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From: banker@ipof.fla.net (Ronald L. Ploude)
Subject: Machine vs. Hand Kneading
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 11:50:09 -0400
I have enjoyed reading the Bread Bakers Digest postings for about 3
months now. My preference as a purist had always been to make my
breads by hand. However, playing taxi cab driver for kids and demands
of my job have left me little time for bread baking. After reading
about all the wonderfull results with machine breads, I decided to get
one. The Regal Machine was rated best in consumer reports so I called
the factory and had one shipped.
My bread machine arived Friday and is living up to my expectations in
every way except one. I have made three loaves of bread, one quick
bread, two yeast breads, and one pizza dough. The complaint that I
have is that the yeast breads come out much denser. Hand kneading
produces loaves with larger holes in the finished bread and they rise
higher. I can not rate taste until I have had the opportunity to make
the same recipe by hand and machine. Being new to machine bread
making, I am curious if anyone else has experienced the differences
noted so far.
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Ronald -
I also use a Regal and have for some time. I get very acceptable (to
me) results pretty consistently.
I generally do not get the very large vacuoles using the Regal that I
sometimes get with handmade, but that has not been a problem with my
family. I usually make at least a half dozen loaves per week, mostly
my standard white (actually Italian) recipe that I just posted to the
list. Am including it below for you to try.
ITALIAN BREAD
1 1/3 cups water
2 tbs oil (olive or other)
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
(keep salt and yeast separate; they can interact if together before
mixing.)
Follow directions for your ABM.
I usually make this on timed-bake to have fresh bread for breakfast.
This is a consistently good recipe. It is also good with whole wheat
flour (to taste) substituted for part of the bread flour.
Some other good recipes are the ones included in the book that comes
with the regal. I did find that with most commercial recipes I
reduce the amount of yeast by about 1/2 tsp., otherwise, the dough
rises right up to the lid.
One absolute imperative: keep the yeast and salt separate, especially
if you are doing a timed bake; otherwise, the salt can kill off your
yeast (this is not original with me; comes from the "Bread Machine
Magic" books. I do speak from experience though - was having
intermittent failures until I started doing this.
HTH and best of luck with the new maching.
Bill Hatcher
bhatch@worldnet.att.net
Southampton County, Virginia, USA