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Fellow bakers of the forum; do you use a stand mixer and does it mean you make a loaf more frequently? I have the desire (and some cash squirreled away) for one, but I'm even more undecided than usual about whether it's just an expensive dust gathering device to add to the kitchen.
For reference, kitchenaid from the refurb shop on eBay is my plan, as I borrowed a cheaper option from a friend recently and it smelled distinctly like a future house fire when kneading sourdough!
Kenwood mixer of ebay, can also be overhauled easily enough. I use one for bread and pizza dough.
Yeah worthwhile investment for sure. It’s pizza dough for me once a week. Not much of a breadist but have dabbled. Pizza doughs a breeze with it.
Refurb kitchen aid sounds sensible.
Or if you’re a bit brave, buy a broken one (kenwood kmix in my case) and fix it, parts are available.
You're only ever meant to use the lowest setting for kneading bread otherwise the motor might start smelling a bit dodgy. I don't knead much bread any more, there are plenty of recipes that don't require kneading, they just take a little longer.
You’re only ever meant to use the lowest setting for kneading bread otherwise the motor might start smelling a bit dodgy.
..and you risk over kneading the dough. I think Kenwood say don't go over 2.5 on the dial
I use a Kenwood sometimes but these days am just as happy doing it by hand. It takes 10 mins in either case
If you're feeling flush an Ankarsrum mixer could be a good alternative. If you can lay hands on a reasonable quality Chef 901 there's an upgrade motor available to 1kW power with pulse function.
I use a mix and rest technique with our Kenwood XL. 2 Minutes kneading, 5 minutes resting, for 6 minutes total kneading time. As recommended by a cheffy type in a bread baking book I was given for Christmas one year.
Dough hook on my twenty year old Kenwood Chef works fine. Speed setting 2 is plenty.
You’re only ever meant to use the lowest setting for kneading bread otherwise the motor might start smelling a bit dodgy.
The lowest setting seemed to be a couple of clicks in, I suspect it was a knackered switch, but it genuinely wouldn't run any slower.
As for other comments, I'm starting to think the benefits it brings will be minimal.
Got a Kenwood MultiOne which promises to be all things to all men/women/chefs. In reality most of the things it does can be done better by a dedicated (cheaper) thing. Used it a bit for bread through COVID but in reality that's because I was being a lazy bastard rather than it being any good.
We have a Kenwood chef but normally mix bread (sourdough) by hand. The chef does get used for Challah dough and pizza when we haven't had time to max a sourdough pizza mix.
I do use my stand mixer for bread but I find it a hassle for anything else and much prefer my hand electric mixer for cakes and meringue etc. It's a pretty big gadget to have just to knead bread occasionally!
We have one, a Kenwood IIRC, my wife uses it a lot. But really you can just mix it together with a wooden spoon and if you're OK with a slightly wet dough it seems to be fine.
I keep telling myself I'm going to use it to make home made noodles, but I found we have a local chinese supermarket that sells fresh noodles for next to nothing, which are incredible and probably very hard to beat.
Danish dough whisk to do the mixing then knead by hand - much better than a wooden spoon
Kenwood chef, use it for bread every week plus cakes, meringues, rubbing in the butter when making crumble or scones. If you bake a lot it will be useful.
My wife is a real breadhead and is very very happy with the kitchenaid I bought her. Got ours from Harts of Stur and it was really good price plus free gift which was very good set of scales and a push button salad spinner! Random but whatever
I just a mixer as it just means I can get the dough done in just a few minutes without much mess (I let the dough prove in the mixing bowl).
I spent what a new KitchenAid mixer would cost on a used Hobart N50.
Hobart are the commercial side of KitchenAid and the N50 looks like a KA but on steroids!
They weigh about 20kg and all the gears are metal unlike KA which now uses plastic gears.
Obvs it will knead dough all day every day without breaking a sweat... More than can be said for many other mixers.
As a result it will outlast me AND whichever of my daughters gets it when I am no longer around.
As an aside I paid about £200 for mine about 8 years ago.... They now sell for £500 used!
I also have my mum's 70's Kenwood which will literally fall apart if I try mixing dough with it again ( I did try once before getting the Hobart..... It wasn't pretty).
Oh and a new N50 is in the region of £4-5000!!
I have a kenwood Kmix and use it almost every week. For kneading bread I only have it on Speed 1. Also for great for the other baked products such as brownies. I think it's great and my other half doesn't regret buying it for me as a present as it most definitely used.
I also looked at Hobart and Ankarsrum but we couldn't find one for a good price
Got to be honest, i can’t see the point given that kneading only takes 8 mins by hand
This is my thinking too, it's not actually likely to convince me to spend the time on baking a loaf.
For reference I've been using the no knead approach, so periodic stretch and turns on a wet sourdough, but there are rare occasions I have 3-4 hours where I remember to do it throughout. That, or I'm doing sourdough for pizzas, when I hand knead (15 minutes according to the ooni recipe though). All sourdough as my wife has an intolerance to dried/commercial yeast.
<p style="text-align: left;">Thanks for all the input, not sure I'll opt for the catering grade Hobart thanks!</p>