
Opinions on how best to incorporate a machine mixer into sourdough process?
Hello,
I am thinking about increasing my output of loaves per week for my fledgling micro-bakery. I did 8 loaves the other night, and it was pretty difficult to do it all by hand-- particularly the initial mix. I've done a good deal of searching through old TFL posts for answers to the below-- I apologize in advance if I've missed a crucial one!
Note that I'm not looking for advice on particular mixers per se (although if you feel compelled to offer great advice in this regard, by all means, go for it :)
1) I know you can definitely do the entire process by hand. This TFL user, Mike Avery, posted about doing 200(!) loaves in one night entirely by hand for a farmer's market. That said, if I wanted to do a larger quantity (say, 30-50 loaves in one go) with at least a little help from a mixer, how do you recommend going about it? Initial mix by machine only? Initial mix + final mix to passed windowpane test? Something else?
2) I watched this video from Proof Bread with great interest. He mixes to what appears to me to be just about a windowpane, maybe a little short of that (although he doesn't pull a pane in the video, the dough is starting to pull away from the side of the mixing bowl). Or perhaps that's wrong, and the dough isn't close to passing a windowpane test? Is what's shown in the video how dough looks simply when it's been fully mixed properly in a mixer? Then he portions the dough for BF. He does 3 sets of S&F's. There was another fragment of a TFL post about mixers that also mentioned a similar process (mix to quite a bit of dough strength, and then do 3 sets of S&F's). It surprises me that the mixer is used to build so much dough strength and then the dough is also given several S&F's. When I'm doing this all by hand, I'm only doing 2 more sets of S&F's during the BF but still getting good results. Is what's shown in that video a fairly common approach to using a mixer in the artisanal sourdough process?
3) Lastly, and this is a little outside the scope of this post, but for anyone who watched the Proof Bread video... I was amazed by how 'jiggly' his dough looks as he's portioning it for BF. When my dough gets to that state, I usually think it's about time to end BF and pre-shape! Just curious if anyone else had a similar reaction, or not.
Thanks very much for any and all insights.
Long but great.
I’m about to sit down to dinner but I make 12 loaves every weekend and I use a KitchenAid Pro Line mixer. Have a peek at some of the recipes in my blog to get an idea of how I proceed. I’ll give you more details on how I manage the batches later.
That I do that might help you.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask. Im just a home baker that bakes for friends and donates the money to a local soup kitchen.
I've made several of your recipes following this method, and they've all turned out great. When I can't think of something new to bake, I often look at your blog for inspiration. After purchasing my Bosch mixer, and didn't have a clue how to use it, following the above was very helpful.
Richard
This is very helpful. When do you consider the dough to be "done" with the initial mix? I guess it probably depends on the particular dough, but are there tell-tale signs you've noticed? Since it needs several more coil folds, I assume it's well short of being windowpane-ready when it's done in the mixer (right before bulk ferment starts)?
Have you ever experimented with doing the final retard in the same buckets you bulk ferment in, and then portioning/shaping/baking in quick succession the next day? I ask because the space required to do a final retard with the loaves already shaped and in covered bannetons is obviously quite a bit greater than just retarding big buckets of dough!
Do you mean for the autolyse? I wait till there are no dry spots and the dough pulls together in a ball. I tend to keep the hydration low for the autolyse since gluten seems to develop better for me than with a looser dough. I will add water later if needed.
I’m typing on my phone and I’m being too lazy to go back and fix it.
those resources! Thanks. Yes, I was referring to the decision about when to end the ~ 10 minute mixing portion of your process. I've never combined mechanical strengthening with manual folds before; that'll be an interesting learning curve, I'm sure.
I'm really going to study the bulk retard concept. In theory it seems like you could put a pretty big bucket of dough into the fridge after it's nearly done with bulk ferment (maybe... 80-90% of the way done?), and then take it out the next day to portion/shape/final proof/bake. Or maybe even just take a portion out ~ 12 hours later, than another portion out ~ 24 hours later... and even a 3rd portion out 1.5 days later?! Hmm.
in the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day series. That’s basically what they do but use yeast for the most part. I believe that some of their newer books mention sourdough. Here are what the books look like so you know what to look for.
as I’m mixing my dough today