"Do I need a stand mixer?"
This question has been asked a lot lately, so perhaps a short post on that topic is in order.
Bread can most certainly be made(successfully, even!) without a stand mixer. I've done it that way quite a lot, especially when I'm making four loaves at a time. My mixer isn't really large enough to accommodate four loaves worth of dough, and so I find it to be really annoying to try to use the it for large quantities.
You'll need to change two things when you're doing this by hand instead of in the mixer:
1) You need to use slightly cooler liquids and dissolve the yeast in those liquids.
Most of the recipes I post instruct you to combine the dry ingredients and then add hot liquids that are about 120 degrees. If you're mixing by hand, you'll only want the liquids to be 100-110 degrees. You should take a bit of the warm liquid(¼ cup or so) and dissolve the yeast in that liquid first, and then you can proceed with the recipe.
For instance, if you were making the french bread by hand, you would dissolve the yeast in a bit of the water and then add it to the dry ingredients along with the rest of the warm water.
2) You need to knead the dough longer by hand.
I mostly use the mixer to shorten the kneading time...the mixer stretches the gluten, which means that you don't need to work so hard at developing it by hand. So, unless you have an incredibly powerful mixing arm, hand mixed dough will need a longer kneading time.
To check if the dough has been sufficiently kneaded, give it a quick poke with one finger. If the indentation bounces back quickly, you're done kneading. If it's slow to fill in, though, you need to carry on with the kneading for a little while longer.
All that said, I do highly recommend investing in a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer if you plan to do a lot of baking. A stand mixer isn't cheap, but I think it's one of the most useful kitchen appliances a baker can own. I use it for cookies, cakes, frosting, beating egg whites, whipping cream, and of course, making bread dough. Of course you can make all those things by hand...people have been doing it for centuries. The stand mixer just makes the process a lot easier. And since the Kitchen Aid multi-tasks pretty well(unlike a bread machine), I think it's a good use of money and counter space.
p.s. You most definitely do NOT need a stand mixer to make most non-yeast breads, i.e. biscuits, pancakes, muffins. In fact, it's better to mix those sorts of doughs and batters by hand in order to avoid turning out tough baked goods. I'll talk more about that when I finally get around to that gluten post I've been promising. 😉
Heh, I used to say you didn't need a stand mixer ... until I bought one. Tonight I made homemade soft pretzels in mine and honestly I can't imagine being without it.
I am on the fence about this one. I mix everything by hand (or when it comes to whipped cream and egg whites I let my husband loose with the old fashioned metal hand mixer we have, non electric) and when people comment on my baked goods, on how they did everything the way I said and it still didn't turn out the same, the only thing they did differently is used a mixer. So I don't know, I am beginning to think on some things hand mixing seems to allow me to make sure everything is mixed properly, as well as give me a feel for when it's ready to bake. When we got married 2 years ago I wanted a mixer, and now I think......I like kneading dough, because it allows me to work out my aggression when my husband is acting a fool!
*drooling*
I can't wait to get one of these!!!
How did you know! I've been lusting after one of these for at least a year, and almost broke my budget buying myself one as a xmas gift (to myself!) but I've resisted, so far. Let me know when you're ready to upgrade to a more powerful model and I'll buy your old one from you!
I love my stand mixer. It makes everything wonderful...:)
I grew up with a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer, and in addition to being a wonderful tool for baking, it has several attachments that can make healthy, frugal food even easier. For example, my parents used the food grinding attachment to make homemade sausage from super-cheap uncooked hams they obtained in bulk from the local butcher. If you're going to go completely organic with your meats, having the ability to make your own sausage is really helpful, since as a more processed food they tend to be more expensive.
Also, the food grinding attachment can be used to make ground meat (for tacos, etc.) out of almost any cheap cut. So if those chuck roasts are on sale for cheaper than the ground meat (happens frequently at my Target), pick up a few, run one or two through the grider, and presto! Ground beef. Same can be said for pork, etc.
I've seen the pasta making attachment used, but I haven't used it myself. It seems like it would be a handy attachment, too, for making homemade ravioli and lasagna noodle.
I love my Kitchen-Aid mixer. I use it quite often. I also bought a large food processor about a year ago. Those two items where the best investments in my kitchen.
@Kalee Kalee, one thing I'm learning is that methods are one of the most important parts of baking and that no two people do things the same way. Sure most anyone knows how to make up a batch of dough but I saw my sister attempt to make cookies (creaming method) and they came out flat and overly chewy. I guess she hasn't mastered the creaming method (which the Kitchenaid does marvelously)
I hate kneading dough and with the dough hook I never plan on doing it again. 😉
I really want to get a stand mixer, but the good ones are like $300! I'll get one someday, but for now I use my bread machine to mix and knead the dough.
I got a Kitchen-aid mixer from my boyfriend 2 Christmas's ago. Everyone teased him for getting me a domestic present, but I looooooooooved it.
@Frugal Liz If you aren't picky on color Amazon routinely has the Artisan (same as Kristen) on sale for $250. For me, I don't need anything more than that personally but it's up to you. You could opt for the Williams-Sonoma copper plated version if you are made of money. ~_^
One other thing to mention is that the KitchenAid mixers are made in America (Ohio I think) and can actually be repaired if they break down. So I look at mine as a lifetime investment. The only thing that I expect to outlast it are my cast iron skillets.
I swear I don't work for KitchenAid, I'm just a fanboy!
I got mine over a decade ago and still love it and use it frequently. KA is consistently rated head and shoulders above other brands for sturdiness and durability. In other words, the frugal choice! Not the cheapest but the best value.
I think its biggest benefits are for creaming butter and sugar and for kneading bread, but I use it for a lot of other things as well. I have the meat grinder attachement, which also gets a lot of work. For me it's not as much about price (gasp! but my store sells ground meat very cheaply) as safety. Meat goes bad as a function of its surface area. Ground meat has a LOT of surface area. Throw in the fact that some stores turn older meat into ground meat, I'm not fully comfortable with the commercial product.
This has an unexpected side benefit. When I grind meat to make meatloaf, I also throw in the onion and the potatoes. The veggies are perfectly small and well integrated into the meat, its much faster than using a safely grater (especially for the onion!), and the veggies clear out the pricier meat from the grinder. The raw stuff makes excellent beef tartare too.
There's an ice cream bowl attachement but that is not the frugal choice unless you find a really good sale. The KA bowl is $70 for one. A Cuisinart ice cream maker is $50 and I got two freezer bowls with mine. I'm thinking about the delicious ice cream our Frugal Gal could make with happy eggs and her cow-fresh raw milk. Yum!
I've had a look at some KA mixers, but there seems to be many different models. Which one would you recommend?
Is it at all possible to get a machine that does the work of a stand mixer as well as a food processor?