KitchenAid Kneading Time.

Sounds about right! Sometimes if it's not a lot of dough I start with a paddle, once it starts to ball up I change my attachment to hook and end it that way. Saves quite a few minutes.

40 minutes sounds insane.  It should be taking much less - not more than 5 minutes to bring a typical dough together + 5-10 minutes of kneading.   The standard advice is to start with the paddle - it works quite well if you don't lower it all the way down.  I started with this approach but have since discovered that I can do an even better job with thin semi-flexible spatula and water sprayer.  I simply do quick jabs along the wall to push the flour towards the center, and once the ball is sort of together spray the wall once or twice - this helps the dough grab onto it. 

I agree, it shouldn't take more than five minutes for the dough to come together, and even to develop decent gluten. I think the problem might be with making just one loaf at a time in a large mixer. If you tried three or four loaves at a time, you might find it comes together much more quickly!

Pat,

Try autolyse. It lets the enzymes in the flour do the work for you:

https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2017/09/29/using-the-autolyse-method/

Wild-Yeast

I gave up on using my kitchen aid to knead sourdoughs. I just do four sets of stretch and folds. No kneading at all and works perfectly. 

My little Bosch Compact just kneaded 6 pounds of sourdough, mid hydration, 10% rye with Tangzhong to a perfect windowpane in 15 minutes. It was slightly warm at the end. My Kitchenaid would have croaked. I love this little machine

Enriched breads will generally take 10 min of mixing on speed 4(3rd setting). 

Brioche will take 15 min plus on speed 4. 

Baguette will take 10 min, if hydration is high, on speed 4. 

Ciabatta will take 10 min plus on speed 4; that’s also using double hydration method!

“Simple sourdoughs” will take no more than 5 on speed 2. 

It is worth noting, my tilt head style that I used for 6 years, bounced around with “heavy mixing”(ie speed 4). I remedied that by placing a heavy rubber band on the locking switch. Even now, my new 8qt commercial will vibrate on speed 4. I’m a baker at a hospital and I use a 20 qt Hobart that would vibrate, if it was not bolted to a table. It’s not until one uses a 60-80qt like we have where speed 3(similar to speed 4 on kitchenaid) does not vibrate. Don’t be afraid!

I purchased a commercial KA about 6 months ago (the one with a orange power cord) and have had no problems. It brings all ingredients together in 2-4 min. and then I knead all on the "stir" setting using the dough hook.  You might need to adjust the bowl height setting, if it isn't picking up everything off the bottom in the bowl.  I had a KA Pro and they are a piece of junk.  This one seems to be working very good.  No clinking or heating problems.

Hi,

Can I use the dough hook to do all the kneading, as I have an issue with my wrists that make hand kneading impossible.

I have tried this morning and the dough seems to wrap around the hook and just spin around, is this normal or do I need to alter something?

Thanks 

Steve B