November 12, 2023 - 7:33am
Mixing more water in after kneading...
Hi all! Some time ago I bought Kitchenaid Artisan 6.9L and mainly for kneading bread doughs. Only later I found out this was a bad idea, since kitchenaid sucks at mixing bread dough. It does ok (nothing more) when you have low hidration dough but anthing above 60-65% it sucks terribly.
I want to know, from scientific point of view, what happens with gluten if I mix the dough with kitchenaid for example 55% hidration dough for 10 minutes and then later add more water to get to 70%? Will the gluten developed at lower hidration be enoguh for powerfull bread dough or not?
thanks for any insights and opinions.
Share
Wont hurt a bit - but if possible - try mixing with required water and a slower speed. It will take longer though. Enjoy!
Hi -
There is plenty of information noted throughout The Fresh Loaf on "Mixing more water" (Bassinage Technique).
A quick search using Bassinage as the search term should point you in the right direction or at least give you a clue or two.
Rafe
you will probably find that it slides around the bowl quite a bit trying to get that 15% added in.
For many if not most bread styles, you can get equal or better results mixing and kneading by hand, if you allow for a few rest periods. If you were to make large amounts of dough it would be different, but for typical home batches, I hardly ever use a mixer. This is for wheat-based doughs without too many inclusions, not rye or (maybe) highly enriched doughs.
Foe example, instead of machine-mixing for 15 minutes, mix by hand for 2 - 3 minutes, wait half an hour, knead or stretch for say 3 minutes, wait half an hour and stretch again for a few minutes.
Of course details depend on the recipe and the flours involved.
TomP
Not a good idea to do your initial mix at 55% hydration; your mixer will have to work hard and also the dough will be reluctant to accept extra water.
I would suggest to do your initial mix at 65-67%, do an autolyse, eg 20 mins, then add salt, mix to develop gluten, then trickle in bassinage slowly to get to your desired hydration.
Lance
I have made the mistake of not having enough water at the first mix. Realizing that more liquid was needed, I kneaded in more. But I found lumps that were hardened off from accepting more water. I had to really feel each part of the dough and flatten the lumps to get a uniform dough.