November 21, 2013 - 8:46am
KA K45SS and Dough Climb; spiral? Don't want to add Pam, H20, etc.
Hi all -
I recently bought a used KA K45SS. Making several loaves a week, between yeasted pre-ferments, white levain, and rye sourdough - a study, really, of Jeffrey Hamelman's wonderful book (I have Daniel Leader's Local Breads and checked Peter Reinhardt's texts out from the library. I really enjoy P. Hamelman's book). The machine is doing great. The only struggle I'm having is with dough climb.
Sorry if I missed the thread - but does anyone know if the "standard" spiral hook as seen on Amazon or sold at BBB will fit this particular machine? I'd rather go to the spiral hook, then rely on spraying the hook and "barrier shelf" or whatever it's called, with Pam; or spraying down with water, etc.
Many thanks, any and all.
-Paul
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What I did was find the models of Kitchen-aid mixer that were recommended for or came with a spiral dough hook.
Now lookup the part number of the replacement standard mixing paddle or replacement wire whisks for each of those models.
Now lookup the part number of the replacement standard mixing paddle or replacement wire whisks for your mixer.
If those numbers match, then the spiral dough hook will fit your mixer. That's what I did. (The spiral dough hook has several part numbers/models, check out each one.)
The spiral dough hook works so well, I would be tempted to take a hacksaw and file to the end of it, if it had not fit my machine, but it did. With a dime-thickness clearance for the standard mixing paddle, my spiral dough hook has about 1/3 to 1/2 inch clearance at the tip, from the bowl bottom. It kneads 500gm and 1000gm of flour perfectly.
Here's a thread with my experience:
Replaced Kitchen Aid "J" dough hook with spiral dough hook
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35583/replaced-kitchen-aid-j-dough-hook-spiral-dough-hook
Kitchen-aid does warn the spiral dough hook can put extra strain on you mixer if it wasn't designed for it. It creates a vertical force on the gears instead of a rotational/sideways force. I just restrict my mixer to 1 loaf (about 2 lbs) of dough at a time. Haven't had a problem with my mixer. It doesn't even get warm when kneading dough, like it use to with the "J" dough hook.
I have an old K5SS Kitchenaid mixer that I retrofitted with the spiral dough hook for the KA six quart models. It definitely puts a greater load on the motor than a “C” type hook. As far as excess vertical force on the gears when using a spiral hook, there seems to be little evidence for it. When the hook pushes down on the dough (and up on the shaft), it slides up and encounters the retention spring. With further rotation, the hook drops back to its normal position. By riding up and down the shaft in this manner, a “clicking” sound is produced.
I also have a 4.5 quart KA tilt head Ultra-Power mixer. The KA spiral hook does not even come close to fitting the 4.5 quart bowl.
If the K45SS mixer still has its original dough hook, it should be replaced with a K45DH hook. The original hook was much narrower, and may be contributing to “dough climb”.
I just measured the Spiral Dough Hook (part #KNS256BDH) on my two Kitchen-aid mixers:
I have a K45SS 4.5 qt Classic Kitchen-aid and a KitchenAid PRO 500 Series 5-Quart Mixer KSM500PS.
The Kitchen Aid Spiral Dough Hook, Burnished, part #KNS256BDH, does not fit the K45SS. The Spiral Dough Hook is 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches too long. The Spiral Dough Hook rests in the bottom of the bowl and the tilt head is still about 1 1/2 inches from latching. The spiral dough hook does connect to the K45SS mixer perfectly, it would work if its tip was about 2 inches shorter.
The Kitchen Aid Spiral Dough Hook, Burnished, part #KNS256BDH, fits the KSM500PS perfectly with 1/3 to 1/2 inch bowl clearance.
I'm listing both mixers for info in case anyone else has one of the two models.
Antilope, thank you very much! Unfortunately, I've got the 4.5 qt and I think I'm out of luck.
I also realized, just now, a bonehead error is likely the culprit. I like to work in metric and was just using P. Hamelman's pro amounts, at 10%; latest recipe, for instance, uses 1 kg of flour total. KA says not to load more than 8 cups flour in this model, and, a rough estimate using King Arthur's vol. to weight conversion puts me at about 8.3 cups flour. I never had this issue using Daniel Leader's recipes, so was dumbfounded, till now. Headsmack, I think I'm simply overloading the machine, lol. I'll go to about 0.075 of Hamelman's recipes, and suspect that will do it. I'll post back here, just as an FYI in case anyone else is dealing with this.
Thank you again!
-Paul
Sorry, Bob, just saw your post. Thanks. This mixer actually didn't come with a dough hook, so I just bought one off of e-bay that advertised as a replacement hook for the K45. Looking at it, and comparing it with the DH as advertised on Amazon - it's hard to tell, but at least my eyes tell me I might have the narrower one you're talking about. I'll get the DH, many thanks!