to spread a portion of batter previously deposited on the heating face of said hotplate and rake the thickness of batter as long as it remains liquid so as to redeposit a layer of material upstream in order to layer the batter and fill in the holes, reproducing the action of a person skilled in the art of making pancakes or crêpes.

A stamping device serves to create one or more rows of endless dough rings. The stamping device has a stamping head with a stamping punch or a plurality of stamping punches, wherein each stamping punch is associated with a dough ring row. A dough piece support of the stamping device has a dough piece holder or a plurality of dough piece holders. Each dough piece holder of the dough piece support is associated with one of the stamping punches. An opening for the associated stamping punch is configured in a dough piece holder or in each of the dough piece holders as a die. A stamping device results in which the stamping of dough rings in particular to produce doughnuts can also be used, for example, for baking by hand.

A food production system creating folded par-baked units (e.g. mini tacos) for frying, including a sheeter for continuously creating a succession of substantially flat raw dough units and an oven having a plurality of hanging conveyors (e.g. chains). The hanging conveyors are narrow so that the raw dough units raw fold down on either side thereof to form folded dough units. The oven includes a first plurality of cross-burners to pre-heat the hanging conveyor for transferring shape-setting heat directly from the hanging conveyor to the folded dough units. The oven further includes a second plurality of substantially longitudinal shape-setting burners that are substantially in parallel with and adjacent to the top dough carrying side of the hanging conveyor for providing further shape-setting heat to the folded dough units. The oven discharges par-baked units ready for frying.

A dough-stretching machine, which is particularly adapted to stretch pizza dough, includes a frame associated with which are a support plane for the mass of dough to be stretched; a dough-stretching unit arranged at the top and coaxially to the support plane according to the defined vertical axis of the frame; movement apparatus for moving the support plane towards/away from the dough-stretching unit. The dough-stretching unit includes a modelling body configured to come into contact with the mass of dough; a plate in which a plurality of radial grooves are identified, each of which slidably houses a modelling element for the mass of dough; kinematic apparatus adapted to move the modelling elements along the radial grooves towards the vertical axis or away from the axis itself. The kinematic apparatus comprising a threaded shaft having one end operatively connected to motorisation and the opposite end rotatably associated with the plate; a central core provided with a nut fixed on the threaded shaft; a plurality of rods each having one end hinged to one of the modelling elements and the opposite end hinged to the central core.

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a stuffed crust pizza on a continuous high speed basis. The invention can form and deposit a cheese rope in either an ellipse or circular shape, onto a moving sheet of dough with multiple lanes using a waterwheel flow divider. An encoder is mounted to the conveyor feeding the dough to the apparatus. This provides both position information and speed of the dough to a motion controller to guide the movement of the nozzles. A stamping device initially presses an indentation of the cheese shape into the dough sheet and provides a natural resting location for the cheese to be deposited. A set of two nozzles per lane is utilized to form the cross sectional shape of the cheese. Each nozzle forms one half of the total shape of the cheese and the flow to each nozzle is controlled by a waterwheel flow divider.

A domestic baking device for baking a food product, in particular a flat bread, from a dough portion initially held in a portion capsule (2), the domestic baking device comprising a baking apparatus for baking the dough portion and a capsule-emptying apparatus (7) for removing the dough portion from a portion capsule (2), the capsule-emptying apparatus (7) having at least one force application element, which can be moved along a movement path, for applying force to, in particular deforming and/or moving, the portion capsule (2), which force application element can be driven by means of an electric motor, characterized in that the capsule-emptying apparatus (7) is assigned monitoring means for monitoring the portion capsule emptying operation, the monitoring means comprising comparing means, which are designed to monitor the curve of an electrical motor signal, in particular a current or voltage signal, over the movement path of the force application element for the reaching or exceeding of a reference signal (12), which changes over the movement path of the force application element, and to perform an action if the reference signal (12) is reached or exceeded.