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Video evidence that the Electrolux Assistant (Ankarsrum variant) is gentle

texasbakerdad's picture
texasbakerdad

Video evidence that the Electrolux Assistant (Ankarsrum variant) is gentle

There was a some discussion about whether or not a mixer is safe to use with high hydration 100% whole wheat dough. I'd like to offer my video as evidence in support of the Ankarsrum being gentle enough.

Recipe: 374g whole red winter wheat, 19g cracked wheat, 393g water, 2g yeast, 7g salt.

The entire recipe was loosely mixed and retarded in the fridge for 12 hours before mixing in the Ankarsrum. Prior to putting it in the Ankarsrum the dough had almost no gluten development. Using the plastic spindle, I gently mixed the dough on slow to medium slow for about 30 to 45 minutes. I was careful to not let the dough twist into a pretzel and break the gluten matrix.

The video is me hand folding the dough about an hour after mixing in the Ankarsrum.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vujYcjE8h7CLpLWes73hD-3rukLlUi2R

Side Note: I came to an understanding of how the Ankarsrum worked that was different than I had previously thought. See, previously, I thought the Ankarsrum kneaded the dough by smushing the dough against the wall of the bowl. Consequently, I thought that if there was no smushing going on, there was not kneading going on. But... there is another more gentle way to knead the dough in the Ankarsum with the plastic spindle. Even though the spindle is free spinning, the spindle's rotational velocity is always slightly less than the rotational velocity of the bowl. The difference in rotational velocities between the spindle and the bowl results in a very gentle kneading of the dough, even when the dough is not touching the side of the bowl.

texasbakerdad's picture
texasbakerdad

I had no idea...

From "Open Crumb Mastery" by Trevor J Wilson

"The thing with mixing dough, especially when using mechanical mixers, is that it incorporates air into the dough. To an extent, this is a good thing -- oxygen chemically strengthens gluten. But when too much air is incorporated into the dough, this causes oxidative damage -- a bleaching effect.

The oxidation of the flour pigments not only robs the flour of color (turning creamy yellowish dough into porcelain white) it robs them of flavor. By including an autolyse before mixing, we can reduce the amount of mix time required to bring our dough to full development."

He later says this is really only a problem when you using mechanical mixers. Over the past few days I made 6 ugly 100% whole wheat doughs... 3 of them were mixed with Electrolux Assistant and 3 were not. All had very similar ingredients, but, the 3 mixed by hand definitely had more flavor.

Anyone else have a similar experience?