The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Stand mixer for kneading dough

gardenmama's picture
gardenmama

Stand mixer for kneading dough

I'm currently using my bread machine to knead dough, but that's the only thing I ever use it for any more. I have a nice (circa 1940s) Kitchen Aid stand mixer: all metal construction. I think it's the professional edition since it has the ring that raises the bowl up and down, rather than the head that lifts out of the bowl.

I have several attachments for it, but none that look like the dough hooks I'm seeing for the current machines. In addition to the beater and wire whisk, I have what looks like a pastry knife. Would this work for mixing dough, or do I need to invest in a dough hook?

Once I get the correct accessory, how long do you generally knead bread with a stand mixer? How do I know when it's done?

Thanks for any advice. I'd love to get away from my dependency on the bread machine and get into making some more novel types of breads.

Patrick's picture
Patrick

Gardenmamma,
I'm surprised that there has been so little response to your question. It's a good question. The KA directions mention 2minutes but it's my understanding that most people disregard that as incorrect. I usually end up kneading for about 10minutes in my KA mixer (it's a 475w 6qt recent model). There are two ways to determine when bread is kneaded sufficiently:
1. The first is the "window test". If the dough can be stretched into a thin translucent window about 1.5" square without breaking then it passes the "window test".
2. Stick a thermometer into the dough. When the dough is kneaded sufficiently, the temperature should read at least about 77degrees and it should be in the range of about 77-81 degrees.

...use these two tests to get a better feel for how long to knead the dough. Eventually you'll also use the "feel" of the dough as a third indicator but for us newbies, this is too nebulous of a test. The two mentioned above are more reliable for beginners.

There are websites with photos of the "window test" to give you a better idea of how it looks (don't know url's right this moment). I learned about it from a video I borrowed from the library called "La Rosa's Fine art of baking bread" -a very good video.

Patrick

mrpeabody's picture
mrpeabody

I have the KA Artisan, which is somewhat weaker at kneading than the bigger Professional model. I used to use autolyse followed by a short 5 min knead. Lately, however, I've increased my knead time to around 7-8 min and have seen great improvements. Also, with really slack doughs, I have to increase the speed of the mixer to between 3-4 (yes, higher than recommended in the instructions). The slack doughs climb over the collar of the kneading hook at the lower setting of 2.

Mr. Peabody

mrpeabody's picture
mrpeabody

Very early on, I kneaded much longer in my KA mixer. But soon after I started trying to bake bread, I learned of the autolyse method and turning the dough. These steps really dramatically reduced the amount of kneading that is necessary (and therefore really reduces the chances of overkneading/oxidation). If you haven't tried the autolyse method and/or turning, I really recommend it.

Mr. Peabody

Patrick's picture
Patrick

Just wanted to add that I think the kneading time is probably related to batch size also but I haven't thoroughly tested this. This might explain why some say a short Kneading time is sufficient while most say 8-10 minutes is more like it. I've noticed that the motion of the dough is different when the ball of dough is smaller. When the ball of dough is larger, it seems that the action of the hook on the dough is much more intense so one would expect the kneading time to be shorter in this case as each stroke/revloution of the hook is doing much more work on the ball.