it is true that the machine makes a huge difference.

Case and point: yesterday I cleaned out my freezer, finding some good French bread that had been in there a bit too long. I decided to make toasted bread crumbs. I thawed the bread then tore it in hunks (yes, crust too) and tossed them in the Cuisinart ( only because the RC blade was in the dishwasher.) It was maddening! The hunks of bread got stuck between the blade edge and bowl wall and stalled the machine time after time no matter what I did. I had to stop and open it up several times and then I gave up, got the Robot-Coupe blade out, washed it and processed bread crumbs in seconds with no problems. I did three batches in about 2 minutes.

It is like the difference between digging a hole with a shovel and digging a hole with a D9. I'm sure that is why the brioche dough turns out well for me. Julia would most likely have used the old Cuisinart models when testing for her books- and those were made by RC before they sold off the name to a Japanese company who makes them now. I will stop raving now but you especially, Joe, will benefit from owning one of these some day.