A new Stand Mixer?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, andiesenji said:

Have you adjusted the height of the beater?  When I first got the 6-quart KA  there was too much space between the bottom of the bowl and the end of the dough  hook - didn't matter so much with the "flat" beater  but it did with the dough hook and small batches.  INSTRUCTIONS: For bowl-lift models, remove the flat beater and bowl. Lay the mixer down backwards on a towel so it doesn’t slip. Locate the screw right where the top and body of the mixer meet. Again, take only quarter turns at a time – right for increasing contact, left for creating more space. Perform the dime test and re-adjust as needed. Watch this video for bowl-lift models.

 

Yes, thanks, I had adjusted the height.  For French lean dough in a KitchenAid, Modernist Bread says the minimum batch amount should be 1 1/2 kg but even that much doesn't get grabbed well by the hook.

 

[chromedome]

Do you start with the hook immediately? Or begin with the paddle, and switch to the hook?

I've had some doughs that didn't play nicely with the hook until/unless the paddle was brought into play. (...a PITA to clean two implements, of course, but there it is...)

[AlaMoi]

my experience has been much more simple.

when the dough doesn't clear the bowl with the dough hook, it's too wet.

gets back to the elasticity / pane test / etc.

pretty good indicator, actually.

 

one adds flour just a heaping tablespoon at a time - WAIT for the incorporation.  it takes 4-5 minutes to incorporate and hydrate the added flour.  meaning . . . adding too much in haste is not a good thing.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, chromedome said:

Do you start with the hook immediately? Or begin with the paddle, and switch to the hook?

I've had some doughs that didn't play nicely with the hook until/unless the paddle was brought into play. (...a PITA to clean two implements, of course, but there it is...)

 

With a kg of dough in the KitchenAid, I start off with the paddle.  Otherwise I'd get nowhere fast.

 

In contrast with the Ankarsrum I start with the dough hook to incorporate the ingredients, then after autolysis I switch to the roller/scraper to kneed the dough.  Works perfectly, which I can't say of the KitchenAid.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, AlaMoi said:

my experience has been much more simple.

when the dough doesn't clear the bowl with the dough hook, it's too wet.

gets back to the elasticity / pane test / etc.

pretty good indicator, actually.

 

one adds flour just a heaping tablespoon at a time - WAIT for the incorporation.  it takes 4-5 minutes to incorporate and hydrate the added flour.  meaning . . . adding too much in haste is not a good thing.

 

I am of a different school.  King Arthur is consistent.  If my dough is too wet it means someone didn't measure properly.  My hydration is 68%.  Even the KitchenAid KSMC7QDH dough hook won't grab a kg of this dough.  But I don't feel too bad.  Apparently a kg of dough didn't work for @nathanm either.

 

 

[paulraphael]

So interesting. I've had many annoying bread handling problems, but not this one. 

 

My bread's a bit higher hydration than yours. I do autolyse by mixing halft the flour flour and the water with a spatula. Once it's hydrated, I can add the rest of the flour and the starter, and the dough hook mostly brings it together. I'll have to stop and scrape down the sides once or twice in the first minute or so.

[dtremit]

@andiesenji @curls and @JoNorvelleWalker — I'm curious if any of you used your Ankarsrums to make things like cookies and cakes in addition to breads?

 

These days I have a secondhand Bosch that I use for bread (and am happy with for that purpose) but the central shaft design makes it awkward for things like whipping egg whites. And I've heard a lot of people saying that the cookie paddles on the Bosch tend to break if you try to mix up a stiff cookie dough.

The KitchenAid I killed making whole wheat sourdough is (hopefully) a new snap ring away from working again (I replaced the cracked transmission housing but I think I damaged the snap ring in the process). But if it doesn't end up working as desired after the repair, I'm hesitant to buy another — and it'd be nice to have one mixer for all stand mixer use cases.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, dtremit said:

@andiesenji @curls and @JoNorvelleWalker — I'm curious if any of you used your Ankarsrums to make things like cookies and cakes in addition to breads?

