The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Cuisinart 7 Qt Mixer RPM

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

Cuisinart 7 Qt Mixer RPM

In case anyone wants to know, I measured the RPM of the mixer at each of its settings.  Turns out that each number represents a change of 15 RPM:

 

Speed

RPM

1/Fold

40

2

55

3

70

4

85

5

100

6

115

7

130

8

145

9

160

10

175

11

190

12

205

jcking's picture
jcking

That's my mixer I can use this info. Just curious how did you figure it out? Timing light or something similar?

Thanks ~ Jim

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

I bought a laser tachometer just to measure this thing. Only $14, so not a huge investement and buying a new gadget is never a waste. ;-)  Cuisinart never responded to the inquiry I sent a few weeks ago.  Now I need to go find something else to measure.

jcking's picture
jcking

Customer Service just ain't what it used to be. I'll put on my thinking cap and see if I can come up with another use for the tach and send you a PM if I do.

Jim

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

BTW, based on a question I got in another forum, I need to point out that I was measuring the planetary, not the spindle.  The spindle is hard to measure because if I put the reflective tape on something that rotates with the spindle, due to the orbiting of the planetary, the tape appears in a location where the laser isn't pointing.

However, just eyeballing it, if I put the reflective tape on the paddle, it seems to appear twice for every rotation of the planetary.  Since they rotate in opposite directions, I conclude that the spindle is the same RPM as the planetary, just the opposite direction. 

jcking's picture
jcking

Refering to Hamelman; 2nd mix is 900 to 1000 revolutions. So that would equate to 9 ~ 10 mins at kneading speed of 5. That seems to be about twice the time I presently use. What times/speeds are you using?

Jim

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

I don't have a lot of experience with this mixer yet.  On my previous KA, I ended up doing the baguette dough on speed 4 for 7 minutes.  Still less than Hammelman's 900 rotations, but I added in an extra fold to compensate.  Once I upped the mixing time, my baguettes improved dramatically.  Their proofing tolerance increased and my cuts started opening beautifully.  It was a revelation to me.

This mixer doesn't handle well the small batch size that I use for my baguettes, so I'm a bit displeased with it.

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

what you don't need right away ? You would also save on electricity by  baking two or three loaves at the same time. The refresh after freezing is just a few minutes at a lower heat setting - imho :)

anna

 

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

You're absolutely right Anna.  The main reason I haven't been doing that is I've been experimenting.  I've done probably 100 loaves in the past few months trying to nail down the technique.  Having an inventory in the freezer would have slowed me down, not to mention slowing down my baking process.  With the steaming method I use, I can only bake one baguette at a time, so I'd have to be retarding the others.  Once I achieve perfection, I will probably do as you suggest.

AnnaInNC's picture
AnnaInNC

days until perfection is achieved  ;)

 

tgrayson's picture
tgrayson

And the 7-10 minute range is about what other books say for mixing baguette dough, e.g., Bread Bible and Amy's Bread.  They're probably assuming a planetary mixer, compared with the spiral mixer that Hammelman assumes.  For a long time, my abhorrence at the thought of the oxidation occuring at these larger mix times let me to underminx my dough; going through the RPM calculations, though, helped me be more relaxed about this issue.

jcking's picture
jcking

I also have the fear of dreaded "oxidation". I'm gonna start adding a minute and see what happens.