Eliminating Paddle Butt
Posted on March 6, 2008 - Filed Under Baking, Bread, Food, Kitchen Gadgets
I’ve been making my own bread from scratch for years now, and since my diagnosis, I make it quite often so that I don’t have all kinds of extra unnecessary junk ingredients in there. I still enjoy trying new recipes but I always return to my simple basics since they are the most versatile and reliable. Although it is a bit of time and work, nothing beats homemade bread - the smell of it cooking, the satisfaction of knowing what is in it, the end result of a nice warm slice (just to test that it came out okay, of course). 
Over the years, I’ve received bread makers from well-intentioned people as gifts. These were beautiful machines and worked well. One was a single loaf maker and the other a double loaf maker. However, I say “was” because I never used these machines beyond once or twice. They then sat in the basement collecting dust for a few years until I decided to sell them at a recent yard sale. I still prefer to use my own two hands when it comes to bread making. I’ll tell you why.
With both of my bread machines, I pored over the instructions, carefully added ingredients, meticulously programmed, waited patiently, and cooked beautiful loaves of bread. These had great color, taste and texture. So why would I want to continue to do so much work by hand? Because regardless of how good they smelled and tasted, these dang breadmaker loaves always came out with a paddle in their butt that had to be removed, thereby ruining a perfectly good portion of the bread loaf. This irritated me to no end. I hated getting so close to perfect and then having to extricate a paddle from the butt of my bread loaf which would invariably deform it because there really wasn’t an easy way to get that paddle out of its butt. It seemed like such a waste to me. I could never present a good-looking whole bread loaf as a gift to anyone and it made me feel so defeated.
Now I know a few bakers who only use their machines for mixing and rising and then shape their own loaves by hand. But for me, I can use my Kitchenaid stand mixer to mix and knead the bread if I want and it can rise in a prewarmed oven. I don’t need a separate bulky appliance to do it. Then I can shape my loaves any way I want to (paddle butt is not one of the shapes I ever choose), and it really isn’t that much more work to do it that way. I also like to knead by hand though - it is very therapeutic and it gives you a “feel” for the dough and for knowing when it is ready - something that you will never “learn” if you always let a machine do it. So, this is how I eliminate paddle butt from my bread loaves. To eliminate paddle butt from my body, I’d need to go to the gym more and eat less bread!
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LOL I remember talking to you about this before, and, folks, it really is a huge pet peeve for our Teeni! LOL I prefer to make mine by hand too, so you arent alone!! Im sorry I missed the tea party! Hope you had fun!!
Sorry if I’ve already bent your ear about this before Calamity - some things really do get stuck in my craw. LOL. I’m so glad you are back - you were missed. It’s too quiet around here without you.
I confess I use the breadmaker for mixing and rising the dough. But not pizza dough.
Well, of course every person should do what works for them. I just can’t see having a separate appliance for that. I have a lot of kitchen gadgets that I use frequently (I’ve been collecting them since I started eating healthier) and I can’t give up the room for a breadmaker when I can do it myself or use other things to do the same job. I like making pizza dough too - yum!
I’m lazy and I use the bread machine, sometimes I bake it in the regular oven though… But I find breadmaker bread has a slightly different taste than bread from scratch.
How do you deal with the paddle butt? The taste - it might be different because different flours are used for breadmakers? I don’t remember since it’s been a while since I’ve actually used the machines.
Paddle butt has never really bothered me. The end of the bread is really crusty anyway so I just make bread crumbs out of it or cut it up for crutons or just feed the birds!
Oh, now THAT’s a great idea! I love feeding the birds.
i think i could live off of homemade bread. true it is time consuming but it tastes soooo good. especially warm with some yummy butter or cheese. i have never used a bread machine. i mix and knead all my bread by hand. on my blog i have a few bread recipes that i am always coming back to. i also have an irish soda bread recipe which doesn’t require time to rise. this is great if you reallllllly need some bread.
Oh, that’s right! I’m glad you brought that up. I may have to check that out because don’t we all have days when you just reallllly need some bread? I know I sure do.
