What really caught us off guard: with my Kitchen Aid, we really can’t get very far when it comes to baking bread. It’s actually quite a sturdy kitchen machine, but the max dough amount for this machine is 1kg – that’s barely one loaf. But you don’t heat up an oven for just one loaf; it should be worth it, and then both the Kitchen Aid and the baker reach their performance limits. The Kitchen Aid is allowed to run for a maximum of 10 minutes at a stretch – and that’s what you need for one loaf. If you want to bake 5 or more loaves, the little one really groans. And so does the baker. That means the dough has to be prepared individually for each loaf. Quite a lot of effort. Hardly acceptable timewise.
So we looked for a dough kneading machine (DKM). At first, I was very optimistic. In times of corona-related pizzeria closures, surely a used DKM could be found! Well, yes. But not necessarily what you want. Eventually it was clear: the dough bowl should be removable so you can work with two of them and make two types of bread without much effort. That immediately ruled out most pizzeria machines. They have a fixed bowl. Then the bowl should be big enough for the dough to stay inside while rising. For 5 - 6kg of dough, you need at least a machine for 10 - 12kg of dough. Ultimately, there was only the Häussler DKM, either with capacity for 14 or 18kg of dough. The price difference wasn’t significant, so we went for the big one! The one with two bowls and also the matching cover hood, and then baking could begin!
We were very lucky to find a used machine that exactly met our requirements. These machines hold their value extremely well, so my new darling is already of age, 18 years old. But it still looks almost like new: [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200815_154655.jpg"]50696[/ATTACH]
The picture above was the machine’s debut last weekend. To test it, we brought 10kg of flour (the specified maximum amount) and kneaded it with water there. The machine ran and we came home with a full dough bowl, which actually only had 9kg of flour kneaded with water – but that was already quite a lot! Somehow, I couldn’t just throw away the lump of dough, so I made yeast dough out of it. Took a bit for fresh Sunday rolls, Czech dumplings for dinner, and the rest became sweet yeast dough. You can see the result above. Ultimately, it ended up being about 15kg of yeast dough, and I baked like crazy (in the regular oven, no time left to heat the wood oven). One tray of crumb cake and about 150 yeast rolls – then I threw in the towel and froze the rest in portions. We probably have yeast dough stocked up for the entire extended family for the next two years...
And then, of course, bread finally had to be baked with it. Such a bread baking day needs a day of preparation. Meanwhile, I’m also the proud owner of various self-cultivated sourdoughs (my husband always teases me: so, what are your pets up to?), and such sourdough bread must be prepared. So, pre-work on Monday and then big baking day yesterday! This time it was supposed to be: pumpkin crust and a rye bread with three-stage fermentation (makes it particularly digestible).
Finally, the new machine came into proper use!
It’s really a difference whether you have to make the dough individually for each loaf or simply 5kg of dough in one go! Much faster and a breeze for the machine. My poor little Kitchen Aid would have groaned and given up.
During the final proofing in the proofing basket (or, lacking a proofing basket, in various bowls): [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200818_123937.jpg"]50699[/ATTACH]
Just before loading into the oven: [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200818_130730.jpg"]50700[/ATTACH]
Finally, the oven is full! [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200818_131046.jpg"]50701[/ATTACH]
And after an hour, the breads are ready: [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200818_142355.jpg"]50702[/ATTACH] [ATTACH alt="IMG_20200713_141346.jpg"]50698[/ATTACH]
Now the oven still needs to be plastered sometime and then it will be finished.
Pizza works too, of course, but that requires higher temperatures than baking bread and leaves the embers in the oven chamber. My brother is the big pizza baker, and I will also provide pictures from our next family pizza session!