The KitchenAid Workout

I am blessed to be the proud owner/operator of a KitchenAid stand mixer.  It was given to me as a gift by another blessing in my life, my mother-in-law.  She gave it to me for Christmas, maybe four years ago?  I had just broken our third hand mixer trying to make my yummy Snickerdoodle cookies, which have proved too much for the tiny motors.  So I was bummed to have my Christmas cookie baking stopped by the loss of the mixer.  And then, Christmas evening at the in-laws', I opened the best present I have ever gotten.  Yes.  You read that right.  Unless you want to call my kids presents, but none of them came at Christmas, and when I had James I got to spend my birthday in c-section recovery, so...the mixer is the best.  If you are just starting out, living on your own or with friends, and you have hand-me-down dishes from your dead grandma and mismatched silverware that you swiped from various restaurants and only 2 mugs to drink out of that you bought at the airport giftshop the week you moved to a new city, get yourself a KitchenAid mixer, it is totally worth the expense!  It is the only item in your kitchen that you absolutely need. 

Its taken me a while to really test the abilities of my mixer, mostly because its foreign territory.  I wasn't doing too much with the hand mixer beyond mashed potatoes and cookies.  But recently, I heard, from a few different sources, how making bread at home is both cheaper and healthier than buying bread at the store.  And it seemed as though I was constantly running back to the store within a few days to buy more bread.  So as the summer craziness segued into the autumn calm, I started making my own bread.  I got started by using my friend's recipe, which tasted pretty good, and made the house smell amazing.  It took a few tries to figure out the best flour to buy, where to find a huge quantity of yeast, and how exactly to use the KitchenAid mixer to knead the dough so that my bread would come out fluffy, but I am now sharing here with confidence that I make good bread.  The recipe my family is taking to with gusto is a simple white sandwich bread from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  She is a big believer in the pre-ferment, which gives homemade bread the obvious advantage over storebought by making it taste and smell a little tangy.  I have simplified her instructions to work within the constraints of a day filled with energetic children, so here goes:

Its best to start this recipe before 1pm, so that you are pulling it out of the oven before you want to collapse in bed.  That being said, there are only a few steps to follow, which can easily be done in the lulls between active play, lunch, running errands, etc.

1. Make the sponge.  This is the pre-ferment and it gives the bread an amazing flavor.
In the mixer, combine flour (2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons), warm water (1 3/4 cups), yeast (3/4 teaspoon), and honey (2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) and wisk for 2 minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, mix flour (2 cups plus 3 tablespoons), dry milk (1/4 cup), and yeast (3/4 teaspoon), then sprinkle on top of the sponge.  Cover and leave at room temp for 1-4 hours.

3. Mix everything together with the dough hook on your mixer, and add one stick of butter that has been softened.  Next add salt (2 teaspoons) and then turn your KitchenAid up to speed 4 for 7-10 minutes to really knead the dough well.  This is when the mixer starts to "dance" and my 3 year old goes nuts in the middle of the kitchen trying to match its movement, so I stay right there and make sure that sucker doesn't go jitterbugging off the counter.  The dough starts to pull away from the edges of the bowl towards the end, and you're about done when it starts flopping around like a rag doll being carried by a toddler.

4. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl or dough-rising container.  Cover tightly and let it rise until its doubled its size, at least 2 hours.  You can do some additional kneading and poking, but I tend to just let it rise and move on to step 5.

5. Split the dough in two, and place in oiled bread pans.  Allow to rise again, at least an hour.

6. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.  The bread will rise a little more in the oven, and come out with a golden crust and soft white insides.  Let it cool and freeze your second loaf.  Start slicing up the first and serve with peanut butter, turkey slices, grilled cheese, french toast, apple butter, or au naturel. 

I hope you enjoy my recipe.  Let me know how it goes for you, or if you find any other great recipes for making some kind of bread at home, be it rolls, loaves, muffins, dessert breads.  And buy a KitchenAid for your daughter-in-law some day, she will revere you and hold you in highest esteem :)