I never minded the paddle butt as I like the heal of fresh baked bread and that was first piece I would test. Ha. But to be honest-I don’t like the taste of bread from a machine. I let it mix and rise in it and then I pull it and let it rise again in the pans and then bake. But I think you already knew this.
Hmm - Paige mentioned a different taste from the machine too. I wonder what causes that. LOL@ tasting the paddle butt end. For me it is too tempting and I don’t need to be taste testing all the loaves. I’m trying to avoid paddle butt on my body.
We make all own bread in the bread machine and I am so with you ont he bread butt!!! It is so annoying.
I wish I had your ambition, I just leave the ruined pieces for hubby
I just wish there was a machine that didn’t have to leave a paddle in there. But I’m betting your hubby doesn’t mind at all.
I don’t have a bread maker and have never made bread. I KNOW!! How awful is that? I tried to make bread once, but the yeast I got from the corner shop (yeah, big mistake) was about 10 years old.
I didn’t really know what paddle butt was … so thanks for enlightening me!
Someday you’ll have to give it a try Hannah - you’ll love it (but NOT with yeast from the corner shop - so sad, all your hard work must have been for naught). You could do it with the boys sometime - make a double recipe and let them each make their own min-loaf. Yum! and Fun!
Nice post and I just wanted to say hi. I know I have been offline for a while but that is how my life goes lol!
Everyone has been worried/wondering about you. You need to update everyone so they know what you’ve been up to. And “Hi” back at ya!
Teeni, I’ve only made homemade bread once. I just don’t find the time. Maybe I’ll try this weekend - I have a new breadmaker and it’s in the basement. It sounded like a “must have” at the time, I used it 2x’s and it went to the basement to collect dust
It really can be hard to find the time. I totally understand that, Lumpy. But if you do get the time, it is well worth it. If you make it this weekend you will need to post about it of course.
I havent made any bread (besides banaananaa bread) since going gluten-free, but I too have a machine. And it is also dust covered, and has only been used once. I prefer using my hands, and besides it being therapeutic, it’s FUN.
Paddle butt is no fun. And you’re right, it doesn’t look good.
PS. Oh, the terms you’re gonna get now from mentioning paddle and butt together. .hahaaa!
I agree - kneading the dough is fun. It’s like Play-Doh for grownups!
Yeah, I’m keeping an eye open for those search terms.
I just tried making calzone dough in the kitchen aid and, well, it sucked! Any secrets you want to share?
Wow - that stinks. And yeah - calzone dough is just pizza dough, so I would recommend this recipe - just use your kitchenaid to mix it with the dough hook and then you can let it rise in a separate greased bowl. http://www.recipezaar.com/70165 - This recipe doesn’t specify how much sugar to put in with the warm water so I use 1 teaspoon. I also substitute one cup of whole wheat flour for the regular flour. You can halve this recipe or make the whole recipe and freeze half so I like this one. I think the real trick is having good yeast and the warm water at the right temperature. I have some candy thermometers from making my own soap and I get the best results when my water temp is 110F when I put the sugar and yeast in there. Also, after the dough has rested/risen, I sprinkle my pizza stone with cornmeal and plunk the dough right on it and roll it to size with a rolling pin. I don’t know if anyone else does that but it works for me! I would think you could do the same thing for calzones and then just place your filling in the middle of the dough and fold it over.
ummmm…I can smell the fresh bread.
Yeah, I really need to learn to not blog about things that make me hungry!
Hahaha, I had NO idea what this post was about when I read the title!!! But it was fantastic, and do you know how much I want to stick my face into a fresh loaf of bread right now!???!?!
MMM - Warm bread right out of the oven makes me want to do that too!
ha ha teeni! paddle butt, that’s hilarious, i’m chuckling! smile smile. I agree with you, I like making bread by hand, and my dad would also agree with you. They have a bread maker and don’t use it, because, you’re right, you just don’t get a feel for it. Plus it is satisfying to make it from scratch all by hand isn’t it? The dough likes to be loved on.
“Loved on.” That is an awesome way to put it! No wonder homemade bread from scratch tastes good and makes you feel all cozy when you eat it! Because it has been loved on.
Great description!