Rant: My stand mixer bread method changed after a failed sourdough in March

I used to dump everything in my mixer and let it run for 10 minutes, thinking more kneading meant better bread. Then in March I tried a sourdough recipe and it came out like a brick, dense and flat. A friend who bakes professionally told me to switch to folding the dough by hand every 30 minutes for 3 hours instead. That one change fixed my crumb structure completely, now I only use the mixer for the initial blend. Even my regular sandwich loaves got lighter and taller without the extra kneading. Has anyone else dumped their mixer for hand folding after a bad bake? What worked for you?

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james_bell26d ago

Mixer's for the easy part, hands do the real work now. Same thing happened to me after one brick loaf.

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