Kneading dough is as simple as pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your palm, folding it over itself with your fingers, and pulling it back. This repeated push-pull cross-knits the protein strands, developing a strong gluten net.
Hence, the force exerted to change the shape of the dough is muscular force.
1. Basic fold: If you're new to kneading, keep in mind that most bread doughs respond well to the simple motion of folding a dough round in half, then pressing the dough with the heels of your hands. 2. Claw method: For doughs that are kneaded right in the mixing bowl, try the claw method.
A dough hook is a curved, hook-shaped attachment specifically made for kneading dough. It helps gluten strands develop quickly, making for easy and thorough kneading with quick clean up.
As the name suggests, dough hook attachments are best for kneading together bread doughs and pizza doughs, but they can also be used to mix pasta dough.
Kneading dough by hand can be messy, and many home cooks add a lot of extra flour, which can compromise the texture of the baked loaf. So while hand kneading can be a gratifying process, we recommend using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for this task.
Kneading
I divide kneading into three stages. The first is the “incorporation stage”, then “slow mixing”, and finally ” fast kneading”. The three-pronged approach encourages the gluten structure to develop into a well-hydrated, strong structure that will retain gas.
The Poke Test – Give that ball of dough a firm poke with your finger. If the indentation fills back quickly, you're good to go. If it stays looking like a deep dimple, continue kneading.
The turning or twisting force that causes torsion is called torque.
The purpose of kneading any dough is to develop gluten, and incorporate micro bubbles into the mass of the dough which will inflate during proofing and baking. The more a dough is kneaded, the tighter and more regular a baked loaf's crumb will become. Sandwich breads are kneaded more.
But folding is a more gentle process than kneading, and it works out large air pockets that can form as the dough rises, giving you a more even dough by the end of the rising time. Recipes vary in the number of folds made and how many times the process is repeated, but the approach is generally the same.
An excess of flour can create a stiff, dry dough. A perfectly kneaded dough springs back when poked with your finger and will feel soft and silky in texture.
Resting the dough gives the gluten structure a chance to loosen and unwind, and it will give you a better final product.
When you cut into an over kneaded dough, you will notice that the interior is very dry and crumbly. The slices will likely fall apart rather than holding their shape. While the general taste of the bread may be the same, it will not have a nice mouth feel but, again, be dry, dense and crumbly- no thank you!
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. If nothing else, over-knead loaves make great breadcrumbs! Bread-baking is a learning process.
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.
Hand Kneading: Disadvantages
Hand kneading is also very messy, as you typically end up with flour on the counter and pieces of dough stuck to your fingers. Depending on how often you make bread, you also risk developing a repetitive stress injury from kneading by hand.
Kneading Speeds
It is important to use only Speed 2, never higher or lower, when kneading yeast dough. If you knead too long, the dough will start to climb up the "c" shaped dough hook. The dough should form a ball and clean the sides of the bowl.
Kneading dough by hand also makes it virtually impossible to over-knead, which will prevent your bread from becoming too dense. The key to unlocking all these benefits lies in mastering two basic kneading techniques: the French Fold and the Stretch and Fold.
Whether you are baking cookies, kneading dough, or baking a cake, you can use a silicone baking mat. To use as a pan liner, simply lay the mat flat on a cookie sheet if you want to make cookies. If you are worried about your cookies sticking, spray your mat with non-stick spray before you place the cookies down.
Kneading aligns these strings, creating a dough you might be able to stretch so thin you can almost see through it. The more gluten, the more elastic, stretchy and strong the dough will be.
For this reason, some recipes recommend using the paddle attachment to start mixing and then switching to the dough hook once a rough dough is formed. You can also simply stir the ingredients with a spatula or other tool first.