Bread is great to double or half or whatever. Do it all in one bowl and then after the first proofing, cut it in half with a bench knife and then proof the two loaves seperately.
This is basically what commercial bakeries do: they made big batches of dough in large industrial mixers, then divide the dough into more manageable pieces for the initial proof. Generally speaking, bread dough scales well for larger quantities which is why there are commercial bakeries pumping out thousands of loaves every morning for wholesale delivery to restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc.
There is no way any commercial bakery could make 500 individual doughs from scratch. There's no time for that.
That dough mass is then divided for individual loaves for the second proof and finally baked. Thus, you could conceivably make 10-20 baguettes if you had a big enough mixer.
The challenge for the home baker in scaling quantities up are largely equipment related. A typical household oven might be large enough to bake one or two loaves of bread. In a commercial bakery, the ovens are designed for large volume baking.
Plus, home cooks will have challenges in prep space and equipment. In a commercial baker, there would be speedracks and stacks of sheetpans for forming loaves, proofing, baking, and cooling down after baking.
My comments are completely applicable to pizzerias as well (pizza dough is basically bread dough).
No pizzeria makes the dough for an individual pizza from scratch; they don't have time for that. The dough is made in big batches in advance.
If you wanted to make pizza dough for four pizzas at home, you wouldn't make one ball of dough, then start another one. You'd make all the dough in one batch.
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There is no way any commercial bakery could make 500 individual doughs from scratch. There's no time for that.
That dough mass is then divided for individual loaves for the second proof and finally baked. Thus, you could conceivably make 10-20 baguettes if you had a big enough mixer.
The challenge for the home baker in scaling quantities up are largely equipment related. A typical household oven might be large enough to bake one or two loaves of bread. In a commercial bakery, the ovens are designed for large volume baking.
Plus, home cooks will have challenges in prep space and equipment. In a commercial baker, there would be speedracks and stacks of sheetpans for forming loaves, proofing, baking, and cooling down after baking.
No pizzeria makes the dough for an individual pizza from scratch; they don't have time for that. The dough is made in big batches in advance.
If you wanted to make pizza dough for four pizzas at home, you wouldn't make one ball of dough, then start another one. You'd make all the dough in one batch.