I just got a new stand mixer – a nice, heavy 500W mixer with a 5-liter bowl.
Until now, I'd been making bread by hand and kneading it on the countertop.
So the first thing I tried was using the mixer with the kneading hook, but I find that the dough tends to get wrapped around the hook and just spins around along with it.
I guess I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure if it's my technique or my ingredients. I'm using the same bread recipes as I did before. Any ideas?
Edit:
Thanks for all the input, guys. Here's some more info:
- The mixer is a Kenwood KMix KMX-50.
- I've tried adjusting the height of the dough hook up and down, I'm not sure how far from the bowl's surface it should be. Any suggestions? I don't think
- I doubt it's a volume/quantity issue – I'm using a kilo of flour, which is around the 1.3kg bread weight limit of the spec.
- I mix at low speed.
I'll try Sobachatina's suggestion and try to add water. Let's see how it turns out. Thanks for all your suggestions!
Best Answer
I mix dough in my kitchenAide all the time, and this happens all the time, so through the process I check the consistency and dryness and I've developed a feel for the "just right formula", but being ADHD I don't go in with precise measurements each time, but that would be a good idea once perfection is found. So anywho, I take a strong spatula from time to time and cut it of the hook, to give it a nice restart with hook on outside of dough ball. but your dough needs to be dry enough that it is cleaning itself off the bowl and it will the hook too. It's designed to find that perfect balance so that it starts wet and sticky and then as the gluten starts to web it becomes self cleaning, and the kneading is drying it a little or maybe the material is absorbing the liquid, either way it goes from dry to wet. Another thing I do if the hook is wrapped in dough instead of working against the sides, I briefly turn up the speed and that will throw the dough to the sides and sometimes clean it.