I've been baking bread, mixing by hand never with a mixer or bread machine,
and I'd like to take it to the next step.

I've been looking at mixers and there are so many and too much advertising
material for each.

Anyone have a source or suggestion on a good mixer, in the $400 price
range, that can handle heavy doughs without burning up?

Also, been thinking about milling my own flours. What's the best way to get
started in that endeavor?

Thanks,
Todd

"tfiedler" > wrote in message
.102...
> I've been baking bread, mixing by hand never with a mixer or bread
> machine,
> and I'd like to take it to the next step.
>
> I've been looking at mixers and there are so many and too much advertising
> material for each.
>
> Anyone have a source or suggestion on a good mixer, in the $400 price
> range, that can handle heavy doughs without burning up?
>
> Also, been thinking about milling my own flours. What's the best way to
> get
> started in that endeavor?
>
> Thanks,
> Todd

Try posting this on alt.bread.recipes

Barbara > wrote in
news:2didg.6095$oa3.1329@trnddc08:

>> Todd
>
> I have a Kitchen Aid 6qt mixer and it works great. I've mixed double
> batches of whole wheat bread dough without a problem!
>

Barb

What model do you have?

Thanks,
Todd

On 5/26/06, tfiedler > wrote:
>
> Barbara > wrote in
> news:2didg.6095$oa3.1329@trnddc08:
>
> >> Todd
> >
> > I have a Kitchen Aid 6qt mixer and it works great. I've mixed double
> > batches of whole wheat bread dough without a problem!
> >
>
> What model do you have?


Another important question would be, "what's a double batch, in cups of
flour?" KA measures the "flour power" of their mixers in cups of flour, and
asks that you use only half that when you use whole wheat. So, depending on
the mixer and the recipe, the double batch could be less than the maximum
recommended by KA.

If you don't use the same recipe, you could seriously overload the mixer and
wonder why it stopped running shortly after all the smoke came out of the
mixer (that was an intentional, and hopefully amusing, exaggeration).

Mike

Mike Avery wrote:
> On 5/26/06, tfiedler >> wrote:
>
> Barbara >> wrote in
> news:2didg.6095$oa3.1329@trnddc08:
>
> >> Todd
> >
> > I have a Kitchen Aid 6qt mixer and it works great. I've mixed double
> > batches of whole wheat bread dough without a problem!
> >
>
> What model do you have?
>
>
> Another important question would be, "what's a double batch, in cups of
> flour?" KA measures the "flour power" of their mixers in cups of flour,
> and asks that you use only half that when you use whole wheat. So,
> depending on the mixer and the recipe, the double batch could be less
> than the maximum recommended by KA.
>
> If you don't use the same recipe, you could seriously overload the mixer
> and wonder why it stopped running shortly after all the smoke came out
> of the mixer (that was an intentional, and hopefully amusing,
> exaggeration).
>
> Mike
>
>
I have the Professional 600 Series 6 qt. I made a "double batch" of
dough requiring 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups whole wheat. The KA
came with a recipe booklet and a recipe for Whole Grain Wheat Bread
calls for 5-6 cups whole wheat flour, which makes 2 loaves. The booklet
DOES say not to add more than the maximum amount of flour specified but
gives the reason as "a dry loaf will result". Under "Bread Making Tips"
it says to "NEVER use recipes calling for more than 12 cups all-purpose
flour or 8 cups whole wheat flour when making dough with a 6-quart mixer."

The 6 qt. bowl is very large and doesn't work well for small batches of
things like whipping less than 6 egg whites for example (KA hand mixer's
job) but handles everything else (big batches of oatmeal raisin cookies,
brownies, cake mixes, etc) with ease.

