Thursday, December 14, 2006

Doh!

Yesterday I wanted to make a loaf of bread for dinner to eat with the Creamy Squash Soup I was making from the latest issue of VegNews. At lunch I put all the ingredients in my bread machine and set the timer so the dough would be ready at 5pm to take out and bake. When we got home from work I looked inside and the powdered yeast was still sitting on the top.

I tried again today and the dough cycle just doesn’t start. I think the motor is burned out.

Since I like hand-shaped loaves and pizza crust the best, I asked Sarah if she thought I should just buy something to “knead” the dough, like a kitchenaid mixer? I rarely bake square loaves.

Her response:

That is sad.

I thought about the kitchenaid option, but remember that you still have to do all the proofing work. The dough cycle does all that for you. So just keep those extra steps in mind if you go that route.

Oh, I forgot to tell you the happy ending!

We dumped out the ingredients to test the breadmaker without them. After determining the machine was kaputz, instead of throwing the stuff out, I just kneaded it together, let it proof in the oven for 45 min, then shaped into a loaf and baked for 25 min. It was edible!

Thus my analysis:

New breadmaker = $200
Kitchenaid mixer = $300 (but oh, so sexy)
Book = $30

I think for now I’ll research a bread-making book and just try the old-fashioned way for a while.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everybody sells their rarely used bread machines at garage sales. I'm not a big garage saler but I do like a bargain so I go occasionally and you usually only have to go to a few of them to find someone selling one. I don't think a kitchen aid is worth it. If you want a machine like that try the bosch universal or the bosch concept mixer (which functionally is exactly like the universal but more compact). On Froogle you can find the bosch universal for $300. Check out this website. http://www.dvo.com/bosch-mixer.html The video does a great job demonstrating both the kitchen aid and the bosch side by side. Now, the bosch is definitely not as sexy, but looks aren't everything!!

Pamela said...

I haven't really made bread with it, but I have a kitchenaid stand mixer in empire red. It's so hot. My husband surprised me with it in May. Mostly I use it to make cinnamon buns and pizza dough.

That wasn't helpful!