A mixer question?

[Chile Chef]

This question has been on my mind for a very long time and I want to get some answers.


If I use a mixer instead of making bread dough and not my hand?

I know it's still the same messy mess if I do the kneading process by hand?


Could some one clear these questions up for me?


Cheers Derek.

 

[TheMetalChef]

Lot easier to feel the dough condition by hand. With a mixer, you only know if you're overworking it by visual, not by touch.

 

[2saucy]

If you are talking a standing mixer with a bread hook - then no - you have very little 'hands on' wth the dough. Love my KitchenAid. A hand blender wouldn't do much good with added flour since it couldn't handle the dough. The only time I touch the dough is when smoothing it out after kneading with the dough hook and then placing it in the bowl to rise. Then flattening it out and seperating into loaves.

 

[Chile Chef]

Lot easier to feel the dough condition by hand. With a mixer, you only know if you're overworking it by visual, not by touch.

If you are talking a standing mixer with a bread hook - then no - you have very little 'hands on' wth the dough. Love my KitchenAid. A hand blender wouldn't do much good with added flour since it couldn't handle the dough. The only time I touch the dough is when smoothing it out after kneading with the dough hook and then placing it in the bowl to rise. Then flattening it out and seperating into loaves.

Thank you guys and gals, Only reason I'm asking because I'm about to make bead for the first time in the stand mixer and I wanted to know how much of a mess there will actually be? I've always made bread by a rolling pin and my hands.



The reason for this enw quest because I can't find the bread I want with the great taste of home made bread although I'm close to it.

 

[apple*tart]

The mess is pretty contained in the mixer bowl, unless you get flour all over the place while measuring.

I use my KA for dough pretty exclusively now. I will regularly stop the mixer and touch the dough, sometimes even taking it off the hook and handling it to get an idea of how close it is to being ready. I end up with sticky hands sometimes, but that's about as bad as it gets.

 

[Antiguadreams]

The kitchenaid stand mixer with breadhook is a godsend. I also love my cuisinart convection breadmaker(quality product, cost me close to $200 in a world of $69.99 breadmakers).

I frequently make doughs for foccacia, french bread, italian bread, and pizza dough in my breadmaker, and take it out prior to the baking cycle. It can produce a light and airy dough far easier than I could ever hope to achieve by hand. The kitchenaid is even easier, and allows larger recipies (such as 6-8c flour instead of 4 with the breadmaker. So that's 4lbs of dough vs 2.

Back in november 2008 when my mother died, my family rallied to help clean out mom's stuff from my house, and help me through a difficult time. I took care of my mom and my dad in their later years. Dad passed in 2006 due to side consiquences of colon cancer in the elderly (he was in his late 70's). Mom passed in november 2008, 2 days before thanksgiving (and my birthday) and also my sister's birthday was the day after thanksgiving. So there was a lot of emotion going. Why am I telling you all this?

In their blind enthusiasm to help me, because they knew how much I was there for our parents, they...cleaned my kitchen. That was a cardinal sin. my sister in law LOST my paddle for my cuisinart breadmaker. I was in tears. of course I couldn't tell her she did it, although she was the one cleaning that part of the kitchen.

Thankfully, cuisinart has a fantastic parts program. for only 3 dollars and shipping(which wasn't bad) I got a replacement paddle. I was fearing 20-40 dollars, considering the total cost of the breadmaker.

To get back to the subject of this thread, I suppose I'm suggesting the breadmaker as a great alternative to preparing doughs quickly, without needing to get too many utensils dirty.

 

[apple*tart]

I also like doing Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, for which there is no kneading at all. Can't wait for their second book to come out, as I usually like to eat whole grain breads.

 

[Antiguadreams]

nice link, apple! although the recent post for the bear claw that looked frighteningly life a food was too close to reality for me to want to say "**** Apple, pull me off that big toe there! That toenail looks good enough to eat!"

 

[chefkathleen]

I don't know how anyone can make bread without touching it. Quick breads, yes but others never. How do you punch it, scale it, round it or bench it without touching it?

 

[Antiguadreams]

when you make something the first time and are experimenting with a recipe, there is no way but to touch it. When you make the recipe into a tried and true formula with precise ingredient measures, it becomes easy to not have to have your hands on it.

 

[chefkathleen]

That's funny/odd to me. I learned from an excellent patissier, she actually won awards for her work, and we always touched it. You can't get away from touching it. Unless, as I said it's a quick bread or when using a straight dough method or modified straight dough method.
Could you then tell me how you bench it or punch it without touching it?(just curious)

 

[apple*tart]

LOL - the bear claws are a bit realistic!

 

[bert bakering]

Kitchen aid or a kenwood is the best, about 10 minutes mixing will do the trick, once you have a good recipe,

 

[RPCookin]

That's funny/odd to me. I learned from an excellent patissier, she actually won awards for her work, and we always touched it. You can't get away from touching it. Unless, as I said it's a quick bread or when using a straight dough method or modified straight dough method.
Could you then tell me how you bench it or punch it without touching it?(just curious)

No idea what you mean by "bench". The only punching I do is punching the dough down after the first rise. I do the majority of the kneading in the KA Pro 600, then a minute or so of hand kneading before the first rise. Then I punch it down, shape it and let it rise the second time, then bake. So I do get some hands on, but I let the machine do the hard work.

Since I've never had any training in breadmaking, I'm learning by trial and error. I'm still groping my way to understanding the proper feel of the dough. My end result generally seems to be pretty good, but I'm still never really sure if I've done it right until it comes out of the oven.

 

[dave the baker]

I have to secod Apple's recommendation of the the "Artesian" book's method. It works! I've gone both the hand method and the KA way. Both are okay, although I get a better result from hand kneading. But with this new method, why bother? Before y'all go knocking it, try it.