On Boxing Day – do I know how to live, or what? – I wrote about getting a stainless steel dough hook for my Kenwood mixer. Big mistake. Not the writing, you understand, but the dough hook. It was dire.
The standard non-stick dough hook has a matte surface, which actually engages with the dough, mixing it properly. The stainless version, however, is so highly polished that it just slips through the dough, barely making contact. The result, 6 weeks of substandard bread, with me trying various ploys to remedy the situation before it dawned on me that the hook, itself, was the problem. The last loaves I made, on Wednesday, I watched the hook rotating within the dough, while the dough just sat there, unaffected. Well, OK, it wobbled a bit, but that was pretty much it.
So that’s consigned to the cupboard where all the pointless crap lives – not that there’s much of it, to tell the truth, I usually get it right – and I’ve reverted to the standard hook.
The problem, as I mentioned, is that the bran in my dough gradually erodes the non-stick coating, which is why I went stainless. However, as the amount that gets into any given loaf must be microscopic, I’ve decided it it’s not a problem. Anyway, I have new one, which I got with my new Silver Premier Chef,** and another which was sent in error by the people I got the stainless one from and I’ve not yet been able to return – standing in the Post Office queue for 20 minutes simply isn’t going to happen. So I’ll get in touch and ask them what they want for it.
**I did, you may recall, report that it was amazingly noisy, and so it was when new, Over the last couple of months, however, it’s quietened down nicely. It’s still pretty loud – it has a 1,000 Watt motor after all (eat yer heart out, puny 275 Watt KitchenAid Classic!) – but the horrible racket it made when new has abated.
And there we have it. If you’re tempted by the stainless steel dough hook, my advice is forget it, unless you have no respect for your bread. Seriously.
,
On Boxing Day – do I know how to live, or what? – I wrote about getting a stainless steel dough hook for my Kenwood mixer. Big mistake. Not the writing, you understand, but the dough hook. It was dire.
The standard non-stick dough hook has a matte surface, which actually engages with the dough, mixing it properly. The stainless version, however, is so highly polished that it just slips through the dough, barely making contact. The result, 6 weeks of substandard bread, with me trying various ploys to remedy the situation before it dawned on me that the hook, itself, was the problem. The last loaves I made, on Wednesday, I watched the hook rotating within the dough, while the dough just sat there, unaffected. Well, OK, it wobbled a bit, but that was pretty much it.
So that’s consigned to the cupboard where all the pointless crap lives – not that there’s much of it, to tell the truth, I usually get it right – and I’ve reverted to the standard hook.
The problem, as I mentioned, is that the bran in my dough gradually erodes the non-stick coating, which is why I went stainless. However, as the amount that gets into any given loaf must be microscopic, I’ve decided it it’s not a problem. Anyway, I have new one, which I got with my new Silver Premier Chef,** and another which was sent in error by the people I got the stainless one from and I’ve not yet been able to return – standing in the Post Office queue for 20 minutes simply isn’t going to happen. So I’ll get in touch and ask them what they want for it.
**I did, you may recall, report that it was amazingly noisy, and so it was when new, Over the last couple of months, however, it’s quietened down nicely. It’s still pretty loud – it has a 1,000 Watt motor after all (eat yer heart out, puny 275 Watt KitchenAid Classic!) – but the horrible racket it made when new has abated.
And there we have it. If you’re tempted by the stainless steel dough hook, my advice is forget it, unless you have no respect for your bread. Seriously.
,