I have made bread in all ways. I have found I can not be use a food processor nor I have not come across a hand electric mixer that has the power to deal with bread dough even in small amounts and with the dough hook that is supplied with some of them.
With both handmade loaves and machine loaves I would get to grips with a basic white loaf first before experimenting.
Whichever method I use when baking in my ordinary oven I know it doesn’t matter if it proves (left to rise) for to long because it can always be knocked back (to punch the air out of it) a quick knead and shaped before leaving to rise again for a short period before putting in the oven.
Hand (Free standing food mixer or hand mixed)
By hand I put the mixed dry ingredients in a bowl or on a work bench make a well in the middle and start to add the water and bring the ingredients together. On a work bench knead for around 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky to the touch and is very pliable when stretched.
In a free standing food mixer (Kenwood chef or Kitchen Aid) I use the dough hook and add the wet ingredients to the dry while it is running and knead for a few minutes. Turn out onto a work surface to check the readiness of the dough. If it is not ready I don’t bother returning it to the mixer as the dough only needs a very small amount of kneading until it is ready.
With either of the above methods the dough is left to rise before baking depending on the recipe this could be once, twice or more and can take as much as several hours in the rising processes. Then cooked in a preheated oven to a heat specified in the recipe you are using.
The drawbacks of a hand made loaf is that although you can go off and do other jobs, even go out, while it is rising you have to be around to preheat and put the loaf in the oven and while it cooks.
Bread Machine
I use this in two ways firstly to make a loaf from beginning to end using the settings on the machine itself. As well as the booklet you will get with your machine there are plenty of good books on the subject.
Following the instructions for your particular machine you add either the wet or dry ingredients first into the pan supplied with your machine fitted with a paddle. Set the machine to the correct setting out of those available on your machine switch on and that is it. It will tell you on the machine or in the instructions how long it will take for that setting. You can even set it on timer to have fresh bread cooked when you get up or when you get in from work.
The second way I use the machine is to mix the dough on my machine’s dough setting. This mixes and proves the dough ready to be unloaded from the machine and shaped. Handy if I want to do something for 1 ½ hours (it takes 1hour 40 minutes) or if the room temperature is not warm enough to help the dough rise happily such as early spring and although not warm outside the room temperature is cool but not cold enough for me to put the heating on.
The draw backs of the machine method I find is that there is a hole in the base of the loaf the size of the paddle and secondly if you are not at home when the loaf is finished it can over cook slightly as the machine cools down.
