Using mixer with high hydration sourdoughs?
Greetings folks!
I have been making high hydration sourdoughs using the FWSY method and am trying to convert this to a mixer. I am making his Overnight Country Brown and substituting a grain blend for the whole wheat. I'm making a batch that is 150% by weight of the original recipe (1500g flour + what's in the levain). I used the mixer with the paddle attachment on the flour and water for the (~4 hour) autolyse...it did fine with that amount of flour and water so figured I would try to use it to add the levain and salt next. I plan on using the paddle for this next step as well...I realize that after the autolyse there may be more strain on the motor.
I actually do enjoy making/working dough by hand but I really am curious if this will work?
Question is whether I can use the hook to knead a high hydration dough or if I should go back and do this part by hand like in the recipe (stretch and folds). I'm also curious if bakeries would usually do this by mixer or if would all have to be done by hand...I imagine that once you get up to a couple of kilos of dough that it would be extremely difficult to work by hand.
Please don't make fun of me for my mixer but in case it matters in your answer, it is a KA 8qt NSF model (metal gears, etc)...again it really rocked the large amount of flour I started with for a small mixer so I'm not so worried about it's capacity as I am the effect that kneading by machine would have on the dough vs doing stretch and folds?
Thanks!
Withhold some of the water to get a lower hydration dough, develop the gluten in the mixer and then add the rest of the water to the desired hydration.
Thanks, I'll have to give that a go the next time as I've already incorporated all the water this time during the autolyse, but what you say makes perfect sense. Right now I've been using the hook for a few minutes until I can see some progress and then giving it a thirty minute rest and doing it again...as I would've timed the stretch and folds.
Not sure how to edit my last comment but I did wind up adding a bit of flour during the salt addition so I hope I didn't get things going in the wrong direction. Again, your comment makes perfect sense, thanks!
I usually make larger batches of bread (I bake for customers), so I'm not about to slap around six or seven kilos of wet dough by hand. I have reduced the hydration of many of the breads but still find the mixer does a fine job of developing even high hydration doughs. In fact, sometimes it does a better job, and the resulting dough is stronger with more spring. Note that I have a 30 quart Univex mixer with a J-hook (not about to do 10 or 12 loaves in my KA mixer!).
I know somewhere on this site I read a post from a commercial baker about how long they mix doughs of different hydration, and at what speed. Maybe try a search on the commercial forum.
using the mixer for the stretch and fold steps. Short story is just leave the dough in the mixer bowl, then run the mixer for a few revolutions at the desired intervals. Sorry I don't remember the specifics or the exact post to point you to.
Paul
Thanks for the help folks.
Paul, that is exactly what I did and believe it worked out fairly well.
Bad move on my part was in not doing a recipe that I had done before and this one had a fairly high mix of different grains. Not only that but I did bad math in calculating the amount of levain to use (I always cut down FWSY levain because they make a bunch and then toss it--I try to make the right amount and use it). Anyway, I wound up with twice the amount of levain called for and likely over did the bulk phase a bit because of it...by the time I noticed, the dough had tripled before I could get it in the fridge for the night. I divided, rested and did about a 3 hour proof. Considering all that, the taste is good, the crumb decent but I got very little oven spring likely due to both the multi-grain and the slight over-proof.