I have two KitchenAid bowls (because I have two mixers). I got my first KitchenAid in July 2000, and I’ve never had a bowl get stuck until today.
Separately, I recently bought an open-box Cuisinart Elemental 13-cup, and fantasized about baking bread all the time. I’ve long been a fan of no-knead bread, but I’m in the middle of dental work.
As much as I love its crunchy crusts, they’re not tooth safe for me right now. It also took me over two months to finally get the new Cuisinart moving (I’ll eventually blog about it).
Also, both of my kids are bread fiends, and we’ve consumed all the bread I’ve baked this week so far. I’ve baked bread three of the past three days, using my new Cuisinart once (inaugural mission). On the second and third days, I tried making bread in my KitchenAid mixer.
The first time went fine (I’ve used the stand mixer for bread before, but not a lot). But the second time, my older KitchenAid bowl STUCK into the base like it was welded. And the dough needed to rise in the bowl for an hour — I’m not looking to wash an extra bowl here.
I googled “KitchenAid bowl stuck” and several variations thereof, but also deduced that the violent kneading cycle machine screwed the bowl into the base over the course of seven minutes. Also, KitchenAid stuck bowls seem to be a common problem.
Finally, the first rise was over, and I could move the dough on to the pans. Also, I could try out the easiest of the many fixes I found. (A lot included WD-40, which kind of grossed me out. Also, I got my lashes done today, so aerosolized grease was not an option and not lash safe.)
The simplest KitchenAid bowl unsticking tip I encountered was easy enough to make me skeptical — ice water. I clumsily transferred two handfuls of ice to the cemented-in bowl. Then I poured water in, because I couldn’t lift the bowl on the base. The whole operation was awkward.
And I immediately tried to unstick my KitchenAid bowl. Nothing happened at first. But after about thirty seconds, I was able to effortlessly unscrew from the base of my KitchenAid mixer. No greased surfaces, no tool box contamination, and most importantly, no upper arm strength needed. (I have no upper arm strength.)
Right now, I really like bread baking, and I was dismayed for that first hour. It seemed like kneading for sufficient time and the bowl/base issue were incompatible. Like, it was so insanely fused together, I thought I’d have to discard the entire appliance.
Long story short, apparently a stuck KitchenAid bowl can happen on the kneading cycle. And adding ice and then water almost immediately unsticks it, so you can knead like crazy without concern.
