Conference turris::cooks

    
    By and large food processors run faster than mixers. Dough making
    generally requires lots of power (torque) at fairly low speed, and
    perhaps with an eccentric action - this suggests a mixer rather
    than a processor if dough-making is a primary concern.
    
    I have seen "kitchen centers" that appear to be primarily mixers
    with 'all the extras' including a processor attachment and pasta
    extruders etc. Since I don't own a mixer, but own several (three
    - a largish 'professional' food processor that was a wedding present,
    as well as an Oskar and a 'baby Oskar') processors, I have always
    regretted that we got the food processor before these things appeared
    on the market.
    
    /. Ian .\

I've got both.  Before I got my Kitchenaid mixer, I used the food processor
for kneading bread occasionally, but always preferred the bread I kneaded
by hand, not really knowing why.  Now I always knead it with the dough hook
in the mixer.  Warning:  it takes some getting used to; the texture of the
dough is somewhat different (wetter) when you use the mixer from the dough
you knead by hand.  Don't expect your first batch to be perfect (if it is
then you'll be pleasantly surprised, right?).  It saves an awful lot of
work, and shortens your bread-making time significantly.  Good luck! 

							Pat

    I use the food processor to knead bread dough - we bake bread nearly
    every Thursday night in our house.  It's very fast, although I always
    give the dough a few turns by hand after the processor gets through
    with it.  If you are making lots of dough, use the stubby platic
    dough-hook blade; otherwise use the knife blade (just be careful when
    removing the ball of dough - it's easy to cut yourself).  Most of the
    bread recipes we use I have had for years, so I make them by adding the
    flour to the yeast mixture inside the machine, but the newer recipes
    that add the yeast mixture to the flour instead (or add warm liquid to
    flour with yeast mixed in) are easier on the machine since the dough
    doesn't go through a super-sticky stage that way.
    
    I've never owned a big mixer; there really isn't room to store
    something that big in my place.  I hear that the Kitchenaid is a very
    good one, though.
                           

    With a food processor, you can only make one loaf of bread at a time. A
    good mixer, like a Kitchenaid, can do two. Personally I think both are
    absolutely essential, but if you have to pick which order to purchase
    them in, get the food processor first and then the mixer. And my rule
    of thumb is to buy one of the biggest food processors (same goes for
    mixers). I know more people who have traded up to a larger size on
    both.
    
    Tamzen
    

    I make lots of 2 loaf recipes in my Cuisinart.
    
    ed

    I've made bread in my Kitchenaid mixer, but found that I
    have to knead it when it's moister than the dough I hand-
    knead.  If I put more flour in, the dough crawls up the
    dough hook, around the baffle, and up to the top of the 
    attachment, which makes a MESS.  So, I usually knead it
    for a few minutes by machine and then finish up by hand,
    with extra flour on the board.  That works fine.
    
    --Louise

I feel it is a matter of use....if you bake a lot of bread, or want to,
a mixer would be much better for you than a food processor.  It will
by the nature of bread making, be a better tool for the purpose as it
will work the dough longer and that is what "brings up the gluten"
and makes for good texture.  If you have many uses for a food processor
as well as occasionally making bread, then plan on doing the initial
mixing in the cuisinart and finishing the kneading by hand to get the
bread texture right.  I bake alot and I'm saving for my kitchenaid...
but I've made it this far with the food processor, so it's really up
to you.

    
    I make lots of bread with my Kitchenaid mixer and can't say
    enough good things about it.  Never had a problem with the
    dough crawling up the hook, but I'm sure it depends largely
    on the recipe.  It's one of the best investments I've ever
    made - no doubt about it.
    
    Diane