The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

How much is 4lbs of dough?

Camarie's picture
Camarie

How much is 4lbs of dough?

How much is 4lbs of dough? My Globe mixer can do 4lbs of dough. but I don't know how much that is. I don't want to overload the machine & cause the overload switch to shut off the motor.

gerryp123's picture
gerryp123

I guess you mean "how much volume" does 4lbs of dough occupy. 

Depends on the content of the dough, but my rule of thumb is 1kg (2.2 lbs) of dough will nicely fill a 6 quart Dutch Oven and bake a good sized bread.

David R's picture
David R

A quart of water weighs just over 2 pounds

8 cups of flour weighs somewhat over 2 pounds as well

 

8 cups of flour and a quart of water isn't going to make very good bread, but you see the kind of ballpark we're in at least.

Camarie's picture
Camarie

It sounds like a lot! My Nutrimill Artiste can handle up to 10lbs of dough. That is close to the amount that the Bosch Universal can handle!! Which is about 12,or 15lbs.

I may never make that much. My older version of the Ank can handle enough dough for up to 8 1-pound loaves of bread, but I'll never make that much either!! Usually, I just make enough dough for 8 to 12 rolls.

David R's picture
David R

Well... Comparing with another mixer you already have, then... At least according to the information I have here, 4 pounds is somewhere around half the size of 8 pounds. ?

All things being equal, it's better to use a mixer that's somewhere close to the size of the dough you normally work with - for example, if you normally make 5 pounds of dough, then an 8-pound capacity mixer is going to work better than a 50-pound one. All things being equal, that is - but all things aren't equal, so ...

Especially, I wonder whether size ratings for home appliances are more optimistic than for industrial ones. You can be sure that if an industrial appliance is rated for 10 pounds then they're going to load it pretty close to 10 pounds all day every day, while a home appliance may be loaded right up to its rated capacity two or three times in ten years - or perhaps never.