Hand Kneading vs Dough Machine: Which is Better?

[Bella W]

Hey everyone!
I'm curious, how many of you fellow bakers make bread dough the traditional way, by hand? I've been doing it by hand since I can remember, but recently I have acquired a bread maker and it's less time consuming and easier. But, it takes away the satisfaction of doing it by hand.
Anyone else feel this way?

 

[Rubymusic1]

I do it by hand, but I don't make bread often. If I did, then i'd use a bread maker. I once had a cookery teacher at school that used to always make bread by hand. The insides of her hands collapsed over time(sounds horrible)and then she had to have her hand muscles rebuilt.

 

[SarahRTW]

I do it by hand. I like the tactile part of it, and its great stress relief

I consider using machines cheating and taking the easy way. (That's just my opinion, btw. It's not a judgement of bread machine users). Of course, that doesn't aly for people who cannot physically knead bread themselves, because of arthritis or other physical conditions.

 

[OhioTom76]

I would rather use a stand mixer personally since I feel the results would be more consistent and because it's much less messy. I get flour all over the place and it makes a mess of my hands and my sink faucets when I'm having to keep cleaning my hands repeatedly while working with the dough.

I did try a few bread machines though, but was disappointed with how well they mixed the dough. Sometimes they would miss half of the ingredients since the mixing handles were so small in them.

 

[bakeryoo]

The reason why I have not made bread yet is because of the kneading l am seriously thinking of investing in a dough machine to make my bread.

 

[sembaa9]

Hey everyone!
I'm curious, how many of you fellow bakers make bread dough the traditional way, by hand? I've been doing it by hand since I can remember, but recently I have acquired a bread maker and it's less time consuming and easier. But, it takes away the satisfaction of doing it by hand.
Anyone else feel this way?

I make bread by hand but only because the pitcher for my Ninja blender with the dough blade cracked. I really enjoyed making bread with the Ninja. Now that I am making bread by hand, I make it much less than I did before. Kneading does require more work.

 

[Meowmie]

I started baking bread by hand when I was a teenager. I loved kneading the dough. I continued to make bread that way until I was struck with MS 20 years ago. Now I use a stand mixer with a dough hook, I don't see a reason to buy yet another machine that only has one purpose.

IF I had my choice though, I'd still be kneading by hand. Once in awhile I take the dough out of the mixer and knead it a few times by hand just because I like the feel of it.

My sister in law uses a bread machine, and quite frankly, the texture is not as nice. I get the same texture with the stand mixer as I got with hand kneading.

 

[kammy]

Baking bread is something i have never done on my own as i was always aided by the skillful hands of my grandmother' to my dismay i had to do it the hard way as i don't own a dough machine which means i had to knead away.

 

[confettine]

I spent the better part of last year trying to figure out the kneading. SO many attempts, it never quite worked. I changed my ingredients, I changed my methods, I changed my kneading technique, but the dough never got to the point where it would make this nice little window stretch thing. It was a great stress relief -- but mostly my stress came from not being able to do it right XD

Maybe my hands are just too cold and untalented for such a thing.

I do have a bread maker now but it looks old and no instructions came with it when it was given to us so... I never tried it.

 

[PattyCakes]

I don't use a bread machine as I've always felt it was kind of cheating in a way. I used to do all of my bread with my hands, but because I suffer with RA, kneading can cause me a lot of pain. So, I mix my bread dough in my Kitchen Aid with the dough hook attachment, and this gives me a very good result. A few minutes of mixing in a mixer is equal to 10 minutes kneading by hand, so it gets my vote!

The machine can get the dough much smoother and more elastic than I ever could with my hands, so I feel I've found the best method for me.

 

[DancingLady]

I have never had the luxury of a dough hook as I don't currently own a large mixer. I have sure kneaded my fair share of dough by hand. I enjoy the process somewhat, but when I considered making Italian bread and found that it requires about 25 minutes of kneading, I decided to pass on that recipe until someday if I should obtain such a mixer. There is no way I have that kind of time and strength in my hands.

 

[mommyof4]

I have a bread machine and a dough hook. I also knead dough too. It just depends on what I'm making, how much I'm making and how much time I have. There are times I want to whip up some cinnamon bread for breakfast so I just throw it in the bread machine so I can get other things done while it does it's thing. But I also love to do the kneading when I have the time. When I am making a large batch of breads I will use the dough hook to save my hands and arms the pain!

 

[Trellum]

I'm seriously pondering of the possibility of making my own bread in the future, mostly because I'm worried about the additives used to make commercial bread... So investing on a bread machine sounds like a wonderful idea! Been doing everything by hand so far, but my hands feel terrible next day if I over do it.

 

[tangela]

My fiancé and I don't have a machine mix one so when he makes his own bread he usually just makes it by hand. However his mom (who has been making bread and baking for a LONG time now), has used both her hands and a machine mix (that she got recently).

She definitely thinks the machine mix is easier and faster (especially now that she is getting older and has arthritis issues). I know she still makes it by hand from time to time but as the years go on it's slowly progressing to more of a machine-mix than hand-mix.

 

[joycemcgregor]

I have been making bread for many, many years. I have always made the bread by hand. There is something about kneading dough and the feel of the dough under my hands. It is a living thing and the spring it has is just amazing. My daughter who lives with me was given a bread machine several years ago, and after trying it one time, it lives under my counter. I just did not care for the end result. It seemed to have a different taste and definitly a different texture. No one in the house cared for the end result, so under the counter it went and back to the old method and the hand kneading.

 

[Zyni]

I do mine by hand, just like my grandma taught me. I have considered purchasing a bread maker, but you know what? If I had one, I would bake bread way too often. Warm bread with real butter is something I do not need to be eating on a regular basis, lol. I tend to make it for special occasions.

If I'm tempted to make bread randomly, I think of the time, kneading, and mess, and I can usually put it it off. If I had a dough machine, I'd probably give in far more often.

 

[connie]

I prefer to knead by hand, but having recently acquired a bad back I am finding that I need to do a mixture of the two. My bread gets kneaded by the mixer to start off with and I finish off by hand. There is a definite difference in the way the dough feels when I have kneaded it by hand, but sometimes if I am making a really soft dough, I make life easy and use the mixer.
Is there a difference between the two, perhaps next time I make some bread next weekend, I'll do one loaf one way and the other the other way and mark then up and see if I can find out.