The KitchenAid Attachment That Makes Homemade Bread (Almost) Effortless
Making homemade bread can be the most rewarding of culinary feats, and it makes your kitchen smell like a bakery. But baking bread can be a lot of work — especially with the muscle required for kneading the dough. Luckily, KitchenAid mixers and their dough hook attachments make the kneading process much easier. But did you know there's a particular dough attachment that saves you even more time and effort? Let us introduce you to the spiral dough hook.
While KitchenAids typically come equipped with bread dough hooks, the attachment included with the mixer is usually C-shaped. This standard dough hook kneads and develops the gluten in the dough by pushing it against the sides of the mixer. The spiral dough hook attachment works in a similar manner, but its twirled shape orients the dough while it's mixing so that it continually presses against the bottom of the mixing bowl.
Professional bakers love the spiral hook for preparing large quantities of dough, since it's said to significantly reduce kneading time. It is a powerful attachment, perhaps because its mechanism is similar to kneading by hand, where one presses their palm into the dough in a downward motion. But before obtaining a spiral dough hook to make all your pizza-baking endeavors easier, it is important to check that it's compatible with your mixer (since they usually fit larger mixers and some classic varieties).
A spiral hook helps you knead dough like a pro
One of the reasons for the increased efficiency of a spiral dough hook vs. the traditional C-hook is that typically, you have to stop the mixer less often (if at all) to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The downward pushing action against the bottom of the bowl helps avoid sticking, especially when the dough is tacky and wet at the beginning of the mixing process. With a spiral dough hook, you can pretty much set the mixer up and let it do its thing until the dough is smooth, stretchy, and forms a compact ball. These are all signs that kneading is complete.
Comparatively speaking, kneading bread dough by hand can take around 25 minutes — which is pretty significant, and basically your arm workout for the day. Using a mixer with a standard C-shaped hook cuts down this time to anywhere between 8 and 15 minutes, depending on the recipe. But using a spiral hook can make the process even quicker, and it's ideal if you're making a recipe of hefty quantity, such as a double batch of homemade challah bread. The pros swear by the spiral hook for its efficiency with large batches of bread, but if you're a home baker, just make sure your mixer is big enough to hold the dough before attaching the hook and switching it on.
Additional bread-making tips
While using a spiral-shaped KitchenAid attachment hook can make the bread-making process pretty seamless, there are still other techniques you can master to ensure the best baking results. The key to kneading bread in a mixer is not to overdo it, or else the bread's flavor could be compromised. If you're using a spiral hook, you will probably need to reduce the mixing time that your recipe calls for. And remember to turn your mixer's dial to setting 2, which is the perfect speed to work the dough for optimal gluten development.
This also means you'll want to keep an eye on the dough since it kneads quickly with the spiral hook. To check if your dough is done kneading, stop the mixer and press your finger into the dough ball — if it bounces back and no indent remains, the kneading is complete. Additionally, while dough hooks were designed to push the ball of dough around in the bowl, they're not ideal for the initial mixing step. It's better to use the paddle attachment first to mix the dough until combined, or mix it with a spatula before transferring it to the mixer to knead.
After kneading your dough, form it into loaves, then let it rest and rise as needed — but don't forget to score your bread before baking it. Once you try your hand at mixing bread dough with a spiral hook attachment, perhaps you'll want to start making homemade loaves every week.