Hi FMT,
That sure is a nice looking mixer.
Since I started baking sourdough breads about 3 years age I’ve gone the opposite way, from using a spiral dough hook Kitchen Aid to doing everything by hand. The one exception are rye breads that are just too sticky to mix by hand.
Right now as I sit here typing this, I am waiting for my new toy, a Mockmill 200 grain mill and 25+ pounds of heirloom wheat and rye berries.
We do love our toys, don’t we.
Keith
I don't do a ton of the sour dough and rustic type breads. When I do though, I'm pretty happy with my results with the kitchenaid and hand mixing, or even no knead. That type of bread seems to be moving in that direction. Less mixing, longer fermentation, etc which negates some of the need to knead.
I actually prefer to make the lower hydration doughs, which require much more work by hand to get the structure to be bakery quality. I certainly can do it by hand, but it's a ton of time and effort. I like my pizza dough at about 58% hydration as well. I'm looking forward to seeing what this does (if anything) with my pizza dough.
The expectation with purchasing this was to improve the quality of my dough, as well as mixing capacity. I'll be slightly disappointed (and surprised) if is doesn't improve the quality, but I gained a ton of real estate even if the dough quality stayed the same.
Good luck with the grain mill. I haven't ventured down that road, but have considered it. I got the mixer at Pleasant Hill Grain. They have some really nice stuff if you want to check them out.