 

These days I have a secondhand Bosch that I use for bread (and am happy with for that purpose) but the central shaft design makes it awkward for things like whipping egg whites. And I've heard a lot of people saying that the cookie paddles on the Bosch tend to break if you try to mix up a stiff cookie dough.

The KitchenAid I killed making whole wheat sourdough is (hopefully) a new snap ring away from working again (I replaced the cracked transmission housing but I think I damaged the snap ring in the process). But if it doesn't end up working as desired after the repair, I'm hesitant to buy another — and it'd be nice to have one mixer for all stand mixer use cases.

 

The Ankarsrum comes with a separate bowl with a central shaft for whipping egg whites and mixing certain cookies.  Egg whites whip OK, perhaps better than the KitchenAid.  I've not tried a cake but cookies were a pain when mixed in the bowl with the central shaft.  I think cookies might be more fun using the standard stainless steel bowl.  If I were to want a cake I'd grab the KitchenAid.  Not because the Ankarsrum couldn't do as well.  But with the KitchenAid there is no learning curve.

 

However ask yourself about attachments.  I have several KitchenAid attachments and I'd be sad not to have a mixer to use them on.  Indeed, in my kitchen the KitchenAid is used mainly for the attachments.  I have only one Ankarsrum attachment, the flocker, but I use it frequently.  Ankarsrum has a range of optional attachments but in general they seem more expensive than attachments for the KitchenAid.

 

[weinoo]

I'm pretty glad I started (mostly) buying bread, and the Kitchen Aid (older lift bowl model, 5 quart) does for me a fine job making cookies, banana bread, and not much more.  I also have a number of attachments, but they see very little use. Yet it has a place of pride on my counter, and will see some more use as the weather changes.  

 

[curls]

On 9/19/2020 at 9:31 PM, dtremit said:

@andiesenji @curls and @JoNorvelleWalker — I'm curious if any of you used your Ankarsrums to make things like cookies and cakes in addition to breads?

 

These days I have a secondhand Bosch that I use for bread (and am happy with for that purpose) but the central shaft design makes it awkward for things like whipping egg whites. And I've heard a lot of people saying that the cookie paddles on the Bosch tend to break if you try to mix up a stiff cookie dough.

The KitchenAid I killed making whole wheat sourdough is (hopefully) a new snap ring away from working again (I replaced the cracked transmission housing but I think I damaged the snap ring in the process). But if it doesn't end up working as desired after the repair, I'm hesitant to buy another — and it'd be nice to have one mixer for all stand mixer use cases.

 

I have used my Ankarsrum mixer to make double batches of chocolate chip cookie dough using the stainless steel bowl with roller and scraper. Works great! Suspect it would work great with single batches up to quadruple batches of dough. Since I also have a KitchenAid, I tend to use it when doing standard recipes. If I only had an Ankarsrum, I would use it for everything baking related (bread, cookies, cakes, egg whites, marshmallows, nougat, etc.).

 

Before making my chocolate chip cookies I watched this video from Ankarsrum USA (https://youtu.be/0yPLbE5FjP4

 

 

 

 

Here are links to some of the other helpful Ankarsrum videos:

Bread Beckers Ankarsrum (Electrolux/Magic Mill/Verona) Mixer Demonstration https://youtu.be/zMB4CVG5fLs

Collection of Ankarsrum USA videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiJ0OkURk4tD7cPgLVh3Ng/videos

Recipes to make using your Ankarsrum mixer from Ankarsrum Assistent https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxB_n3shKBmpoNdERgAa9Xh1uZ15oAsdc

Collection of Ankarsrum videos from Ankarsrum Assistent https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL38C789F0854F6573

 

If there is a particular recipe that you would like to have me test in the Ankarsrum mixer, let me know. Currently I have a bit more time for baking and if it is a recipe that my colleagues might enjoy, I can share the extras with the office.

 

 

[pastameshugana]

On 9/15/2020 at 8:00 AM, andiesenji said:

 

 

This is a thing of beauty.

[paulraphael]

On 9/19/2020 at 9:31 PM, dtremit said:

@andiesenji @curls and @JoNorvelleWalker — I'm curious if any of you used your Ankarsrums to make things like cookies and cakes in addition to breads?

