KA Artisan MIxer Problem

Hi Don - don't be disappointed.   Just get out the KitchenAid manual that came with your mixer and look for the section on "beater to bowl clearance." 

Here's a direct link to the KitchenAid instructions.

Sometimes things get out of wack during shipping.

I use a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook to mix breads, and I also use either the whisk or the paddle attachment to combine dry ingredients before I mix the dough.

I get better results if I start by stirring spoonfuls of the flour mix into the water by hand -- not by adding liquids to the flour. I stir in flour until it makes a kind of thick slurry, like a wet plaster. Then I attach the bowl to the mixer, attach the paddle and carefully add flour by spoonfuls. When the mixture starts thickening, more like cement texture, I switch to the dough hook, and keep adding flour, but less heaping spoonfuls and less frequently as the dough develops. It's sometimes necessary to stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure that all of the ingredients are mixed into the dough. Once the dough forms into a ball I stop adding. If there is some flour left it can be used to flour the board during shaping or stretches, but only sparingly. 

Using this technique helps the mixer to pull the flour it needs from the bottom and sides into the dough on its own. It also helps to keep the mixer from throwing flour all over the room or splashing water out the sides of the bowl.

I use the hook only and slowly add the liquid.Looks like there are several ways,try them until you find one you like!I have found,as you did,that dumping the liquid in all at one and then starting the mixer gives the result you described.The reverse is a little better,but not really much.

I do love my KA though!