Hi!
We are a very new micro bakery and have recently purchased a spiral mixer to help ease the load of hand mixing a lot of pretty low hydration dough.
However, we've found a particular issue since moving over from hand mixing, which is that near the end of bulk (5/6 hours after mixing) the top of the dough has dried out to the touch and the bottom seems to have "leaked" water. the dough is kept in covered plastic tubs and never dried out when handmixed. We would previously handmix/knead for 25-30 mins in batches.
We have tried various lengths of mix in the mixer from 12 to 25 (currently mixing to 25 mins). It does, however, make the dough very hot. Even a couple of hours after mixing we're getting dough temps of 30-34C.
Are we overmixing or doing something else wildly wrong? Any help would be massively appreciated!
A quick scan through Hamelman's Bread shows mixing times with a spiral mixer in the 5-7 minute range for most of the formulae.
From your description, it sounds as though the extended mix times cause some degree of gluten damage which, in turn, allows water to migrate out of the dough matrix.
Paul
Many thanks Paul, will try a much shorter mix and see how things progress!