Bread dough in the food processor?

[Sparkly77]

I have a large capacity FP, and am interested in using it to mix my bread dough. I make all our bread by hand (been doing it a few months now), and I find that I get sticky hands at the start unless I add lots of flour to my bench.

How do I use my food processor to knead the dough? Mine has a dough blade, but I'm just not sure exactly what order I should put the ingredients in and how long to process. My instruction manual has some directions but it's hard to make sense of it and once when I tried it didn't work out. I'm normally a fairly intelligent person, but that user manual has me stumped so I'd love some advice from anyone who has tried it.

Many thanks!

 

[Maverick2272]

I have asked this questions twice now in two other threads, still waiting for an answer, LOL!!
When I did it in my FP, it took all of 90 seconds and it was ready to go. However, getting it out was very messy and difficult to do.
So, I am waiting for the same answer you are!! I heard ChefJune has our answers, we just need to lure her in here!

EDIT: I should have mentioned, I put the 'wet' ingredients in first, then the dry ingredients, then the yeast. Seemed to work good that way. Mine is a 14 cup FP, and I used the dough blade as well.

 

[Russellkhan]

I have never used a food processor to make bread, but here's a recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum, author of the "The Bread Bible":

Food Processor Ricotta Bliss Bread: Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum

 

[miniman]

We had a dough hook for our food processor and that worked fine but it didn't like a full load and we went through food processors fairly fast. A food mixer is better. With a food processor I put the dry ingrdients in and then started it running while I added the wet. It should go into a ball that is fairly easy to remove.

In a food mixer, I put the wet in first and then add the dry before starting to mix it.

 

[JoeV]

I have looked at food processors as a simpler way to make bread dough, but the engineer in me keeps saying "it ain't gonna hold up." Steel blades molded into plastic hubs that mount on a thin spindle are just a recipe for premature breakage. Way too much plastic and not enough metal to hold up for the long haul. If you are making dough for a small pizza it may hold up, but when making a recipe with 5-7 cups of flour, it's just not the machine for that kind of work on a regular basis. A stand mixer with dough hook is the way to go, even if it means saving your money for awhile longer to be able to afford one, IMHO. Of course, your mileage may vary.

JoeV

 

[justplainbill]

I have a large capacity FP, and am interested in using it to mix my bread dough. I make all our bread by hand (been doing it a few months now), and I find that I get sticky hands at the start unless I add lots of flour to my bench.

How do I use my food processor to knead the dough? Mine has a dough blade, but I'm just not sure exactly what order I should put the ingredients in and how long to process. My instruction manual has some directions but it's hard to make sense of it and once when I tried it didn't work out. I'm normally a fairly intelligent person, but that user manual has me stumped so I'd love some advice from anyone who has tried it.

Many thanks!

By starting with liquid ingredients + yeast and then slowly adding dry you have a better chance to avoid overloading the machine.

 

[Sparkly77]

I tried a loaf this morning, using some of the advice from all of you. The key was that I added the dry ingredients first, processed them for 20 seconds to mix, then whilst still running I trickled in the warm water and it eventually came together and my Magimix handled it REALLY well, didn't get choked up at all. Mind you, I only ever use 500g (1.102 lb) flour which is for one loaf. If I had to make more loaves I would probably just do it in a bowl because I love my food processor and don't want to wreck it. The time that I tried adding the wet ingredients first it really didn't work.

Also, I tried to handle it as little as possible after the first rising, and just divided it in two and put it in the pan to rise until it was about an inch above the top of the pan. I had gotten into the habit of kneading for a couple of minutes after the first rising, and realised after reading another thread here that I should just punch it down, divide if necessary then shape into the required shape or put in the tin.

The bread was a fairly good texture, not quite as fluffy as I would have liked, but I had added a multigrain mix to the flour so I was happy with the height of the loaf and it tasted nice.

I was glad that I didn't have to add much flour to knead it when I tipped it out of the food processor, I only had to use one sprinkle of flour at the start and then it was fine. So all in all I'm happy with the result, I'll just keep tweaking it until I'm totally happy with it.

Thanks everyone for the advice

Here's a photo:

 

[JoeV]

Great looking loaf. I agree with the technique of not overworking dough after the first rise. I punch down, shape and get it into the pan or proofing basket. Great results with this method.

JoeV

 

[Maverick2272]

Well then that is the way I am going to try it as well, dry ingredients first! Hopefully this time around it will be easier to handle.

 

[Adillo303]

The only addition I could make is that I agree with JoeV. If you have a dough blade for that food processor, use it instead of the metal blade. I have even heard about the dough blade breaking, it is all plastic.

Let's all face it ANYWAY YOU MAKE IT HOMEMADE BREAD IS JUST BETTER.

AC

 

[attie]

That looks pretty cool Sparkly, I was wondering why the "liquid first" and thinking maybe because of the PC action, but you have laid that to rest.

 

[Sparkly77]

The only addition I could make is that I agree with JoeV. If you have a dough blade for that food processor, use it instead of the metal blade. I have even heard about the dough blade breaking, it is all plastic.

Let's all face it ANYWAY YOU MAKE IT HOMEMADE BREAD IS JUST BETTER.

AC

Sorry, I forgot to mention that yes, I do already use the plastic dough blade, not the metal one.

And I agree, homemade bread is the BEST.