Welcome back friends of Erre4M! Today we are going to vary our blog topic a little by resolving a doubt that pervades us: kneading machine or planetary?
To begin with, let's immediately make a main distinction between the two machines: the kneading machine is for bread-making while the planetary mixer is for pastry-making.
But let's take a closer look at the kneading machine where there are 3 types: fork, arm and spiral. Let's start with the latter which you can also find on our website.
This kneading machine can hold up to 5kg of dough for a maximum of 3kg of flour, it has the same features as those for professional use, the only difference is that it is more compact. It can have a single speed or use the regulator, for a maximum speed of 300 rpm, the arms are made to spiral in such a way as to mimic the movement of our hands, the bowl is rotating so that the dough always turns downwards. In addition, the central peg helps the dough to go round with the bowl.
But let us now move on to the planetary mixer and the model we are going to see belongs to Kitchenaid and you can find it on our website.
This is the 6.9 litre 'heavy duty' version, the bowl is not rotating like the mixer, rather it is fixed on the sliding arms which are operated by the side lever. This firmly locks the bowl for processing and it is the pivot to which the tools are attached together with the head of the machine bowl that rotates. In doing so, the movement of the planets around the sun is recreated, which is why it is called planetary! This machine is equipped with 3 tools: the whisk, the spiral and the broadleaf depending on the product you want to make. Moreover, it is very easy to insert the tools thanks to the bayonet coupling.
So, kneading machine or planetary? The answer is that it depends on the type of product you want to make because the planetary mixer is used more in pastry but also, for example, to make fresh pastries and fillings. The kneading machine is only used for leavened doughs that we cannot achieve with the planetary.
Let's put the two machines to the test by preparing the same dough with both.
We use the same amount of flour, the same amount of water which must be 55% of the flour, the same water temperature and the same kneading time.
We pour 500g flour, 275g water at 25 degrees and knead for 5 minutes at low speed. After 5 minutes, we add the salt and increase the speed to 4 for both. Once we have finished, we can see that in the planetary mixer the dough was held downwards and was therefore subjected to an increase in temperature, while in the kneading machine the dough rotates together with the bowl and therefore high oxygenation and low heating is promoted.
Once the doughs are ready, the difference can be seen in the fact that that of the planetary mixer is less elastic while that of the kneading machine is more elastic and transparent.
