Kenwood Chef

When I started this blog I intended contributing to it on a regular basis. Recently I have not written much although I have been very busy baking bread, with various experiments. I hope to update more frequently.

A few weeks ago I bought an old Kenwood Chef A701A off eBay and it has made a big difference to my bread baking.

According to Kenwood Chef Restore this would have been manufactured between 1962 and 1976 so it is at least 35 years old. It has all the scratches and paintwork chips that are to be expected on an appliance of this age but it has the original glass bowl and 3 tools (K beater, whisk and dough hook). The motor sounds and feels as powerful as ever. These UK made machines certainly have a reputation for their quality unlike the modern Chinese made versions. There were no instructions but I downloaded these from Kenwood Chef Restore for 50p.
The main purpose for the machine is for kneading dough. I use the K beater if there is any fat or butter to rub in but once this is done I switch to the dough hook. On minimum speed I slowly add the liquid until the dough has formed into one lump (perhaps stopping and using a spatula to ensure all the flour is combined) and then I scrape the dough off the hook and remove the bowl putting it into a large plastic bag for between 10 and 20 minutes. This autolyse step is to ensure all the liquid is absorbed by the flour and to let the enzymes in the flour start work to help make the kneading as effective as possible. I could, of course, do exactly the same if hand kneading and I will probably do so as an experiment in the future to see if the Chef really has made a big difference. I then put the bowl back in the mixer with the dough hook and knead on speed 1 for 10 minutes. Occasionally I have increased the speed to 2 for a few seconds and I have also usually stopped the machine, lifted the hook and used a spatula to redistribute the dough. It's not always obvious that anything is happening as the dough ball appears to be just stuck to the hook but I am pretty sure that the dough is actually touching the bowl and so is being stretched and hence properly kneaded.
So what improvements have I seen? The main one is the enormous improvement in oven spring that I am now getting even on wholemeal loaves. I have to admit that I have made a number of changes to my method at the same time as starting to use the Kenwood Chef so these may also be very important. The main one is being very careful to not let the dough over prove during the final rise. In my next entry I will fully describe my latest recipe and method.
As the Chef was very old its feet had squashed over the years to end up very flat. While kneading, the Chef would walk around the worktop and I wouldn't dare leave the kitchen or even turn my back in case it walked on to the floor. I have now bought a genuine replacement set of 5 feet off eBay and now the mixer does not move very much while kneading. The feet are slightly tricky to remove - having worked out the old rubber there is a pin to remove. This has to pulled and twisted out. The new foot is pushed in and then the pin has to be replaced. I just pushed it in as far as I could with a screwdriver - this seems to have worked. This was £4.50 very well spent.