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Got a stand mixer? Hopefully you didn't throw away the dough hook because you thought it was a broken whisk or weird food-torturing device, or you'll be kneading dough by hand for quite a while. And that is boring.

Most stand mixers come with a dough hook attachment, a bent or curved, dare we say "hooklike" apparatus that kneads dough quickly and efficiently while not chaotically distributing flour all over your working surface. The hook rapidly develops gluten, the protein in wheat dough responsible for elasticity that keeps air bubbles inside, resulting in fluffy, chewy bread. Wouldn't you rather have something mechanical doing that very important, totally crucial step? Not that we don't appreciate great artisanal bread…but they're using dough hooks too (believe us, really huge ones; look at the photo!)  

Plus, unlike that whisk attachment, the dough hook wipes clean in about two seconds. Good luck pushing that cookie batter out of that wire cage. 

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