Food processor vs dough hook

[gfweb]

I'm embarrassingly new to bread baking and can't find the answer to what must be a basic question...when does one use a food processor to make dough and when is a mixer with a dough hook the thing?

Bittman, who I will admit is no authority, is a big processor guy. It seems easier. Why use a hook?

[annabelle]

I depends on the size and power of your food processor and the volume of the bread recipe. You could easily burn out the motor if the bread is too heavy or there is simply too much of it,

[gfweb]

Ah. Makes sense. I've been doing lots of small batches. Testing the effect of changing this and that. No stress on the motor in these volumes.

[Pierogi]

For me, and I'm still in the "semi-novice, but making big strides to not be a hack" stage, I find the dough hook gives me more control, even for small batches. Too easy to overwork the dough in a processor because it goes so fast. I've used it a few times, for pizza dough and for pitas, but vastly prefer the KA. I can more easily stop the kneading, and check how the texture of the dough is doing.

[rotuts]

cuisinart. always. try to fined this book, which is out of print. worth a trip to an online used bookstore:

Best bread ever Van Over

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Bread-Ever-Homemade-Processor/dp/0767900324/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324556316&sr=1-1-spell

I got my second copy for $20

he developed a techniqhe where you measure the temp of your flour and then use water to a certain temp to add to say 150 degrees the sum

process for 45 sec which gets the dough to 70 F keep it there is a warm place for two hours and then retartd in the frig

etc

why do this? very little oxygen is incorporated into the bread and it last 'fresh' a very long time

worth a look

[liuzhou]

I use my hands.

[BarbaraY]

I do not like using a food processor for any of my baking. The Kitchen Aid does a fine job and, as stated above, I have more control.

[qrn]

I can't imagine using a FP,to do bread,It probably would go up in flames with my usual batch of 1830 grams

I use it for pasta,and pie crust, however...

Bud

[Edward J]

A Food professor spins at well over 800 rpm, whereas a mixer at under 100 rpm. A mixer can handle the thumping, a food processor might for a while but eventually either the motor, the housing, or the bearings will give out. A F.P. is designed to spin at high rpms with very little load, and doesn't have much to offer in the way of torque or gearing to handle the heavy load of mixing a stiff bread dough.

I'm a firm believer that brad dough should be mixes as slowly and gently as possible, too fast and you beat in air and "bleach" the dough

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I can't imagine using either a food processor or the KitchenAid (even though I have a Hobart model KA from the '60s) - simply because I tend to make 8+ pounds of bread at any one time, and that would kill both machines.

I also find that there's something intangibly lacking from bread I haven't worked by hand. But that's just me.

[Alcuin]

The thing that turned me off of the food processor was the heat that built up because of the work the machine had to do to beat the dough. That heat really throws off the process, and it is very noticeable. I would try to produce doughs that should have been naturally cool to the touch but they weren't because of the heat the machine gave off. These days, I either use the mixer or my hands.

[Mjx]

It doesn't seem like the mechanism of a food processor would do as good of a job with bread dough as dough hooks of one sort or another.

I haven't tried a food processor or a stand mixer to knead, although I do use the dough hooks on a hand-held mixer when I have to make bread in a hurry. I work with very slack doughs, however, so hand-kneading them is like pawing about in a large tub of glue; I normally go the no-knead route, but the hand-held mixer dough hooks do a fine job when there isn't time to let the dough do its thing for 12 to 18 hours. I just run the mixer for about 2 to 3 minutes, until the dough start forming strands/sheets, and pulling away from the sides of the bowl.

[Anna N]

It all depends on what it is you are trying to accomplish. If you are looking for superb artisinal bread then the FP is probably not the route to go. On the other hand if you are pushed for time and need to knock out a few perfectly acceptable mini-baguettes:

Made in a couple of hours yesterday morning using the FP.