On a practical level, it takes up to 25 minutes—and some well-developed forearm muscles—to knead dough by hand, and just about 8 minutes to knead in the stand mixer with the dough hook. However, if you do not own a stand mixer, you can still mix dough by hand and make a good loaf of bread from most doughs.
If you're kneading by hand, the dough is going to stick to your hands. It's not a big deal. Just rub your hands with some dry flour (over the garbage, not over the sink) and it will come right off. But you can minimize stickage, in a number of ways, depending on what kind of dough you're working with.
Using the heel of your hand, press the dough down and away from yourself. You want to stretch across the dough, not just press it down. This creates tension and helps build strength in the gluten strands as you knead. Fold the dough over and again, stretch it away from yourself.
Though it's important to knead your dough thoroughly, it's not necessary to knead your dough for long. We recommended kneading your dough for about 4 to 6 minutes! Over-kneading your dough will create a fine, crumb-like texture, giving your dough a bready texture rather than a light and airy pizza crust.
Why is my dough so sticky? Your dough can become sticky when you add too much water or the flour isn't suitable for the type of dough you are making. Over proofing or fermenting the dough can also result in the gluten structure weakening causing sticky dough.
Sticky bread doesn't rise very well because the gluten strands can't capture the air bubbles. Also, if your dough is so sticky that it sticks to the sides of the bowl, you'll find that it just doesn't have the strength to rise and pull away.
For most recipes, you can use a hand mixer when it calls for a stand mixer, and vice versa. With a few adjustments and only a couple of exceptions, you can modify most recipes for whichever mixer you have in your kitchen! Mark is the head baker at Hjem Kensington, a Danish café in London.
Under Kneading
Instead of rising, the dough will spread out flat. The dough may even fall back onto itself and collapse as the gases produced by the yeast escapes. Once baked, an under-kneaded bread loaf will be flat and dense in texture.
If your dough feels dense and tough to handle when you stop the mixer, it is a sign that it is becoming over-kneaded. Over-kneaded dough can become very hard to work with and produce a more flat and chewy bread.
One pair of dough kneading gloves for reducing the amount of flour going into the dough, leaving the dough light. Ideal for feeling the dough without the mess. Simply rub flour on the gloves then knead the dough.
The Dough Passes the Windowpane Test
To do this, tear off a chunk of dough and stretch it between your fingers. If the dough tears, you haven't developed enough gluten and it needs more kneading. If it stretches without breaking, making a windowpane of sorts, you're done and you can let the dough rest.
Loaves made with over-kneaded dough often end up with a rock-hard crust and a dense, dry interior. Slices will be very crumbly, especially toward the middle.
The secret of successful rising
Most recipes call for the bread to double in size – this can take one to three hours, depending on the temperature, moisture in the dough, the development of the gluten, and the ingredients used. Generally speaking, a warm, humid environment is best for rising bread.
The good news: We found an easy way to rescue overproofed dough. Simply punch it down gently, reshape it, and let it proof again for the recommended amount of time. In the test kitchen, these steps resulted in bread that tasters found acceptable in both texture and flavor.
If too much water is added to the dough, it will not be able to rise. The dough can be affected in two ways. Either the dough is weighed down with water and can not rise, or the raising agent was diluted and rendered ineffective. The best way to rectify this is to add more flour.
The biggest difference between using a dough hook to knead instead of kneading by hand is the amount of physical effort and time it takes. While manually kneading dough can take upwards of 10 minutes, you can get your dough smooth and elastic in around 1 ½-2 ½ minutes with a KitchenAid® stand mixer.
Warm dough is much easier to work with, so be sure to allow your pizza dough to warm up to at least room temperature before stretching it. Prepare your work surface with a sprinkling of flour to keep the dough from sticking.