Food processor. It has a "dough blade"... Now... What I do... is... uh...
errr.. What I do is... um... uh... to make bread...

Nothing could be easier. To start with, I would suggest that you read the
instruction book that came with the FP. Here is my method:

I put all the dry ingredients into the bowl of the FP. I get best result
when I limit the amount of flour to about 4 cups. I use instant dry yeast
(also known as "bread machine yeast") and add that with the other dry
ingredients. I pulse a few times to mix. Then I add the wet ingredients
through the feed tube. If there are eggs, I start with them. If there is
solid fat, I add that next. The liquid (usually warmed, and sometimes
combined with melted fat) is then slowly added to the feed tube. I like to
add a little liquid and then pulse a few time, alternating until the dough
starts to form clumps. I then turn the motor on and slowly add as much
liquid as needed to form a ball that rotates around the bowl. If you add
too much liquid too fast, it will go sticky and my stall out the machine.
If this happen, add about a half cup more flour and try pulsing. If that
doesn't work, remove the dough and add it back in portions with a little
flour. Once you learn the characteristics of your machine, you will be able
to make dough in a couple of minutes without any problems.

After the ball forms, I let it rotate around the bowl about 40 times, or up
to one minute. The dough is removed from the machine and rested a few
minutes. Then I knead a few times and form a ball.

Here is a link to some videos showing the use of a FP in dough making:
http://tinyurl.com/7777x

I knew I'd find out here! I gor the cuisenart at a garage sale for $5.00
(no book) I looked up on the web to tey to find a manual, you know maybe an
adobe acrobat. It's a cuisenart "Classic" I'm very excited! I really
appreciate the help!

Definitely a find for $5. I LOVE my FP, but it there is a bit of a learning
curve. I use mine primarily for dough making. In fact, I just got a new
Wolfgang Puck FP a couple weeks ago for my birthday. It reacts a bit
different than by old Braun FP. With the Braun, I could add the liquid in a
steady stream and a dough ball would form. With the new FP, if I don't
start by pulsing the machine a few times, the liquid seems to pool near the
blade, making a very wet dough around the spindle, with a lot of flour near
the outside of the bowl. When the outside flour does incorporate, the dough
is too sticky and stalls the machine - all 900 watts. After a couple
batches, I adjusted my technique and now have no problems.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can quickly raise the temperature of
the dough with the friction produced by the blade. That's why it is a good
idea to limit kneading to about 1 minute. In "How to Cook," Julia Child
suggest stopping the machine after the dough comes together and letting it
rest before turning the machine back on to knead. This lets the dough
hydrate more evenly and lets it cool. I don't do it this way myself and
don't have any problems.

You might browse the cookbook section of a large bookstore. They will have
a section called "appliance cooking" where there should be some books on
using food processors.

Thanks a lot!

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