Dough sheeter

A large machine used in professional kitchens that quickly produces evenly rolled dough sheets. It operates on the same principle as a hand-cranked pasta machine—that is, the dough is passed repeatedly between two rollers that are set closer and closer together as the dough becomes thinner. The rollers on the dough sheeter are in the center of the machine, and wide loops of canvas (like two conveyer belts) extend out on both the left and the right sides on top of flat surfaces. The canvas on the left side moves clockwise and the canvas on the right side moves counter-clockwise, so that each side moves toward the rollers. The dough is placed on the canvas on one side of the rollers. When the machine is turned on, the canvas moves the dough up to the rollers, where it passes through and is deposited on the sheet of canvas on the opposite side. This operation is repeated until the dough reaches the desired thickness. In addition to being much faster than rolling dough by hand, the machine can produce extremely thin sheets of dough that are completely uniform in thickness, which cannot be done by hand. Some dough sheeters require the user to stop and start the machine with each pass of the dough and to adjust the distance between the rollers as needed. More elaborate and expensive machines are fully automatic; the dough passes through the rollers, which move back and forth from one side to the other automatically until a preset thickness is reached.