August 15, 2014 - 5:31am
Does Bread Dough Need Less Liquid When Mixed In A Stand Mixer
My new stand mixer, a Kenwood Chef, arrived last week and I’ve been experimenting with it since then but I’m having a few problems with making bread in it and hopefully someone can help.
The problem I’m experiencing is that my dough remains very sticky and certainly doesn’t come together as it would when worked by hand. I have to revert to the slap and fold to get some sort of shape into it. I’ve been using the Richard Bertinet method of slap and fold.
When making a basic white loaf my recipe would be
4g Easy Bake Yeast
500g Strong White Flour
8g Salt and
340g water (I weigh all my ingredients)
So my question is this. When using a stand mixer for the likes of dough should the amount of liquid be decreased, if so roughly by how much?
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I mix alternatively in my stand mixer or by hand, and there is no difference per se. It depends on the way you mix or knead whether more water can be absorbed or not.
Therefore, we need to know how you mixed your dough in the stand mixer.
Karin
I mix dough with a kenwood chef at home on a regular basis - As Karin (Hanseata) says, there is no real difference between machine and hand kneading at home for a basic loaf, but I do recall experiencing similar happenings when I first started baking bread myself .
Bertinet (Like many folks on this site) likes fairly high hydration dough.
Bertinet's basic White Dough in his book "Dough" is;
10g Fresh Yeast (Pretty similar to your 4g Easy Bake Yeast)
500g Strong White Flour
10g Salt (Slightly more than your 8g) and
350g water (You use slightly less, at 340g)
He advises mixing on speed 1 for 2 minutes and then at speed 2 for a further 6-7 minutes.
If you follow Bertinet's guidance (Even with your slight modifications) you should get a good result, the extra salt helps as it likes water - If you do not get a good result then try mixing for just a little while (Max 60 seconds) longer.
If that doesn't work - Reduce the water content to (Say) 325g and I am sure your dough will be much easier to handle. The more experienced you become the more water (As if by magic) you will be able to incorporate into your dough.
Happy baking.
Brian
I have a Kennwood Chef premier and I have no problem with mixing my formula in there.
I use the dough hook and I add the dry ingredients first and slowly add the warm water.
I always mix on low speed * setting 1 * for about 7 minutes , sometimes a bit longer.
First few minutes, up to 5 minutes the dough still stcks to the bottom of the mixing bowl and then as if by Magic it comes together.
When I use a higher speed it feels as though the dough does not come together.
I must admit I love to knead / french kneading by hand , it is fun and feels good:)
Thanks for the replies. When I worked the dough by hand I followed Bertinet's way and put all the water in at once and then started to work the dough. So that is probably my fault. I'll try my standard recipe but add the water more gradually.
As always thanks for your replies.
Kevin
I use a KitchenAid mixeer for my bread which is often "Bertie" bread using his excellent recipe or make a Biga from the BBA. I find both recipes make the dough too sticky.
So have rediced the amount to:
If it says 320g water - I put in 285
If it says 7 ounces (200g) I put in 185g
and good resultas are obtained
AmI doing the right thing?
Chris
Start by kneading just the flour and water for 4 minutes.
Allow to rest and hydrolyze (autolysis) for 30 minutes. Cover mixing bowl with tea towel to reduce water loss through evaporation.
Knead for 4 minutes. Observe the dough - note that tearing of the dough is much reduced - its ability to stretch is much enhanced.
Rest for 10 minutes.
Add yeast and salt - continue mixing for 4-6 minutes. Finished dough should be satiny, a bit sticky but not stick to the bowl.
Hand spritz with a small amount of flour in the mixing bowl and scrape off dough hook and clean up the sides of the bowl. Loosen dough into a ball. Grasp dough and perform several "aerial" stretch and folds prior to placing it into the bulk fermenting container coated with a little PAM spray coating.
Wild-Yeast