>I'm wondering if anyone has ever had good luck mixing bread dough in
>a food processor? I know the recipes are out there; if I recall,
>some mentioned that you can't mix the dough too long because it gets
>too hot and kills the yeast. Suggestions / recipes will be welcomed.
I have a KA food processor that I use to knead whole wheat bread
dough. I bake two loaves at a time using a modified multigrain struan
recipe from Peter Reinhart's whole grain cookbook.It took me awhile
to learn how to do it, but it works very well for me. In fact, I
could not get my bread to raise very well until I learned not to be
afraid to let the processor run for awhile.
If you are using a KA processor, I strongly recommend NOT using the
steel blade, but rather the plastic dough blade that is part of their
kit. Aside from the fact that my steel blade broke when I was
processing bread crumbs, I also found that when I tried the steel
blade the dough never formed a ball, and it did not raise very well
even when I finished the kneading on the bread board. When I use the
plastic dough blade with enough flour, the dough forms a ball very
quickly, which I then process for approximately 45 seconds. Contrary
to all the warnings about the dough heating up, I have not found that
to be a problem. If anything, I was under processing the dough when I
first started because I was afraid of that.
Though I mix up soaker and biga for two loaves at the same time, I
process ingredients for one loaf at a time. I add the flour first to
the processor bowl, then the yeast, diastatic malt powder and wheat
gluten (though the struan recipe is delicious without the additives,
it never raises enough for my taste unless I use them). Then I add
the soaker and the biga, the salt and sweetener and a cooked potato
chopped up and start the processor. If I have the ingredients in the
right proportion, the dough will clear the bowl within a minute or
so. If the dough is too wet, I add a little flour just until the
dough clears the sides of the bowl. For me the whole process of
kneading in the bowl takes 2-3 minutes.
I have to say that I will never buy another KA food processor again.
When the steel blade broke, they told me they would not replace it
because the model was not the latest one. I had just bought the darn
thing at Macy's on sale, so naturally I was pretty steamed when they
tried that on me. I told them I would go back to Macy's and write to
Consumer Reports about my experiences, and that finally got them to
give up a new blade. But the real problem is in the design of the
steel blade. It is set into a rubbery plastic core, so if it catches
on something, like the stale bread that I was processing, it will
break. If you look at a Cuisinart processor, you can see that the
blade is designed differently, is bolted over the plastic core, and
looks much sturdier.
However, I will probably never buy a mixer. I am quite happy with
what the food processor does, and I don't do enough baking to warrant
having a heavy duty mixer.
Best Regards,
Rebecca Finch