The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Freedom!!

cleancarpetman's picture
cleancarpetman

Freedom!!

I used to mix dough in a KA 4.5. I lusted after a DLX. Now I use neither and don't see either in my future. When I say I have gone to hand mixing I mean it, literally. I plunge one hand into a 12QT tub with 4-5 lbs of flour, some salt (~2TB) and yeast (2TB) (I know heresy, but I am NOT a dough slave) a quart of starter and a quart and a half of water, and I adjust the consistency with water, NOT flour, as in the past. I keep one hand on the rim of the tub and turn as I go, mixing only to incorporate the dry flour and begin to develop the gluten. Are all the lumps gone, Steve? No, they eventually work themselves out in the process and I don't find any dry pockets in my baked loaves. I let it sit for an hour or so and then begin a stretch and fold routine, 2-3 times depending on the liveliness. I divide it, bench rest it 10 minutes then shape into 4 large batards with a final proof of 20-30 minutes. I start them in a 550F oven on parchment on a stone, toss in a cup of hot water and let them go for 5 minutes. Then I reduce the heat to 465F and bake another 25 minutes. I consistently get 200-205 degrees internally and a satisfactory loaf. After four months of baking slack dough and now sourdough-- sometimes as many as 8-12 loaves in a day I am comfortable enough that I rely far less on measurements and much more on feel. I concede that I weigh my flour on a scale, yeast by the tablespoon, salt by the palm full, starter by eye and water by feel and consistency of the dough as it comes together. I feel totally liberated to my creative side. I have two tubs (8 loaves) of Kalamata Rosemary dough in a stretch and fold cycle as I write. Hallelujah, I am free at last!!

PS: Thank You, Floyd, and all of you breadheads. What a marvelous passion.

ccm

baltochef's picture
baltochef

For the first 30 years that I baked bread from scratch I never had an electric mixer that would knead bread..I did it by hand on, or in, a variety of surfaces from stainless steel (bowls), lineoleum, various plastic laminates, plywood (both exterior and interior!!), an antique pine table, a butcher block counter top, and a granite countertop..

As I get older, I am 54 now, I am increasingly seeing less and less need for the electric DLX mixer..For the last 10 years, or so, I have progressed through two Zojirushi bread machines, a Kitchen Aid 6-quart stand mixer, a Kenwood 7-quart stand mixer, and finally to the Electrolux DLX 8-quart stand mixer..

And you know what??..I miss the feel, and the exercise, from kneading the bread by hand..Quite soon I am going to put the DLX in storage, and return to kneading the bread by hand..I seldom feel the press of time to the point that an electric mixer is a mandatory necessity..If time is of the essence, I can always pull out the DLX for those times where I need its speed..

Lately, I am finding wetter doughs that are worked using the simple stretch and fold methodology to be far more attractive than more formal doughs that are baked in some kind of pan..

Bruce

rainwater's picture
rainwater

I mix entirely with my hands.  I hardly ever knead the bread in a traditional way.  Wet doughs get slammed, stretched, and folded......and more firm doughs get mixed and kneaded a little, then go through a stretch and fold several times.  It's always amazing to me how much strength the dough manages by the third stretch and fold. 

cleancarpetman's picture
cleancarpetman

I am happy to know that I am not alone here.  I am reminded that what made French and Italian bread famous wasn't a fancy schmancy mixer.  These breads have been baked since antiquity even before commercially packaged yeast.  I feel in touch with ancient bakers when I produce bread all by hand.  Since discovering slack dough I now wonder who decided to cut down the water and knead bread?
     baltochef, I have six years on you, pushing 61 and I am thrilled to discover a diversion that doesn't have a big price tag on expensive equipment.  I am used to the salesman who says, "Oh, well, in order to do that RIGHT you need a
"full-race" reeberfractor with a notch on the right and left sides and a GOOD one of those will set you back a grand."
      But I digress.  I have a heavenly aroma all through the house, olives, olive oil, rosemary.  I am getting ready for a potluck and have decided to quietly announce how I have been spending my spare time. 

ccm

baltochef's picture
baltochef

Every time someone new to baking asks me what machine to purchase, I always tell them to learn by hand first before buying a bread machine, or mixer..This advice, as most here can probably guess, does not go over all that well with most modern cooks..

I always tell them that if a 16 year old boy, with NO experience in the kitchen as far as baking is concerned, can bake his first two loaves of sandwich bread ever from a 3-month old sourdough culture that I made from recipes (both the culture and the bread) taken out of a 1970's Outdoor Life fishing and hunting magazine; than ANYONE can make bread!!!!..It is NOT rocket science, nor does it require an advanced degree from an Ivy League college..

Neither my mother, nor my grandmother, would help me make the bread.."I do not know how", says my mother.."I do not feel like it, because I made far too many loaves out of necessity when I was younger", says my grandmother (she had been born in 1903)..So, one Saturday when I was all alone in the house I just went ahead and made the dough, and baked the bread..Made a hell of a mess, but the bread tasted fantastic, and NO ONE in the family complained..

Bruce

Yerffej's picture
Yerffej

I second the idea of kneading by hand as an essential learning tool.  I kneaded by hand for years largely because I did not have a mixer capable of handling bread dough.  When I did acquire a mixer a few years back it was all of my hand kneading experience that allowed me to have a fairly good understanding of what was going on in the mixer.  Without such experience I would be rather handicapped in bread making.

Were I the instructor of a bread class I would insist that any serious baker begin by kneading by hand.  If you are not all that serious then go ahead and let the machines do the work for you but it will be infinitely harder to produce "great" bread without the hands on experience.

Jeff

cleancarpetman's picture
cleancarpetman

It strikes me as I read here that one of the major differences between my hand mixing and machine mixing is production. I can EASILY mix a batch producing four monster loaves, about the size of a basketball utilizing 4-5 pounds of dough which dwarfs the production of my Kitchenaid.  I could double it but then I don't have the oven capacity until my brick oven is built.
    But Steve, why do you want to produce so much bread?  So, I can give it away.  It is very hard to find bread made this way in today's world without paying top dollar.  Flour is twenty bucks a fifty.  What is salt, yeast and water?  Have you ever watched a person's face light up when you give them a warm loaf of bread?  Can you feel the encouragement when someone just hands you a loaf of bread, just because.  There is not enough of that going around today.  I can't solve the economic crisis or support someone else's family but I can give them a loaf of fresh bread.

ccm

leucadian's picture
leucadian

Great topic, as we struggle with consumerism and technology. I rarely turn on the KA any more.

There was a short exchange the other day on SamG's blog about hand kneading for productions. I found a photo of Anis Bouabsa standiing next to his mixer, and it looked for all the world like two mechanized human arms thrusting into the vat of dough and picking it up. And in a book by Alford and Duguid there was the story of an old woman who regularly baked off 35 lbs of hand mixed slack rye in a communal oven.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11489/how-work-large-amounts-dough-hand

We are indeed fortunate to be able to give bread away. And even better to have willing tutors help us to make it great bread.

Stewart

Ford's picture
Ford

I agree with the hands on approach.  I started making bread when I was gainfully employed.  I found that hand kneading allowed me to work off most of my frustrations with my work and with my boss.  Beating, punching, slamming, and otherwise wrecking physical abuse on the dough made good bread and allowed me to keep my job.  I really did like the type of work I did (chemical research), but sometimes ----