That bakery owner told me to skip the commercial mixer and I paid for it

A lady who runs a popular bakery in Portland said I could mix my brioche by hand and it would be fine, so I tried it for a big order of 60 loaves last Saturday. By the third batch my arms were dead and the dough was way too warm, ruined half of them. Anyone else get bad advice from someone who should know better?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.river11d ago

Ngl that's rough but also kind of funny in a painful way. Honestly I got similar bad advice from a baker about using a cheap stand mixer for cookie dough. She said any mixer would work and now my KitchenAid smells like burning plastic every time I make chocolate chip cookies. Tbh I should have known better because mixing big batches by hand is just asking for trouble unless you're superhuman. Your arms must have been screaming after 60 loaves, that's brutal.

jenny_lee11d ago

Kinda feels like we both got burned by bad baking advice, except your stand mixer is doing the burning for you. My forearms are still mad at me three days later, I think I pulled something trying to fold in the last batch of dough. Now I'm eyeing my neighbor's KitchenAid with straight envy, praying they don't notice me staring through their window at 6 PM.

fiona_carr2611d ago

You ever have a friend who thinks they're some kind of baking genius? My buddy Mark tried to impress his girlfriend with sourdough. Used a cheap hand mixer for the starter. Thing caught fire mid-knead. Smoke everywhere. His cat hid under the couch for two hours. Girlfriend was not impressed. Still brings it up at dinner parties.