Parick wrote:

>The reason I was asking is that I've noticed that sometimes the mix
>reaches a point where the ball of semi-dry dough (dry on the outside,
>wet on the inside) clings to the hook and if there's lots of flour in
>the bottom of the bowl, the ball spins around so that the hook
>effectively does nothing.

That happens if the amount of liquids added is insufficient and the
dough ends firm. In addition to that if you add water slowly there
comes a point that the thorough hydration is impeded by the surrounding
flour particles that commingle with the partly hydrated portions making
it difficult for the water to seep in.

In general bakery practice if the baker reached that point, specially
if they are not experienced they mix the dough at higher speed to
force the partially hydrated dough to take in more water.That results
in the dough becoming warm due to friction and what results is a higher
dough temperature makes it tighter with poor fermentation performance ,
yeasty taste and poor bread flavor.
If it happens ,that improper hydration occurs, what should be done is
to take the dough out and chop it to small pieces sprinkle enough
cool water evenly while blending it with hand . chop it again and
repeat the cycle until you think that you had incorporated enough
liquid in that dough. Put it back in the bowl run the machine at low
speed to medium speed until its turns out into a uniformly hydrated
mass.which in the end will come out like a normal dough.

I can do it in small scale with foodprocessor nearby to do the
chopping ; or in institutional scale I use the Stephan vertical cutter
mixer to do the job. It usually ends that the dough does not need more
mixing time once it transferred] it to the planetary mixer bowl to get
it properly developed to pass the window pane test.

> Alternatively, if the flour is added to the
>liquid, it seems to be more difficult to get it to the "ball" stage....

If the amount of ingredients added to the bowl size is not enough that
the agitator cannot stir it properly it will takes so much time get
to the ball stage. The real problem with many planetary mixers is that
the dough hook is not efficient in the mixing process. This happens if
the amount of dough is too small for the dough hook to knead it
effectively . What I will do if I had the situation where the ratio of
the dough to the bowl size is not appropriate; I use the paddle
instead for mixing it properly and the dough comes out normally ..
..If supposing the paddle is not around I just run the mixer at higher
speed as the greater RPM gets the dough really worked out.

People usually don't do that( paddle change) as its not
'politically correct'; the dough hook is for dough making while the
paddle or beater is for cake mixing, but that is not absolutely true.
In fact if I make sweet dough where the dough is rather wet and
remains sticking to the bowl sides even when already developed the
paddle can do the mixing better than the dough hook.
.. In some bigger bowls of the Hobart mixer there is what is called the
sweet dough beater that looks like a paddle with some corrugation in
the sides
It performs both the scraping , pulling and slapping of the dough
resulting in good mixing performance with wet dough

...but what I'm thinking I should do is set it aside to hydrate for

>20-30 mins before adding the final bit of flour - otherwise there's a
>danger of adding too much flour at the beginning in an effort to get it
>to "ball-up" properly so the kneading can begin

That is another good procedure....which is okay if you are s using
small amounts of yeast, but does not often work if you are using an
accelerated or no time dough system where yeast quantities are higher.
Yes the dough can become hydrated in time but the bread taste often
taste yeasty and had poor texture, eating quality etc.