The magic of baking bread at home lies in its simplicity. It is worth the effort to knead by hand when the aroma and taste of fresh bread waft through the house. Despite this, there are times when you just aren’t in the mood to knead by hand, because you’re tired, lazy or busy. In such situations, a stand mixer proves to be your best friend. It eliminates the need for kneading by hand and reduces clean-up time as well.
The purpose of this blog is to explain how long it takes to mix bread dough in a stand mixer. So, Keep reading.
How long to mix bread dough in stand mixer
It depends on your recipe and how much time should be spent mixing or kneading, though if you don’t have a time recommendation, knead the dough at speed 2 for about 2-3 minutes or using your hands, knead the dough until it pulls away from the container bowl. Be careful not to over-knead the dough. Also, you don’t need to worry if there are some flour bits left on the edge.
- Step 1: Get your mixer ready: You should use the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer when your dough is ready to be kneaded. Take the bowl and place the dough inside it.
- Step 2: Kneading the dough- Your mixer should be set to a low speed. It should take three minutes for the dough to be kneaded. If necessary, repeat until the dough sticks to the dough hook and cleans the bowl’s sides. Make the dough smooth by kneading it for another 3-4 minutes. It will feel smooth and elastic when your dough has been kneaded enough
The good news is that you still can make a good quality of bread without a stand mixer if you do not own one. It doesn’t matter which method you use, as long as you do it correctly, both methods are simple. For successful hand kneading, it’s important to employ a regular, soft motion which helps to stretch and rub the dough.
Time for kneading different kinds of flour
There will be a difference in kneading time depending on what flour is used and other ingredients in the recipe.
All-Purpose/Plain Flour-Everything from cookies to bread is baked with this flour. Protein and gluten content play an important role in absorbing liquid and creating the right structure. In other words, the bread dough will mix quickly and easily if the contents are proper. When using a mixer, the mixing and kneading process can take between 7 and 10 minutes.
Bread Flour-This flour contains a higher percentage of protein since it is made from hard wheat. Gluten activity creates a chewy texture when bread flour is combined with yeast. Using bread flour makes mixing and kneading dough easier in a stand mixer. The stand mixer takes 4-5 minutes to dough the bread depending on the brand.
Wheat Flour – Whole wheat flour is made by milling wheat grains. This increases the density and thickness of the dough and makes kneading more difficult. A larger amount of liquid can also be absorbed by this flour. Therefore, the whole wheat dough needs to be kneaded for a longer period of time, around 13-15 minutes.
Thus, having no bread machine shouldn’t limit your creativity. The stand mixer can be used to consistently bake bread as long as it is kept on low and is given a break from time to time. For many years, I used simply a stand mixer to bake bread, and it turned out just fine. Equipment should never stand in the way of what you want to accomplish! Most of the time, a workaround can be found. So let’s get to work with the stand mixer!
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