I wouldn't go more than 8 cups with a 250 watt motor, less for
wheat/whole wheat and rye bread doughs. The most I've done in our old
K45 is 6 cups of mixed white and wheat, and I felt bad for the mixer, it
was straining so much. (It's an old friend that's served us well, so I
hate to stress it too much.)

I'm assuming you have the model with the tip-up motor head. If so, 8
cups of flour would be pushing it's capabilities, both motor-and-
drivetrain-wise and structurally imo. For extended kneading after all
ingredients are well mixed, I would split the dough up into a couple
smaller batches.

Bob
==============================
In article >,
says...
> I have a small Kitchenaid mixer (250 watts) and have used it for preparing
> many one and two loaf bread/flour dough batches. The recipe I would like
> to try calls for 5 lbs of flour and it seem that cutting it in half would
> be the easiest way to handle the amount of dough with my small mixer.
>
> Will a mixer this small even handle 2.5 lbs of flour for bread? I am
> guessing that is about 10 cups of flour which will fit into the bowl.
> Thanks for your input.
>

I agree. We have a 250 W 4.5 qt KA. Bread dough containing about 6-8
cups of flour is about as much as I like to mix at one time. And even
then the mixer does tend to thump on the counter a little. For five
pounds of flour I'd split the batch into three parts, not just two
parts.

Best -- Terry


yetanotherBob wrote:
> I wouldn't go more than 8 cups with a 250 watt motor, less for
> wheat/whole wheat and rye bread doughs. The most I've done in our old
> K45 is 6 cups of mixed white and wheat, and I felt bad for the mixer, it
> was straining so much. (It's an old friend that's served us well, so I
> hate to stress it too much.)
>
> I'm assuming you have the model with the tip-up motor head. If so, 8
> cups of flour would be pushing it's capabilities, both motor-and-
> drivetrain-wise and structurally imo. For extended kneading after all
> ingredients are well mixed, I would split the dough up into a couple
> smaller batches.
>
> Bob
> ==============================
> In article >,
> says...
> > I have a small Kitchenaid mixer (250 watts) and have used it for preparing
> > many one and two loaf bread/flour dough batches. The recipe I would like
> > to try calls for 5 lbs of flour and it seem that cutting it in half would
> > be the easiest way to handle the amount of dough with my small mixer.
> >
> > Will a mixer this small even handle 2.5 lbs of flour for bread? I am
> > guessing that is about 10 cups of flour which will fit into the bowl.
> > Thanks for your input.

yetanotherBob said...

> I wouldn't go more than 8 cups with a 250 watt motor, less for
> wheat/whole wheat and rye bread doughs. The most I've done in our old
> K45 is 6 cups of mixed white and wheat, and I felt bad for the mixer,
it
> was straining so much. (It's an old friend that's served us well, so I
> hate to stress it too much.)


From the bread making tips section of the manual:

NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 8 cups all purpose flour
when making dough in a 4.5 qt. mixer.

NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 10 cups all purpose flour
when making dough in a 5 qt. mixer.

NEVER exceed Speed 2 when using the dough hook.

ALWAYS use the dough hook to mix and knead yeast doughs.


Andy

"Andy" <q> wrote in message ...
> yetanotherBob said...
>
>> I wouldn't go more than 8 cups with a 250 watt motor, less for
>> wheat/whole wheat and rye bread doughs. The most I've done in our old
>> K45 is 6 cups of mixed white and wheat, and I felt bad for the mixer,
> it
>> was straining so much. (It's an old friend that's served us well, so I
>> hate to stress it too much.)
>
>
> From the bread making tips section of the manual:
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 8 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 4.5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 10 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER exceed Speed 2 when using the dough hook.
>
> ALWAYS use the dough hook to mix and knead yeast doughs.
>
>
These problems come up all the time with KA mixers. They should have added
to the above list:

IF YOU MAKE BREAD use a Kenwood, Bosch or Magicmill.

Graham

"Andy" <q> wrote in message ...
> yetanotherBob said...
>
>> I wouldn't go more than 8 cups with a 250 watt motor, less for
>> wheat/whole wheat and rye bread doughs. The most I've done in our old
>> K45 is 6 cups of mixed white and wheat, and I felt bad for the mixer,
> it
>> was straining so much. (It's an old friend that's served us well, so I
>> hate to stress it too much.)
>
>
> From the bread making tips section of the manual:
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 8 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 4.5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 10 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER exceed Speed 2 when using the dough hook.
>
> ALWAYS use the dough hook to mix and knead yeast doughs.
>
>
> Andy

In addition to the above tips, be sure that you know exactly how much you
are putting in the mixer. If you scoop the cup into the bag you could be
getting a 6-7 ounce cup of flour. Generally speaking, your cup of flour
should weigh between 4-4.5 ounces. You can see that if your flour weighs
considerably more, the alloted water for the recipe will not be enough and
the dough will be very dry. Kneading dry dough is very hard on the machine.
Janet

Hey - you read the manual - no fair, man! (I'm not even sure we could
find ours anymore...)

All good points, though.

But, contrary to what the manual says, you actually CAN run the thing
above speed 2 with the dough hook installed, on those special occasions
where you want to dust everything in the kitchen with a fine layer of
flour.

Bob
========================
In article >, Andy <q> says...

>
> From the bread making tips section of the manual:
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 8 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 4.5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER use moe than 6 cups whole wheat flower or 10 cups all purpose flour
> when making dough in a 5 qt. mixer.
>
> NEVER exceed Speed 2 when using the dough hook.
>
> ALWAYS use the dough hook to mix and knead yeast doughs.
>
>
> Andy
>

yetanotherBob said...

> Hey - you read the manual - no fair, man! (I'm not even sure we could
> find ours anymore...)


Heh heh heh.

All my small kitchen appliance manuals and warranty cards reside in the
lazy susan neatly tucked away behind the spices, measuring cups and spoons
and "stuff."

Andy