Dough – Why does KitchenAid recommend against using the Dough Hook on Speed 1

Mixing bread with a stand mixer will normally take 10-12 minutes, depending on speed. A lot of this smaller mixers will tend to 'walk' if they are not anchored. Look for the dough to be smooth and supple, but not shiny. If it is shiny, and appears wet, it is over mixed. To start, it will look choppy and rough, sometimes you will have to pull all of the dough off of the hook and start up again, because it seems the dough will gravitate to the top of the hook and that part of the dough will not mix properly. This of course depends on the dough consistency to start with. Remember that a crusty bread dough will be stiffer, and a sweet dough will be soft, and should have a spot on the bottom that doesn't clear the bowl.

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.