HTH

Barbara

Barbara wrote on 27 May 2006 in rec.food.baking

> Mike Avery wrote:
> > On 5/26/06, tfiedler
> > >> wrote:
> >
> > Barbara >>
> > wrote in news:2didg.6095$oa3.1329@trnddc08:
> >
> > >> Todd
> > >
> > > I have a Kitchen Aid 6qt mixer and it works great. I've mixed
> > > double batches of whole wheat bread dough without a problem!
> > >
> >
> > What model do you have?
> >
> >
> > Another important question would be, "what's a double batch, in cups
> > of flour?" KA measures the "flour power" of their mixers in cups of
> > flour, and asks that you use only half that when you use whole
> > wheat. So, depending on the mixer and the recipe, the double batch
> > could be less than the maximum recommended by KA.
> >
> > If you don't use the same recipe, you could seriously overload the
> > mixer and wonder why it stopped running shortly after all the smoke
> > came out of the mixer (that was an intentional, and hopefully
> > amusing, exaggeration).
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> I have the Professional 600 Series 6 qt. I made a "double batch" of
> dough requiring 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups whole wheat. The KA
> came with a recipe booklet and a recipe for Whole Grain Wheat Bread
> calls for 5-6 cups whole wheat flour, which makes 2 loaves. The
> booklet DOES say not to add more than the maximum amount of flour
> specified but gives the reason as "a dry loaf will result". Under
> "Bread Making Tips" it says to "NEVER use recipes calling for more
> than 12 cups all-purpose flour or 8 cups whole wheat flour when making
> dough with a 6-quart mixer."
>
> The 6 qt. bowl is very large and doesn't work well for small batches
> of things like whipping less than 6 egg whites for example (KA hand
> mixer's job) but handles everything else (big batches of oatmeal
> raisin cookies, brownies, cake mixes, etc) with ease.
>
> HTH
>
> Barbara
>

I think it is all relative...When "Mom" made bread it was 10-12 loaves at
a time in a large aluminum bowl...by hand...To her making a double batch
would involve getting out the extremely large bowl (AKA as the washtub)
and making 20-24 loaves. I think batch is a poor measurement describer.

--
-Alan

On Wed, 24 May 2006 09:13:12 +0000, tfiedler wrote:

> Anyone have a source or suggestion on a good mixer,

I use a Magic Mill and a Bosh.. Magic Mill is pretty amazing to the point
of being entertaining to watch.

On 5/27/06, Barbara > wrote:
>
>
> I have the Professional 600 Series 6 qt. I made a "double batch" of
> dough requiring 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups whole wheat.


If the double batch requires 3 cups of bread flour and 3 cups of whole
wheat, that is a rather small double batch. Different recipes, and
different people, set the size for a double batch at different points. Like
"hot" in "hot sauce", there aren't any hard and fast rules here which is why
I asked about the size of your double batch - I was concerned other people
would double their batch size without doing the math.

A quick look at the KA web page,
http://www.kitchenaid.com/catalog/ca...categoryId=310 shows that the
Pro 600 6qt mixer has a "flour power" of 14 cups. However, when using all
or part whole grain flour, they suggest de-rating that to 1/2 of the full
size. So, with the recipe you mentioned, the limit would be 7 cups of flour
in the Pro 600 6qt model. In short, the recipe is pretty close to the edge
of what the Pro 600 can handle, and would be beyond what many of their
mixers can safely handle on a regular basis.


The KA came with a recipe booklet and a recipe for Whole Grain Wheat Bread
> calls for 5-6 cups whole wheat flour, which makes 2 loaves. The booklet
> DOES say not to add more than the maximum amount of flour specified but
> gives the reason as "a dry loaf will result".


There are two separate issues here. Many recipes tell you to add flour and
knead until the dough is silky smooth and feels like a baby's bottom. If
the dough isn't dry enough, it will climb up the dough hook in a KA. You
can deal with that using a chopstick to push the dough down, or by adding
flour. If you add too much flour, the loaf will be dry and crumbly. In
fact, you are better off, for most breads, with a much wetter dough and
dealing with the dough climbing issue in ways that don't involve adding more
flour. As Beatrice Ojakangas says in her "Great Whole Grain Breads" book,
"dough would rather be a bit too wet than a bit too dry".

The other issue is not exceeding the rated capacity of the mixer. If you
get a Hobart mixer's manual, they specify the capacity of the mixer by
weight, and it changes based on what you are mixing. You can beat a lot of
egg whites, mix a lot of cake batter, make less wet bread dough, and much
less pizza, bagel or challah dough. The thickness of the dough, often
measured by it's hydration, gives you an indication of how hard the mixer
will have to work to mix the dough. And, even with a commercial mixer, the
limits that are well below the maximum volume of the mixer because dough is
harder to mix than egg whites.

KitchenAid seems to have decided that their typical customer can't cope with
the density of the dough charts, so they simplify and say, "The flour power
of this mixer is 14 cups". It's probably a reasonable simplification for
most of their customers.



Under "Bread Making Tips" it says to "NEVER use recipes calling for more
> than 12 cups all-purpose flour or 8 cups whole wheat flour when making dough
> with a 6-quart mixer."


That's pretty much what I said. They may have changed that over the years,
the current web page says 14 cups of all purpose flour for this model.

The manual also warns you not to make more than two batches back to back,
and to let the mixer cool for 45 minutes after the second batch.

Mike