March 7, 2021 - 10:47am
New baker with spiral mixer
Hi everyone. I am new to bread baking and have been given a spiral mixer. I am finding that after making my dough it comes out almost fluffy in texture with tons of air worked into the dough. It meets the window test for gluten development but I wondered if there was something I am doing wrong?
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Congratulations on your new mixer. What could be better than being 'given' a spiral? The efficiency, compared to other types of mixers, takes some getting used to. Not sure how many speeds you have? In general one incorporates ingredients fully at the slow speed. It is optional to give the dough a short rest to give the flour time to absorb the water, integrate and swell. Following that, one mixes at a higher speed to develop the dough.
Whatever the mixer, it's good to learn how your flour absorbs water. Allowing time for water to be absorbed, either with an autolyse or just after incorporating, can reduce the amount of time you need to run the mixer for good dough development.
Others may be able to provide even more insight if you could share what speeds were used and for how long. The volume of dough being mixed would be good to know as well. Three minutes at a high speed can provide amazing dough development. You may need to either back off on speed, or time mixing, or allow time for water to be absorbed.
Let us know how things go for your next batch.