Here is my moms reaction this morning:
“She is going to email me as soon as I post this to tell me the standing mixer bread hook is against the rules.”
But those ten minutes of kneading ARE really the best part! Some day we can have a cook-off and once and for all see which is better, kneading or mixing. Then have a blind tasting!
AND, as my main man Christopher Kimball says machine “kneading bread can often produce an inferior loaf because the action of the mixer beats air throughout the dough, eventually stripping it of valuable flavor, color and aroma” AND “By kneading with the dough hook instead of by hand, we had unwittingly distanced ourselves from the important tactile permutations that were taking place: the dough’s temperature, its increasing elasticity and stretchiness and its tackiness” yada yada yada.
oxox, perhaps I’ll e-mail America’s test kitchen
