December 12, 2008 - 3:13am
Straight or spiral hook?
Hi
I'm just getting to grips with a 20-quart Hobart (nicknamed 'Godzilla'), standard hook. I need this machine as I bake for a local market and they keep crying 'More bread, more bread!'. I'm getting variable results, with some breads not rising as much as expected and others fine. I have read the threads here and seen that people mirror my own experience re. hydration levels; that at lower hydration (say below 62%) a medium-size stand mixer can just push the dough around (and wind it up the hook).
To try to eliminate variables, I'd like to ask a simple question: for a 20-quart planetary stand mixer, is the extra investment in a spiral hook worthwhile, in folk's opinions?
Best from the UK
Steve
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the c type hook is best for soft dough such as buns and danish
the sprial is for stiff dough like hard rolls and other breads
the c hook will work but will take longer and you must be making an amount that is large enough for the hook to work small mixes less than 4 pounds of flour in a 20 quart will not mix as well because of the size of the kettle
Steve,
Glad to hear you got that Hobart you were talking about a while ago. I have both hooks for my 60 qt and only use the spiral one for everything. I found it worked well for the soft stuff like Norm says, but tore up the stiffer dough too much. So rather than switching and cleaning two hooks, I just use the one.
Also, you can find lots of after-market (non Hobart brand) spiral hooks that are quite cheap, so I think it's worth it.
Don't know if this might help, but for my 60 qt I add all of my liquid first into the bowl and it seems to make things more consistent. For the 20 qt (I only have the spiral hook for that) it doesn't matter if I add the liquid or dry first.
-Mark
Mark, and Norm
Thanks for the responses. It's great to be able to get opinions from folks who have actually used the stuff. Yes, I got Godzilla, for a little less than one-tenth of the cost of a new Hobart c200. Bought it off an eighty-year old catering kit dealer ('I come out of retirement 'cos I got bored!'). He and I got it into my tiny sports runabout ok, but when I got it back down here to Cornwall I had to borrow a hydraulic engine hoist to get it out. Works well.
A 20-quart aftermarket spiral hook runs out at the equivalent of about $120 here, so I guess well worth a try.
Steve
Steve,
When my 60 qt Hobart was delivered to my house, the driver couldn't back his truck up straight, and so ended up putting it on my (gravel) driveway about 5 feet from my 1 foot high deck. Now 5 feet in distance and 1 foot high may not seem like much, but when you have to move a 1000 pound mixer sitting on a pallet on gravel that far (plus get it inside the house) it's far. Needless to say, I ran down to my neighbors, borrowed his tractor (which of course had a flat), drove it up and started (very carefully) moving it around, shuffling it, pushing it, and all that since of course the forks on the tractor were shorter than my deck is deep. My wife gets home and sees me doing all this by myself, so of course my response is, "Hey, it's easier than getting that double-stack Blodgett oven in by myself like I did last year before my neighbor had a tractor!" And that was delivered right in the middle of an ice storm.
Got a little carried away there with the story. See Ya.
-Mark