Dough cutting and stamping apparatus and method

A method of simultaneously shaping, cutting and stamping a dough sheet into a plurality of uniformly stamped dough pieces, said method comprising:

• conveying a dough sheet, having opposing first and second surfaces, along a dough travel path;
• rotating a drum provided in the dough travel path and concurrently rotating a sleeve, which is secured to the drum, supports a plurality of cutter molds and includes a convex bottom establishing an internal cavity of each of the plurality of cutter molds, wherein the plurality of cutter molds are provided with peripheral cutting edge portions with each respective cutting edge portion including front and rear portions having curvatures which are identical to each other and concave in shape, while opposing side portions of each respective cutting edge portion have curvatures which are identical to each other, different from the curvatures of the front and rear portions, and convex in shape and provided with pattern imprinters in the internal cavities thereof, receive dough in the internal cavities of the cutter molds while the cutting edge portions engage the dough, severing the dough sheet into a plurality of dough pieces with rounded edges by causing a concave-shaped front end portion of each cutter mold to initially engage the dough sheet, followed by convex-shaped opposing side wall portions of each cutter mold, and then a concave-shaped rear end portion of each cutter mold during rotation of the drum, with the pattern imprinters simultaneously penetrating at least partially through the dough to imprint a pattern on each of said dough pieces;
• and
• causing the dough pieces to be released from the internal cavities.