Dough and my Cuisinart Mixer

To catch up, I have been working with my new Cuisinart stand mixer to make easy, one-touch dough. So far, I have had trouble with loose flour not getting mixed in the bottom of the bowl, with flour building up on the side of the bowel, and the dough ball not getting completely formed. I also have some questions about the overall “quality” of the dough mixing. With my latest trials, it is better — though still not where I want it to be.

First, I added the water first. For a 1000 gram batch, it’s easy. Just decide on your hydration and weight and add the water — OK, that’s a no-brainer.

Then I added all my dry and moist ingredient. In this case whole wheat flour, rolled oats, honey, olive oil and molasses.

Here is where it got a little tricky. After a 10 minute mix on medium-low speed (5-6), there was a lot of flour build-up on the side of the bowel, and the dough had not fully shaped into a ball that full pulled away from the side of the bowel. I raised the mixer and lifted the dough ball up, and set it back down, along with the dough hook. It eventually formed a dough ball, but it wouldn’t have if I hadn’t intervened.

Flour build up on the sides.

Dough ball finally pulls away from the sides.

My bread turned out fine, of course. But I am still a little concerned about the best way of addressing this problem. Meanwhile, I am going to do some research on the Planetary motion on the KitchenAid. More to come on that.