Dry dough in mixer?

[Julio]

Hello,

I recently got my stand mixer when i make dough for bread or pizza my dough at the end is kinda hard and little pieces of dough all over the mixing bowl. Am i over kneading or am i putting in the flour too fast when the recipe says to add flower to the mixing bowl?

[bakechef]

Sounds like too much flour.

Make sure that you are measuring the flour properly, fluff up the four and scoop into the measuring cup and level it off, never pack it in there.

You know that you have enough flour when the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and just the very bottom of the dough sticks to the bottom. If your dough is flopping around in the bowl and breaking apart, you have too much flour.

Kind of like this.

[Julio]

I use a plastic 2 1/2 measuring cup. The recipe that i have done so far calls for 7 cups or flower for bread and 3 1/2 of flower for pizza dough. I use all purpose flower already sift.

What do you mean by fluff the flower?

[bakechef]

What I mean by "fluffing" is to stir the flour, this will make sure that the flour hasn't settled and compacted too much. Then you can spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off getting an accurate measurement. This video will show you how.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKWACOrFYKU

[Julio]

Thank you bakechef,

That's what i was doing wrong. I was packing the flour into the measuring cup. :( I thought that sift meant something like fluffy but i see now it is 2 different things.

[bakechef]

Sifting does fluff up the flour, but when you pack it into a cup that fluffiness goes away!

Glad I could help.

Weighing flour is the most accurate way, but here in the united states, most recipes' ingredients are measured buy the cup, and if it isn't measured properly can cause inconsistent results.

[Julio]

I was looking into getting a scale but now i have a more of a reason to getting it sooner.

Thanks again bakechef,

[jasonr]

Unfortunately, there is no consistency between recipes when it comes to measure flour by volume. Some recipes expect you to spoon into the cups, others expect you to scoop.

Volume measurement sucks.

For a one-time investment of about $20 - $50 you can buy a little digital scale that will last for years, guarantees perfect accuracy, and is ten times faster than messing around the spoons and measuring cups.

Once you switch, you'll wonder how you ever did it differently.

[bakechef]

Agree about the scale, it has changed my life, LOL!

Even though I was always very careful measuring by volume, I get much more consistent results when measuring by weight.

[Michael in FtW]

If you are using the recipes in your KA Artisan manual, and unless it is different from my manual, it should give you flour listed as a range - 6-7 cups for example. So, it may only take 6+ cups and not a full 7. Start with the lower amount and add more if necessary to get the right dough consistency. And, in addition to how you measure making a difference the brand of flour will also make a difference.