Bread Dough

How to Knead Bread Dough

By eHow Food & Drink Editor

Kneading the dough is one of the most important steps in bread baking. This step more than any other will determine the outcome of the bread.

Instructions

1. Start with dough that has been measured and mixed properly.

2. Turn the dough out on a clean, floured work surface.

3. Flour your hands well.

4. Use the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself.

5. Give the dough a little turn and repeat Step 4. Put the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm.

6. Keep folding over and compressing the dough until it becomes smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny. Check your recipe for specifics. The most common test for doneness is to press it with your finger. If the indentation remains, it’s ready for rising. You can also try stretching part of the dough into a rectangle. If it can stretch into a thin sheet without breaking, you’ve kneaded it enough.

Tips

It’s difficult to over-knead dough by hand, but it’s actually very easy to do with a machine, so check it fairly often. Kneading one loaf’s worth of white-bread dough by hand should take about 10 minutes. Kneading two loaves’ worth takes almost double the time. It takes longer for whole-wheat flour as well. Kneading does three crucial things for bread, it distributes the yeast and other ingredients evenly and thoroughly, it develops the gluten in the dough, and it introduces air. The gluten, or wheat protein, is what enables the dough to stretch instead of collapsing when the yeast grows inside it. If the gluten isn’t developed, the dough won’t rise well and will produce a heavy loaf – rather like a brick. Some bread recipes call for a second kneading just before the dough is added to the loaf pans. Professional bakers call this benching and shaping the dough.

Why Do We Need to Knead Bread Dough?

By Dennis R Weaver

Bread dough needs to be elastic in order to capture the gases created by the yeast, stretch as bubbles form in the dough, expand, and rise. Without that elasticity, bread would not have the open texture we enjoy nor would bread be chewy. But what creates that elasticity? The endosperm of the wheat contains two important proteins, glutenin and gliadin. When wheat flour is mixed with water, these two proteins link with the water molecules and crosslink with each other as they are physically manipulated by kneading. It takes a certain amount of physical manipulation to bring these molecules into contact and create strong links. As the kneading continues and these molecules create stronger bonds, gluten is formed. It is gluten that gives the dough elasticity. If you watch the dough being mixed with the bread hook in your stationary mixer, you will see changes occur in the dough as the kneading takes place. First the dough will stick to the sides of the bowl. As the bonds become stronger and the dough more elastic, it pulls away from the sides into a drier ball. The sides should become clean. Within four or five minutes at medium speed, the dough will change even more and become elastic as the gluten is completely formed. After you have watched this process a few times, you will be able to recognize the changes in the dough as the gluten forms. If you pinch a portion of the dough and stretch it, it should pull to a thin layer before it breaks. Without that elasticity, bread isn’t good bread.

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