Gary Olson - Mukwonage WI Kevin Addesso - Muskego WI Brian Armstrong - Madison WI Wayne Krachtt - Cudahy WI Richard Heimbruch - Waunakee WI Michael Sutkay - Marshall WI
A fermented or yeast leavened dough is continuously fed to a plurality of nozzles and extruded and twisted into a plurality of continuous twisted dough ropes without substantially increasing the density of the dough. The dough is fed to the nozzles by an extruder or pump which supplies the dough at a substantially constant pressure without substantial surging of the dough. Each nozzle may produce a plurality of dough ropes which are twisted together to form a continuous twisted dough rope. By avoiding a substantial increase in dough density during extrusion and twisting, a hard, glassy texture in the baked product is avoided and a crispy, non-vitreous texture is achieved. The dough twisting apparatus includes a manifold having a plurality of dough passageways and extruder pipes which extend from the downstream ends of the dough passageways. A rotary die cup is mounted on each of the stationary extruder pipes. Each die cup contains one or more die orifices.