Arek Niski wrote:
> "Mike Avery" > wrote in message
> news:mailman.10.1198457179.87773.rec.food.sourdoug ...
>
>
>
>> So, with whole grain flours, you are looking at 7 cups of flour. Call it
>> 840 grams of flour, or around 1,400 grams of dough. And after 2 back to
>> back batches, you are supposed to let the mixer cool.
>>
>
> I used to mix 1200 g of whole wheat and rye flour in one batch using
> KA Pro 600. However I was never able to finish the dough before the
> mixer shut down due to overheating.
>
There are a lot of factors there. KitchenAid rates their mixers by
"Flour Power" which is how many cups of flour you can mix in the mixer.
FLOUR, not dough. A big difference. However, the measure is
essentially meaningless for two reasons. First. what's a cup? A cup of
flour varies from under 100 to over 200 grams of flour depending on who
is filling it. Most flour companies tell you a cup of flour should
weigh about 120 grams. To get there, you need to sift the flour to
eliminate any settling in the flour bag, then spoon the flour into a
cup, and then use a straight edge to scrape off the excess flour. Many
people feel this is more trouble than they want to deal with, so they
just scoop flour out of the sack and have cups of flour that weigh
around 200 grams. An thus overload their mixers without intending to.

Next, there IS a difference based on the sort of dough you are making,
and the flour power rating doesn't take this into consideration.
Kitchen Aid does warn you that if you use whole grain flours you need to
reduce the maximum load by half. But that is still a bit too
simplistic. If you look at the manual for a commercial mixer you'll
find a load limit chart. The load limits vary based on how hard it is
to mix the ingredients. You can beat as many egg whites as you can fit
into the mixer. Same with cake batter. And light batter like doughs,
such as ciabatta, poolish, and 100% hydration sourdough starter feeds.
As you move into whole grain doughs, the load limits drop, as it does
when you make low hydration doughs such as pizza dough or bagels. How
much difference? With 70% or so hydration white breads, my old 30 quart
Hobart was rated at around 25 pounds of dough. With 55% hydration pizza
or bagel dough, we were looking at something around 10 to 12 pounds.
(It's been a while, I no longer have the manual or the mixer.... so this
is from memory. The details may be off, but the trend is correct.)

So, your 1200 grams of mixed whole wheat and rye flour is about 12
cups. The Pro 600 is rated at 14 cups, or around 1,680 grams, of WHITE
flour. It is rated at 7 cups, or around 840 grams, of whole wheat or
rye flour. So, your 1,200 gram batch is about half again the load your
mixer is rated for. If you overload the mixer, you can't blame the
mixer for failing. Whether or not the mixer is able to meet your needs
is another question. My Subaru wagon is a nice car. It gets me where I
want to do, and back again. It runs well, and is very fuel efficient.
It is comfortable, and has a decent sound system. And the price was
pretty good. Now, if I need to carry 12 people it is the wrong
vehicle. It has seats for 5.

On the Bosch front, I had one and sold it on eBay. I bought it from a
friend who hated it. She knew many people love the mixer, but she was
never able to really work up any affection for the machine. It
overworked the dough and heated it up too much. It's beaters are far
too fragile. I played with a friend's Electrolux DLX and bought one. I
strongly prefer the Electrolux. Another friend bought a Bosch, despite
my recommendations. After a day she asked me to sell it on eBay.

I hope your experiences with the Bosch are better than mine.

Best wishes,
Mike

--
Mike Avery mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com
part time baker ICQ 16241692
networking guru AIM, yahoo and skype mavery81230
wordsmith

Once seen on road signs all over the United States:
A silky cheek
Shaved smooth
And clean
Is not obtained
With a mowing machine
Burma-Shave

On Dec 26, 7:54 am, Mike Avery > wrote:

>
> There are a lot of factors there. KitchenAid rates their mixers by
> "Flour Power" which is how many cups of flour you can mix in the mixer.
> FLOUR, not dough.


Newby here...
Used to sell Kitchenaid appliances between years of 1975 and 1978.
Purchased a Kitchenaid K-45 a few years later before it was sold to
Whirlpool. Nice workhorse, never a burp...but she's getting old.
Purchased a Pro 600... It died the first time I tried dough. Hubbie
put it back together. It's pretty. And nothing more than an expensive
paper weight I use for lighter batters. Luckily I never gave my older
machine away.

Two weeks ago I bought a DLX.
Am thinking of trading away the attachments for the Kitchenaid for the
same ones for the DLX, thats how disappointed I am in the current line
of Kitchenaids.
It's a bloody shame the way they have gone.
Just got Killbuck and Iditarod starters in the mail...
whoohooo
smokin'...

peg