Kitchenaid Artisan 300w mixer strong enough to knead dough?

[Kenny202]

Just got my Kitchenaid and just kneaded my first batch of bread dough. Followed instructions and stuck to speed 2. Did a stellar job too. My bread dough is fairly stiff (about a kilo of mix) and I did notice the machine slowed down some when it started to mix up and stiffen. Machine didn't get hot or actually balk but as I will be using this at lest once a week to do the same thing just wondering if the machine will be up to it. Has anyone used their Kitchenaid to do heavier work like this long term without problems? Any comments / advice appreciated

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Just got my Kitchenaid and just kneaded my first batch of bread dough. Followed instructions and stuck to speed 2. Did a stellar job too. My bread dough is fairly stiff (about a kilo of mix) and I did notice the machine slowed down some when it started to mix up and stiffen. Machine didn't get hot or actually balk but as I will be using this at lest once a week to do the same thing just wondering if the machine will be up to it. Has anyone used their Kitchenaid to do heavier work like this long term without problems? Any comments / advice appreciated

No planetary mixers are not designed for heavy doughs, and little 300 watt mixers are definitely not up to a weekly a batch of mixing bread dough. You will strip out the nylon gear in about 6 months, maybe sooner.

Not only that, planetary mixers don’t actually knead dough. They just wrap the dough around the dough hook and drag it round the bowl. The bowl is stationary, so that scraping just generates heat. The heat then destroys your yeast. I’m assuming you aren’t working to desired dough temperature (DDT), so made no adjustments to your water/liquids to ensure your finished dough temperature is the correct temperature. So that dragging is just destroying your dough.

The proper mixer for bread dough is a spiral mixer. The bowl and the mixer head both rotate. This reduces friction, so reduces heat. The mixer has a center post that keeps the dough from balling up around the dough hook. The dough hook can then work through the dough as the bowl spins to move the dough.

Unfortunately a spiral mixer is expensive. American appliance companies make a couple of junky ones that no one that is serious about bread would buy. All the good home spiral mixers are manufactured by European companies: Swedish, German, and Italians. Some mixers like the Famag Grilletta are strictly dough mixers. The Haussler Alpha has attachments for mixing other things, but has a very large 9 qt capacity bowl. If you are going to make bread once a week, then you need to consider investing in a good quality spiral mixer.


how a sprial mixer works

Spiral mixers sold in the US

Best Stand Mixers: Ankarsrum, Famag, Bosch, Haussler & WonderMix brands

Best kitchen stand mixers by Ankarsrum, Famag, Bosch, WonderMix, Haussler. Lowest prices, Fast shipping, Click for details!

pleasanthillgrain.com