Ditching my stand mixer for hand kneading after 10 years

I used to let my KitchenAid do all the bread dough work, but last month I switched to hand kneading because the mixer kept overheating on stiff doughs. My sourdough loaves have way better crumb structure now and I actually feel more in tune with the dough. Has anyone else noticed better results after giving up their machine?

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alice_allen53mo ago

What kind of hydration levels are you working with? I tried hand kneading a 78% hydration dough last week and it stuck to everything, ended up adding way too much flour just to get it workable.

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torres.blair3mo ago

@alice_allen5 oh man, 78% is brutal by hand, I tried 75% once and it was like wrestling a sticky octopus. I ended up flouring my counter so much the dough turned into a brick, totally defeated the purpose of high hydration. Now I just stick to 70-72% max for hand kneading, anything above that and I swear my kitchen looks like a flour bomb went off.

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