htc said:
Does anyone who has a stand mixer w/ dough hook prefer to prepare the dough w/ the bread machine. What is the pros/cons to each...
I have a stand mixer w/ dough hook in addition to my, now, two bread machines.
I bought a new machine (I am the thread starter) to replace the one that quit, and immediately called it in to action to knead the evening's pizza dough. Detail
can follow if anyone cares, but I did not care for it's operation. I
was going to live with it, but when it did not punch the dough down before signalling "all done", I fixed my old bread machine (I am the 'handy' type'). The old machine has just now finished kneading tonight's dinner rolls.
Back to your original question - I enjoy bread making. Although I have not retired the mixer-with-bread-hooks, it requires more attention than the bread machine for kneading dough. The sides of the bowl need to be scraped down more often than the bread machine's smaller mixing platform. But if you knead more dough than the bread machine can handle
, it does an excellent job.
As far as baking the bread, the machine also does a fine job. The problem is that you are relegated to bread that looks like it came out of a machine.
I have heard many cooks-better-than-me swear by their machines for mixing the dough. After the machine is done, they then work their magic with the results.
People my age may remember Eddie Albert in the TV show
Green Acres waxing poetic about "planting the seeds in the fertile Earth", and watching them grow. Bread making with dough hooks is a lot like that. Mixing with dough hooks makes me feel like "Oliver". Using the machine gets a good result with less attention. ;-)
Tom