 

These days I have a secondhand Bosch that I use for bread (and am happy with for that purpose) but the central shaft design makes it awkward for things like whipping egg whites. And I've heard a lot of people saying that the cookie paddles on the Bosch tend to break if you try to mix up a stiff cookie dough.

The KitchenAid I killed making whole wheat sourdough is (hopefully) a new snap ring away from working again (I replaced the cracked transmission housing but I think I damaged the snap ring in the process). But if it doesn't end up working as desired after the repair, I'm hesitant to buy another — and it'd be nice to have one mixer for all stand mixer use cases.

 

Don't give up on it! Almost all the repairs it might need are quite inexpensive, and you'll be able to make it better than new. It can sometimes be tricky figuring out what the problem is. I broke the same pair of gears 3 times before figuring out the real problem—during the first repair, I bent the gear housing while reattaching it. Once I replaced it again, with less of a ham-fist, the thing worked perfectly.

[dtremit]

On 9/21/2020 at 12:23 PM, paulraphael said:

 

Don't give up on it! Almost all the repairs it might need are quite inexpensive, and you'll be able to make it better than new. It can sometimes be tricky figuring out what the problem is. I broke the same pair of gears 3 times before figuring out the real problem—during the first repair, I bent the gear housing while reattaching it. Once I replaced it again, with less of a ham-fist, the thing worked perfectly.

 

Yeah, I need to build up the courage and get back in there. I replaced all the grease last time, so at least this time I can hopefully just swap out the snap ring and be done with it! Though I should probably replace the grease on the lower planetary for good measure.

[jimb0]

On 9/21/2020 at 11:59 AM, pastameshugana said:

 

This is a thing of beauty.

I thought the same thing. 
 

I have an awesome 6-qt bowl lift KA that I bought refurbished for about $150 usd shipped, like 12 years ago. It’s finally stopped working, and I’m pretty sure something, somewhere has shorn. Taking it apart should be fun. 

 

On the subject of dough making, I never really have a problem regardless of quantity. I do take the hook in hand and do a rough mix first before engaging the mixer. Alex and aki at ideas in food are firmly convinced that the paddle does a better job of kneading dough than the hook, though I'm not entirely convinced either way.  I have to imagine the paddle is a bit harder on the motor for doughs of mass, though. 

[paulraphael]

On 9/24/2020 at 10:03 PM, jimb0 said:

I thought the same thing. 
 

I have an awesome 6-qt bowl lift KA that I bought refurbished for about $150 usd shipped, like 12 years ago. It’s finally stopped working, and I’m pretty sure something, somewhere has shorn. Taking it apart should be fun. 

 

On the subject of dough making, I never really have a problem regardless of quantity. I do take the hook in hand and do a rough mix first before engaging the mixer. Alex and aki at ideas in food are firmly convinced that the paddle does a better job of kneading dough than the hook, though I'm not entirely convinced either way.  I have to imagine the paddle is a bit harder on the motor for doughs of mass, though. 

 

I've used a paddle on VERY high-hydration doughs, like when doing an autolyse stage, or in the earliest mixing before the gluten gets going. But as soon as the dough gets thick you absolutely risk overheating the motor breaking gears. You also risk overworking the dough, which basically means ripping the gluten strands apart and killing the dough's strength. 

[weinoo]

What the hell kind of mixer is he using in this video?

 

 

[dtremit]

@weinoolooks like this one:

 

https://www.santos.fr/en/products/food-preparation/restauration-et-collectivites/petrin-melangeur/18/

 

what an odd duck!

[Toliver]

6 hours ago, weinoo said:

What the hell kind of mixer is he using in this video?

 

 

Regarding the video, whoever edited it left out the money shot...slicing the baguette open to reveal the crumb.

Or slathering a slice with some nice French butter or brie.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 hours ago, dtremit said:

@weinoolooks like this one:

 

https://www.santos.fr/en/products/food-preparation/restauration-et-collectivites/petrin-melangeur/18/

 

what an odd duck!

 

Comes in a US version.

 

[Anna N]

2 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Comes in a US version.

 

Look away! It weighs 45 pounds packaged.