September 3, 2013 - 10:45pm
Help again :-)
Good morning
My clay oven takes about 24 loaves at a time, but my new dough mixer only kneads about 6 loaves (I think) (it's a 20lt mixer) at a time. How do I go about kneading enough dough so that I will have enough at the right time for the oven. Surely the batch that has been kneaded first will be better with having had more time to rise?
Thank you
Ilse
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1. Get a bigger mixer that will do it all at once. Best option if you ahve the room
2. Mix a batch at a time with your mixer and refrigerate them so that they come out on the same schedule for final proof but you would want to bulk ferment them to save space in the fridge or get a bigger fridge! - probably next best option
3. Farm out some of the mixing to a neighbor hood mixing bee like quilting.
4. Don't make so much bread all at one time if you oven will hold the heat long enough for a couple of bakes.
Can't think of anything else
Ilse,
What brand is the mixer? What is the weight of your prebaked loaves? Unless they are very large, I think you should be able to get mote than 6 loaves from a batch. Your mixer should have a stated dough capacity that could be as high as about 20 pounds ( a little over 9kg.) For my needs that would translate to 11 loaves scaled at 810 gram each. Find out what the capacity of your machine is and stay under that in your mixing.
Jeff
Thank you Jeff
On the mixer I can only find "Model nr HL11010". Can't see a brand name. It also says it is for 20lbs for wholewheat. My loaves are 940g each. So I think I will try my recipe as is, which gives 8 loaves at a time.
Ilse,
If you have a copy of Hamelman's Bread, look in there for mixing times.
Jeff
Hi Ilse,
You mixer sounds plenty big enough to me.
Would you consider making two, or more, mixes (Weighed out before you start any mixing) immediately after one another. As it takes about ten minutes to mix and probably only 5 minutes to clean and reload the mixer this should work for you as it probably takes takes not much less less than 10 minutes to scale off and shape the first batch (While the second one is finishing its bulk fermentation) anyway, after which you can scale and shape the next batch, and so on.
If all your batches are of the same bread then you could consider using water that was a degree or two cooler for the first mix - Of course if you are making batches of different breads then you would need to know their respective rates of fermentation in any case so you could mix the fastest fermenter last.
Another possibility is to load one side of your hearth with the first mix, then load the other side with the second mix. Of course after the loaves have been baking for about 15 minutes you are able to move them around without damaging them to suit the introduction of more dough.
Hope this helps - It is what I have helped do with a wood fired oven that holds 40 loaves and a mixer that mixes 8Kg at a time, in a session where we were baking in excess of 100 loaves.
Happy baking,
Brian
Thank you Brian!