Switched from hand kneading to a stand mixer after 8 years of baking bread

I used to knead all my bread dough by hand for years. It took about 20 minutes of hard work each time, and my wrists started hurting bad around year 5. Last Christmas my wife got me a KitchenAid mixer, and I was pretty stubborn about using it at first. But after 3 tries making my usual sourdough recipe, I saw the dough came out smoother way faster. Now I only hand knead when I'm making small batches or camping. Has anyone else made the switch and had trouble trusting the machine?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencerm4628d ago

Honestly, the part about "didn't trust the machine" really sticks out to me. Ngl, I think the real issue isn't about the mixer itself - it's about losing that physical connection to the dough. When you're hand kneading, you can feel every little change in temperature and texture, and that feedback loop is something a mixer just can't replace. But here's the thing nobody really talks about: once you learn how to read dough by sight instead of touch, like watching how it pulls away from the bowl or how the bubbles look, you actually get a better understanding of fermentation. That trust issue goes away fast once you start paying attention to that visual stuff instead.

vera_murphy28d ago

Oh wow, that's a great point about reading dough by sight. I actually heard a baker on a podcast say that looking at how the dough moves in the bowl tells you way more than touching it ever could. Funny how we rely so much on one sense when another one works just as well.