Please may we discuss bread techniques? With respect to kneading, please?!
Please may we discuss bread techniques? With respect to kneading, please?
Hi
Suppose we take the same recipe for bread which has: yeast + water, milk, honey, butter, flour, powdered milk, and a touch of salt ...
= if you knead it once, just out of the bowl and onto a floured surface, then into a bread pan, allowed to rise then baked .... how does it differ from the loaf that is ....(next section here...)
= kneaded once, put into a bowl to rise double, kneaded again, shaped and allowed to rise in a loaf pan, and baked or ....
= kneaded three times in all, with risings, and then baked ...
Q's:
* what is the difference in texture?
* what is the difference in flavor?
Thank you very much!
Answers:
Starting at the beginning. You knead bread dough to developr the gluten. Gluten allows the dough to stretch and contain the gas released by the action of the yeast. You develope the gluten with the first kneading. If you only knead once and then place in a bread pan, allow to rise the gas bubbles in the dough will be very large giving the bread a coarse texture. Kneading once, allowed to raise, punched down and reformed and allowed to raise in the pan will give the bread a smoother texture with smaller gas bubbles. This is the desired texture of most bread bakers. If you punch down twice and have a third rising you run the risk of the yeast having consumed all the sugar and not producing gas anymore. If say that doesn't happen then the bubbles will be tiny and the bread will have a heavy consistency. Flavor is not affected to any extent by repeated kneading.
Just as long as you aren't making muffins.
The less kneading the lighter and fluffier the bread (like soft wonder type bread). If you want alittle more texture and firmness then knead after each rising. I found that the more you handle the bread...the firmer it becomes. We prefer to knead once and let rise in the pan for another hour before baking. The bread is always light, airy and moist!
That will be the question of the week.
you have to pop round and i will show you.
kneading develops gluten (protein) in the flour, wheat flour has the most gluten (up to 14%), rye the least, kneading over and over again will result in heavier and heavier texture, flavor will be affected just a bit...overkneading will result in tough, dry bread... (more kneading will result in chewier and denser braead, less kneading in lighter one.)
to check if the gluten was properly developed, take a bit of dough after kneading and stretch it, if it has *stringy* appearance, you are done.
unfortunately making bread is art and not science, so I can not help.
If bread dough is kneaded just once, the result will be very heavy bread, with no air pockets in it. The flavour will be very yeasty, and sour tasting. If it's kneaded once, allowed to rise, and is then 'knocked down' and allowed to rise again the result will be a lighter texture with small holes (air pockets) throughout. The flavour will be good. If it is allowed to rise, and is knocked down twice, the result will be again very heavy bread, because all the elasticity (gluten) will have been 'knocked out' of it, and it will be just a piece of tired dough, and the texture will be like chewing gum, and taste vile.