Mixer wattage and dough quantities

[Tim W]

Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary wattage
per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?

Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not what
wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5 k of flour
at a time?

Tim w

[Barry Harmon]

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary
wattage per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not
what wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5
k of flour at a time?
Tim w

My Kitchen Aid is "rated" at "250 watts" and I have never had any problems
kneading bread. I make batches of dough in the 4 pound class a lot.
Anything much bigger doesn't fit in the bowl, so I have to do split
kneading or knead by hand. I think I might run into a problem with a large
batch if it were to be 50% hydration, but I don't make those kinds of
breads, at least not intentionally.

1.5 kg of flour at 65% would be 2.5 kg with water, which is 5.5 pounds.
This would be a stretch for my bowl, but the mixer would handle it. The
dough would climb the bowl and try to escape, but the mixer would keep
right on going.

I assume a 500watt mixer would have a very large bowl, so you should be all
right. 500 watts is about 2/3 of a horsepower, just FYI.

I wouldn't be to worried about a mixer handling the dough.

Barry

[Bertie Doe]

"Barry Harmon" < wrote in message

"Tim W" < wrote in

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary
wattage per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not
what wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5
k of flour at a time?
Tim w

My Kitchen Aid is "rated" at "250 watts" and I have never had any problems
kneading bread. I make batches of dough in the 4 pound class a lot.
Anything much bigger doesn't fit in the bowl, so I have to do split
kneading or knead by hand. I think I might run into a problem with a large
batch if it were to be 50% hydration, but I don't make those kinds of
breads, at least not intentionally.

2 days ago my 'new' Kenwood 701A arrived via eBay. Considering it's 30+
years old, it's in very good nick and the 450 watt motor handled 4lb of
dough with no problems (for pics see Sourdough 2 below).

The mixer takes the place of the dough cycle on my old breadmaker ie I allow
the mixer to amalgamate the ingredients for about 4 mins, then finish the
kneading by hand. I try to get as much air into the dough when I knead, so
agreed, a piece over 4lbs isn't going to be much fun to handle.

Bertie

[Barry Harmon]

Post by Bertie Doe
"Barry Harmon" < wrote in message

"Tim W" < wrote in

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary
wattage per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if
not what wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k
or 1.5 k of flour at a time?
Tim w

My Kitchen Aid is "rated" at "250 watts" and I have never had any
problems kneading bread. I make batches of dough in the 4 pound
class a lot. Anything much bigger doesn't fit in the bowl, so I have
to do split kneading or knead by hand. I think I might run into a
problem with a large
batch if it were to be 50% hydration, but I don't make those kinds of
breads, at least not intentionally.

2 days ago my 'new' Kenwood 701A arrived via eBay. Considering it's
30+ years old, it's in very good nick and the 450 watt motor handled
4lb of dough with no problems (for pics see Sourdough 2 below).
The mixer takes the place of the dough cycle on my old breadmaker ie I
allow the mixer to amalgamate the ingredients for about 4 mins, then
finish the kneading by hand. I try to get as much air into the dough
when I knead, so agreed, a piece over 4lbs isn't going to be much fun
to handle.
Bertie

I enjoy kneading large batches, if the hydration isn't too low or too
high. There's something about flailing away at 5 or 8 pounds of dough
while humming "The Anvil Chorus" that just makes the world seem like a
better place.

Barry

[MichaelJ]

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary wattage
per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not what
wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5 k of flour
at a time?
Tim w

Hi Tim,

There is no proportional relationship between wattage and amount of
dough mixed in household mixers. All the talk in advertising is just
hype and is meaningless. Mixer efficiency gearing, torque all play
into what kind of work horse the mixer will be. The KA 4.5 & 5 qt
mixers have been used for years and are OK for soft doughs but have
plastic gears and can't handle heavy loads or heavy use (their older
dough hooks are useless too). The Kenwoods have been real work horses
and so have the Bosch Universal machines for bread dough. Many people
love the Magic Mill mixers - I hated mine and sold it for $75 just to
get rid of it. I swear by the Bosch Universal. I've done bread dough
with 5 lb of flour (2.2 K) with no problem and have had the same
machine for over 10 years (it doesn't like small batches (6 cups of
flour).

It really is a personal choice and depends on what kind of dough you
will usually make and the quantities.

Good luck,
Michael

Stone Turtle Baking & Cooking School
173 Howitt Road
P. O. Box 760
Lyman, Maine 04002-0760
Tel: [phone]
Cell: 207-459-0567
Email: ***@stoneturtlebaking.com
http://www.stoneturtlebaking.com

"How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex." - Julia
Child

[stark]

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary wattage
per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not what
wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5 k of flour
at a time?
Tim w

My 300 watt KA groans when mixing heavy dough or dough that is
exceptionally sticky and the gears seem to whang a little. Kinda scary
but it keeps on plugging and hums with lighter, wetter doughs and
batters.

[Tim W]

Post by stark

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary
wattage per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not
what wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5
k of flour at a time?

My 300 watt KA groans when mixing heavy dough or dough that is
exceptionally sticky and the gears seem to whang a little. Kinda scary
but it keeps on plugging and hums with lighter, wetter doughs and
batters.

Thanks for all that advice. I found an old Kenwood Chef but saw that the
newer models all have bigger motors. I have begun to use it and I am
pretty unimpressed with the kneading action of the dough hook. It seems
to just form the dough into a ball and rotates it. My bread machine did a
better job.

Tim W

[graham]

Post by Tim W

Post by stark

Post by Tim W
Presuming the two are proportional. What roughly is the necessary
wattage per kilo/pound needed to knead dough?
Or to put it more simply is a 500w mixer any use for bread and if not
what wattage would I need to knead in larger quantities, say 1k or 1.5
k of flour at a time?

My 300 watt KA groans when mixing heavy dough or dough that is
exceptionally sticky and the gears seem to whang a little. Kinda scary
but it keeps on plugging and hums with lighter, wetter doughs and
batters.

Thanks for all that advice. I found an old Kenwood Chef but saw that the
newer models all have bigger motors. I have begun to use it and I am
pretty unimpressed with the kneading action of the dough hook. It seems
to just form the dough into a ball and rotates it. My bread machine did a
better job.
Tim W

The trick with this type of mixer is to add the flour to the liquids,
gradually. If you do it the other way round, it will form a ball before the
dough reaches the proper hydration.
Graham