Monday Mix 5/8/23

Happy Mondays, everyone. I went on something of a mini-rant over on twitter on Friday, about how the manuals for all models of Kitchen Aid stand mixers (including the $800, 8 quart, “professional” one) state that you shouldn’t knead bread in the mixer at speeds higher than 2 and/or for longer than 4 minutes at a time. Which obviously isn’t how I — or nearly everyone else in the known universe — write machine-mixed bread recipes, which poses something of a problem. I’m working on a much longer rant (and a general overview of using stand mixers for bread dough), to arrive sometime soon.

But in the meantime, I have a guest post for you today — from my pal Dayna Evans — which I am sending out a couple of days early, since it is time-sensitive: The story of The Blanton Museum’s “Blanton Bake-off,” an annual art-inspired baking competition that you all should compete in. The deadline for entries is 5/16, eight days from today, so there’s still loads of time to get in on it. (If you do submit, let me know and I’ll share your entries here too.)

Stay tuned for it to arrive in your inboxes not long after this one.

—Andrew