A baking thread

[PuddingFace]

Any of you serious bakers use a stand mixer? Been making some bread here last couple weekends, if the trend continues will probably be looking into one, and wanted to solicit some recommendations.

Size - typical doughs are using about 500g flour - is a 4.5 qt unit enough, or should i go bigger?
Brand - obviously kitchenaid is the standard, but are other units adequate? Cuisinart’s looks nice at a moderate price point. Would stay away from names I haven’t heard of unless someone recommends otherwise.
Attachments/accessories - anything you find indispensable? I’d rather either do a task manually or by the right tool rather than buy something that does a half-assed job, but I don’t know the entirety of the attachment lineup for these units.

I have a 5qt kitchenaid artisan series that I sometimes use for bread. It's ok for dough, but 500g of flour would be about the most it could handle with the dough hook. Even with that, if I were to leave it on for 4-5 minutes, the motor would get pretty warm, and you start to notice some unpleasant smells. Have you tried no-knead bread? That stuff is amazing, and remarkably simple to make.

I haven’t tried it. Looks simple but very sticky. Have been making some recipes out of one of Paul Hollywood’s books, which tend to be very wet, which prompted the interest in the mixer. Good info about that being maybe the upper limit of the mixer, thanks.

I was planning to make french bread this weekend, and found a no-knead version to try out. Will report back.

[GrainsAndGains]

I use my stand mixer a lot, also a KitchenAid. I mostly use it for enriched doughs - challah, milk bread, dinner rolls, stuff like that. Honestly my forearms and elbows are so sore most of the time from lifting that hand-kneading can be a pretty painful experience. The 500g number is probably about right, you might be able to get up to 600g but even that might be pushing it, you'd have to keep your eye on the dough for sure.

No-knead bread is great, but I mostly use the stretch and fold technique, which is sort of halfway between hand-kneading and no-knead. You bring the mixture together by hand or stirring, and then sort of fold it over itself a few times over a couple of hours to build strength in the gluten. Really wet, sticky dough is intimidating, and working with it is somewhat counterintuitive, but after a few loaves you'll be much more confident working with high-hydration bread. The method described in Flour Water Salt Yeast is excellent for beginners.

[James]

I baked a pumpkin pie. Used the preppy kitchen recipe for the filling and the crust. Still waiting for it to cool. The crust is a bit sloppy and I think that caused the over fill but not bad for a first try.

I still have a disc of pie dough. Thinking pecan next.

[Renascent]

I baked a pumpkin pie. Used the preppy kitchen recipe for the filling and the crust. Still waiting for it to cool. The crust is a bit sloppy and I think that caused the over fill but not bad for a first try.

I still have a disc of pie dough. Thinking pecan next.

Mighty fine pie.

[James]

Thank you. The crust was a little hard the night I baked it but it I guess relaxed in the fridge over night and was better the next day. I still think I over worked the dough. I believe it was too cold when I rolled it out. Live and learn.

A down side of baking a pie is now every one is expecting pie for thanksgiving.

[5hout]

Pecan and Black Walnut pie is amazing, do half and half. The black walnuts cut the grease level down and the pecans soften the "omg this is bitter". Cup of coffee with a little dash of something extra, pecan n walnut pie... heaven.

[James]

I made blueberry scones yesterday. I've never had any before and they were like a very light sweet biscuit. I've heard store bought scones can get really dry but these were pretty moist.

I iced them with a lemon icing because I used a while lemon's zest in the scone and needed to do something with the rest.

[James]

I have heard chilling cookie dough over night makes the cookies taste better. Never done that before so I made cookie dough last night and put it in the refrigerator. I woke up to a giant rock solid ball of chocolate chip cookie dough.

Apparently you're supposed to make dough balls and chill them individually.

Learn something everyday.

[Skid]

My son has been making sour dough bread for the last few months. I miss doing that. I used to make a lot of artisan bread as well but never really liked my set up. However want to get back into it again as I'll have more time when I'm retired since there is nothing better than oven fresh bread and butter

I recently ordered a commercial wheat berry grinder with different mesh sizes (20-120), as well as a powered sifter with different mesh sizes (again the same mesh sizes as the grinder). I like white bread so want to sift out the whole wheat portion using a finer mesh on the sifter. Most flour is sifted to 40 mesh (mesh is screen openings/square inch)

I also bought some 50 lb bags of organic wheat berries including, hard red winter, soft white winter, and hard white winter varieties. Non organic breads and flours have lots of glyphosate in them as most non-organic farmers use that to uniformly dessicate the wheat nowadays for easier harvest. I want to avoid glyphosate/Round up in my food.

when I made my bread previously I would place the dough on an oven heated flat stone (one of our extra slate floor tiles), then pour a 1/4 cup of water onto the bottom of the oven and quickly shut the door. The steam helps to make a nice crust. I went on Alibaba to check out some steam bread ovens and there are some decent ones for 350 + shipping which is almost as much as the oven.

I'll probably buy one. Due to the size of the equipment I ordered I'll be baking in the garage since there is no room in our kitchen. I may start a small cottage industry baking bread. We'll see.

Anyways, I'll be baking bread again soon. The equipment should arrive in July some time, and I'll share the results.

[JonA]

My son has been making sour dough bread for the last few months. I miss doing that. I used to make a lot of artisan bread as well but never really liked my set up. However want to get back into it again as I'll have more time when I'm retired since there is nothing better than oven fresh bread and butter

I recently ordered a commercial wheat berry grinder with different mesh sizes (20-120), as well as a powered sifter with different mesh sizes (again the same mesh sizes as the grinder). I like white bread so want to sift out the whole wheat portion using a finer mesh on the sifter. Most flour is sifted to 40 mesh (mesh is screen openings/square inch)

I also bought some 50 lb bags of organic wheat berries including, hard red winter, soft white winter, and hard white winter varieties. Non organic breads and flours have lots of glyphosate in them as most non-organic farmers use that to uniformly dessicate the wheat nowadays for easier harvest. I want to avoid glyphosate/Round up in my food.

when I made my bread previously I would place the dough on an oven heated flat stone (one of our extra slate floor tiles), then pour a 1/4 cup of water onto the bottom of the oven and quickly shut the door. The steam helps to make a nice crust. I went on Alibaba to check out some steam bread ovens and there are some decent ones for 350 + shipping which is almost as much as the oven.

I'll probably buy one. Due to the size of the equipment I ordered I'll be baking in the garage since there is no room in our kitchen. I may start a small cottage industry baking bread. We'll see.

Anyways, I'll be baking bread again soon. The equipment should arrive in July some time, and I'll share the results.

That sounds like an amazing setup. I have been baking a lot of artisanal bread the past year (maybe 1 or 2 buoles a week) or so, but really haven't advanced beyond mixing different ratios of flours and trying to get fancy with my scoring. My wife is gluten intolerant, so I've also been re-visiting gluten free bread with some success. (I had tried making it previously and gave up almost 10 years ago now)

I'm still just baking it in a dutch oven in a gas stove.

[Skid]

My wife is gluten intolerant, so I've also been re-visiting gluten free bread with some success.

I'm still just baking it in a dutch oven in a gas stove.

Regarding being gluten intolerant - Due to glyphosate use on almost all wheat, some people who think they are gluten intolerant are actually glyphosate intolerant. At least that's what I've read. Maybe have her try a loaf of organic??

Re: dutch oven, that's how my kid does it. It turns out quite good, although the bottom crust takes some cutting to get through. His bread is pretty heavy though, probably because he doesn't sift it but I could be wrong. I'm looking forward to experimenting!