Food Processor Bread Recipe

Most dough recipes don't give you options for kneading. Usually they're written for one type of machine or they're written for hand kneading, without a machine in sight. What if the recipe sounds wonderful, but you don't have the proper equipment?

I've seen very few dough recipes that would be impossible to convert from one method to another. Well, no-knead would be a little silly in the bowl of your food processor, but otherwise it's just a matter of changing a few things to convert from one style of kneading to the other.

Generally, the things that need to be changed are the amount of time you need to knead and the order you add ingredients.

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But here's the thing about timing: in my opinion, any recipe that tells you to knead for a specific amount of time but doesn't give you any visual cues isn't a good recipe. There are too many variables that affect the gluten development, so time is not the best indicator. Sure, you can give a rough estimate so someone knows if they'll be kneading for 30 seconds or 20 minutes, but precise timing is impossible if you're using someone else's recipe.

Yes, there are exceptions to my it's a bad recipe rule. Not many. Kneading early in the process may be all about mixing and less about gluten development, so watching the clock is fine. But instructions to knead for 10 minutes before shaping a loaf is much less useful.

So, if you're relying on visual cues to tell you whether the kneading is done, converting from one kneading method to another means that you can rely on your senses rather than the clock. It's helpful to have an idea of when to check the dough, and that's most important with the food processor, since it's so much faster.

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My rule of thumb with any dough in the food processor is to stop and check the dough shortly after it forms a ball. At that point, I check the gluten development and make sure there aren't any bits of dry ingredients or wet dough that need to be incorporated into the main dough ball. Sometimes there will be dry flour or a bit of wet goop just under the blade or bits of stray dough too high for the dough ball to reach, so I gather those up.

Then I continue processing in short bursts, maybe 15-30 seconds each, checking the dough each time to see if the gluten has developed fully and to let the dough rest and cool if it has become too warm.

When it comes to adding ingredients, the food processor makes it easy. Generally you start with all of the flour and similar dry ingredients (along with butter or oil, if you're using it) in the food processor bowl, including the yeast, if you're using instant yeast. If you're using active dry yeast, it's common to proof it in just a small amount of the water - about 1/4 cup.

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The processor is first pulsed a few times to mix the dry ingredients and break up the bits of butter or oil. Then the liquids are added. With the exception of the proofed yeast in warm water, all of the liquids should be cold when they are added, to help keep the dough temperature down.

If you're proofed yeast in warm water, that goes in first, followed by the rest of the water or other liquids. All of the liquids should be added while the food processor is running, and as fast as the flour can absorb them. You don't want to add the liquid all at once, or you'll end up with a sloppy, sloshy mess that will take a long time to incorporate. When the dough begins to form a ball, it has enough moisture. Depending on the recipe, you can add more liquid, as needed.

Using a food processor is fast and efficient, and it makes kneading completely effortless. It also requires fewer steps, since all of the wet ingredients are added to all of the dry ingredients, so there's no need to think about adding items separately.

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Since the processor is so efficient at kneading and so powerful, there's no concern about salt toughening the dough and making it harder to knead, or oil coating the strands of gluten - it powers through everything without hesitation and creates a smooth, silky, elastic dough.

That speed and power also makes the food processor very abusive to any add-ins. Chunks of cheese can become shreds in no time, and even seeds and nuts can take a beating. These need to be added to food processor recipes at the very end, and gently pulsed to combine, or they should be kneaded in by hand.

The speed and efficiency of the food processor also makes it a little bit harder to adjust recipes, so it's best to work with a tested formula. Once that ball of dough is formed, kneading is very close to being done. Trying to add more liquid or flour to correct the hydration at that point can lead to overheating or even overkneading the dough.Back in the early 1980s, when I first began working for Cuisinart as their national spokesperson, one of my responsibilities was to develop new recipes for the food processor. I loved bread, all sorts of bread, but the one that challenged me the most was 100 percent whole wheat bread. I had no luck making a light-textured sandwich loaf until I tried doing the job with the food processor. A whole wheat kernel is about 80 percent protein and carbohydrate (endosperm), 17 percent bran (fiber), and 3% wheat germ (proteins and fats).  I felt that if I could soften the bran sufficiently so that its sharp edges wouldn’t damage the developing gluten molecules during kneading, there just may be a chance for my idea to work.

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By 1987 I had a formula and procedure that worked, but still needed a bit of tweaking. So I left things alone and re-began my quest a couple of years ago. And just this year, I have a recipe and a way of mixing the ingredients in a food processor that produces the lightest-textured whole wheat sandwich loaf I’ve ever had. The resulting dough is wet, sticky, and very elastic. It will look like a mess and you will think that something must be very wrong. But it’s just the opposite. You want a sticky messy shapeless dough. Here’s how to shape this dough into a loaf.

And one bit of really good news is you can make this bread in even the basic food processor with a 7-cup capacity. During my six years with Cuisinart, the machines I used included: DLC-10 (7-cup), DLC-8 (11-cup) and DLC-7 (14-cup). There was a larger machine, too, the DLC-X, with a 20-cup capacity, but that model tended to be the favorite of restaurant and bakery owners. You can double the recipe here if you have such a machine.

The loaf in the picture above is about 6 inches tall. Magnificent! I’ll have step by step photos to guide you along as you make this bread. You will need a kitchen scale for this recipe. So let’s bake!

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You can make this bread in a standard-size, 7-cup capacity food processor, or in a larger model that can accommodate up to 14 cups. Use the metal blade to combine most of the flour with the yeast and water. Then switch to the dough blade, let the dough rise to fill the work bowl, and process with the oil, molasses, egg, and salt. After adding the remaining flour, process some more. Total processing time is 3 minutes. The dough is sticky and elastic and messy and yet it bakes into a marvelously high, light, and tender-textured sandwich bread. This bread is especially good with peanut butter.