P.J.: I agree with you and Tiara Koo. I love being able to do something else while the dough is rising, and I also don't like the size and shape of the finished bread, so I always do it in the regular oven. I can knead by hand, but I tend to be sloppy, so the machine is much neater-another plus. A big plus, as it seems the neater I try to be, the more it backfires. The only time I don't use the machine is for some of the more complicated babka recipes I have, where you add the stick of butter a pat at a time, but I'm thinking it out. It would be much easier, as I have a very old stand mixer that doesn't have a paddle. It worked well with my hand-held, but it was a chore.

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