A baking thread

[PuddingFace]

Any of you serious bakers use a stand mixer? Been making some bread here last couple weekends, if the trend continues will probably be looking into one, and wanted to solicit some recommendations.

Size - typical doughs are using about 500g flour - is a 4.5 qt unit enough, or should i go bigger?
Brand - obviously kitchenaid is the standard, but are other units adequate? Cuisinart’s looks nice at a moderate price point. Would stay away from names I haven’t heard of unless someone recommends otherwise.
Attachments/accessories - anything you find indispensable? I’d rather either do a task manually or by the right tool rather than buy something that does a half-assed job, but I don’t know the entirety of the attachment lineup for these units.

I have a 5qt kitchenaid artisan series that I sometimes use for bread. It's ok for dough, but 500g of flour would be about the most it could handle with the dough hook. Even with that, if I were to leave it on for 4-5 minutes, the motor would get pretty warm, and you start to notice some unpleasant smells. Have you tried no-knead bread? That stuff is amazing, and remarkably simple to make.

I haven’t tried it. Looks simple but very sticky. Have been making some recipes out of one of Paul Hollywood’s books, which tend to be very wet, which prompted the interest in the mixer. Good info about that being maybe the upper limit of the mixer, thanks.

I was planning to make french bread this weekend, and found a no-knead version to try out. Will report back.

[GrainsAndGains]

I use my stand mixer a lot, also a KitchenAid. I mostly use it for enriched doughs - challah, milk bread, dinner rolls, stuff like that. Honestly my forearms and elbows are so sore most of the time from lifting that hand-kneading can be a pretty painful experience. The 500g number is probably about right, you might be able to get up to 600g but even that might be pushing it, you'd have to keep your eye on the dough for sure.

No-knead bread is great, but I mostly use the stretch and fold technique, which is sort of halfway between hand-kneading and no-knead. You bring the mixture together by hand or stirring, and then sort of fold it over itself a few times over a couple of hours to build strength in the gluten. Really wet, sticky dough is intimidating, and working with it is somewhat counterintuitive, but after a few loaves you'll be much more confident working with high-hydration bread. The method described in Flour Water Salt Yeast is excellent for beginners.