Background:  I have made over 100 loaves, mostly using the sourdough "no-knead" meathod.  Now I have a 300W Kitchen Aid mixer on loan.  I have tried the following recipe several times:  http://www.lkphd.com/baking/2010/7/8/polish-country-rye-bread.html

My problem: gluten never seems to develop to anything even remotely like a "windowpane."  Worse still, after just 2 minutes in the mixer, the dough starts to break down, and become progressively more soupy

I have attempted the following

To try to document dough development of a lean dough, I created a video of mixing some lean, 59% hydration dough in my KitchenAid 5qt mixer at speed #2 (the 2nd click). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBZFYzeK1Vo

I'm trying to get a better idea of knead times for my mixer with respect to different doughs. Hamelman in "Bread" says 6.5 - 7.5 minutes for moderate gluten development for KAid stand mixer. He recommends 900-1000 total revolutions for moderate dough development, so with some info from fthec and KAid:

#1 (stir): 40 rpm 
#2: 54 rpm 
#3: 79 rpm 
#4: 104 rpm 

 This means:

Time (minutes)	Revolutions
0	0
1	54
2	108
3	162
4	216
5	270
6	324
7	378
8	432
9	486
10	540
11	594
12	648
13	702
14	756
15	810
16	864
17	918
18	972
19	1026
20	1080

According to the stats, I may still have kneaded for too short of a time (H. also says that doughs with hydration under 60% will take longer to develop, as will doughs that have high hydration). It really started smoothing out at about 8 minutes, even more substantially at ~13 minutes. I guess next time I'll have to push it further, and see what happens. 

Last night I burned out my first stand mixer.  It was a KA Pro 6.  I was making bagle dough and it started binding up and finally just stopped moving.  I think I may have stripped out the drive arm gears as the motor is still running but nothing moves.  Has anyone had this happen and if so how much did it cost to fix.

Thanks,

Erik

Is there a difference in speed settings between home mixers? Example: instructions say "Mix on low speed (#2 if using a KitchenAid)", at least most of the books that I have mention KA. I am following instructions now which say KA, waiting between mixing and I had a "hmmmm" moment.

I have a home model Cuisinart and I use the same settings in the formula's instructions even though most say KA. I think I'm correct using same speed settings as KA but never hurts to double check.

There goes my timer, time to add the whole grains and mix again.

Thanks,

steve

Just a heads-up.  If you're in the market for a new mixer and you like the Kitchen Aid style, Costco will be having their Professional HD version on sale from November 28-30.  It's the 475 watt (5 quart) one that was discussed here a little while back and the one I'm using for the poolish in the Ciabatta Video.  It comes in 4 colors and the $50 COUPON drops the price from $279 to $229, not bad if you like that style.  There's been plenty of discussion on here about what mixers work best for which doughs, so if you're unsure if it would work for you, I'd search around here first.  Personally, I only use mine with the flat beater (paddle) attachment for batters, starters, fillings, and that sort of thing, but that's just me.
Oh, and you can get 2 mixers per coupon, plus I'm pretty sure if you don't have the coupon booklet you can pick one up at their customer service section of the store.

-Mark

A few weeks ago, inspired by Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA), I decided to make a seed culture-barm-sourdough starter.  My first attempt failed, due, I think, to my impatience rather than a true failure of the process.  My second attempt, seasoned with more patience, worked, and I am baking my first sourdough loaves today.

The BBA recipe for Basic Sourdough Bread states that you can knead the dough by hand for 12-15 minutes, or use the dough hook in your stand mixer and knead for 4 minutes, rest for 5-10, and knead an additional 4 minutes.  I have made bread off and on for about 30 years (since I was 10 years old), and I have always kneaded by hand.  Until recently, that is.  I took a French bread class, and the instructor kneaded the bread in the Kitchen Aid (KA) for the first 5-6 minutes, then finished with the "slap and roll" technique, where you take the dough by the edge in one hand, slam it on the counter for all you're worth, then use the other hand to do a jellyroll.  She said if you don't use the KA to start with, you would slap and roll about 100 times; starting with the KA, you only have to do it about 15-20 times.

I have been using this method for my French bread for a while now, with excellent results.  So I planned to use the KA for my kneading on the sourdough, as instructed in BBA.  But partway through the first 4-minute knead, something happened.  I suddenly realized that I missed kneading by hand, the old fashioned way!  So after the first knead, I put the dough to rest on the counter for a few minutes, then finished kneading by hand.  It was an almost-religious experience.  When the wild yeast started to come alive, the smell was absoulutely intoxicating.  And the time flew by.  The dough was ready to be set aside to ferment before I knew it.

It's good to get back to what I've always known and loved about bread baking.  That's not to say that I will never again opt for the convenience of the KA or the slap and roll, but when I have the time, I will always choose to knead by hand.