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Don't Bother with a Dough Blade

Are the dough blades that come with many food processors worth using?

Many food processors come with dough blades, which typically feature short, blunt arms that gently pull and tear dough to knead it. But because the short arms don’t extend to the outside rim of the work bowl, they’re limited in their ability to pick up flour when small amounts are processed. Thus our winning food processor, the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor, advises using its dough blade only for recipes that call for at least 3 1/2 cups of flour. When we made batches of pizza dough with 4 1/2 cups of flour using the metal blade and the dough blade, each did a comparable job of kneading the dough, but the metal blade did it 15 percent faster. In fact, we find that the efficiency of the metal blade makes it preferable for all dough. Given all this, we’re not sure why manufacturers even bother including it as an accessory in the first place. We’re sticking with the metal blade for all doughs.

SUPERFLUOUS ACCESSORY

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