The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [161]
FOOD PROCESSORS
In your kitchen, you may already have a food processor with its special kneading blade. Your machine’s manufacturer will have included instructions for kneading dough; please do compare them with our instructions. But whole wheat dough is substantially different from white-flour dough, and the method we present takes these differences into account.
Most processors can handle only one loaf at a time, and sometimes only part of one, but they are so fast that if you have nerves of steel, you could process several loaves in sequence in less time than it would take you to knead two loaves by hand. When you want to prepare a standard two-loaf recipe, measure out the ingredients for each loaf separately, except the yeast. Prepare the yeast according to the directions in the recipe, and then when it is time to add it to the bowl, stir it thoroughly and pour in just half.
Keep in mind that the pitfall of using a food processor is that it works so fast and so efficiently that you can easily overknead the dough. Stop the machine often and feel the dough to see whether it is ready, using the criteria described in A Loaf for Learning.
Mixing & kneading whole wheat bread with a food processor
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water required in your recipe. Assemble all the other ingredients. Use cool liquids for the rest of the recipe; the processor will heat the dough by as much as 25°F. If you take the temperature of your mixed ingredients before and after processing the first few times you make bread, you can learn to gauge the actual amount your own machine heats the dough, and use this information to plan how warm the water should be in future bakings.
Put the flour and salt in the work bowl and pulse until mixed, about 15 seconds. Add the liquids and then the yeast mixture in a steady stream while the processor is running. (If you are adding butter, or ingredients like nuts and raisins, set them aside for now.) Add the liquids as fast as you can and still give them a chance to mix well. If you work too slowly here, the dough will become stiff. Add liquid until the flour comes together as a dough ball, then stop the machine to feel the dough.
With a little practice, you will learn how much liquid to add how fast. If the liquid measure is too much for the amount of flour, the dough will feel mushy and probably stick under the blade and strain the motor—the machine may even stop. Turn it off and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, bringing the dough up over the blade and center post. Sprinkle a tablespoon or two of flour over the dough and process, repeating until the dough is not so soft.
If you’re not adding enough water, the dough will be dry and hard—so much so that the blade may turn without moving the dough. If this happens, stop the machine and cut the dough into pieces. Put it back into the bowl and sprinkle it with a tablespoon of water. Turn on the processor and, with the machine running, gradually add more water as needed until the dough softens. If the liquids have not blended evenly into the dough, the underside where the blade is turning will become very soft, even sticky, while a hard ball forms on top. If this happens, remove the dough and cut up the hard part. Replace it in the work bowl with the softer part on top. Then process the dough again, adding more water a tablespoon at a time if necessary until the dough is soft and cohesive.
If your recipe calls for adding cold butter to partly kneaded dough, add it about halfway through processing.
Add raisins, nuts, etc., at the very end, or by hand after processing is finished.
Once the dough feels reasonably soft, process it very briefly; then feel again carefully to evaluate it. Moisten your fingers with water and squeeze the dough. It should be soft enough that you don’t feel any