I'd like to respond to JOAN MATHEWS' question about the benefits of using a
Kitchen Aid in mixing bread doughs. Here are a few of the benefits: Using
an open mixer, as opposed to a closed system, enables you to FEEL the dough
at any given point; also you can readily SEE the changes the dough
undergoes during the entire mixing process; you can also HEAR the changes
in the dough as the gluten develops and the dough gains "strength". All of
these senses are crucial in mixing doughs thoroughly and correctly. By the
way, so is TASTING, that is the raw bread dough in the mixing stage, which
of course is easier in an open machine. There are, of course, many people
who just want results, that is, a loaf of bread, and for them a bread
machine may be preferable. Other people have physical conditions that make
bread machines a better choice for mixing and baking. However, anyone who
is interested in maximum involvement in the entire process of bread making
(the mixing, developing, shaping, baking, and eating of the bread) should
seek a source other than a bread machine. I know that this view is
controversial, but it is based on twenty years of deep experience with
bread (this is my career), and it is also based on a personal (not
universal, simply personal) feeling that the more intimately we are
involved with bread from incipient mixing to the holding of the resolved
loaf in our hands, the finer that loaf, and our inner condition, will be.