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How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

Author Elena Zheleznyak 🔗

I would like to write about…. wanted to say "hack", but it will not be correct. About how and when we can shorten or, on the contrary, increase the stages of making sourdough bread, where we can without prejudice trick simplify, and which points should be left unchanged. Recipes for sourdoughs and sourdough bread on the net are dark, and some even directly contradict each other, nevertheless, all this is a real experience that people share and say: look, this is how it also turns out. However, not every experience is worth learning.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

Why?

Why, when working with a test, do we do it this way and not another? Let me remind you that we "build" bread dough on sourdough in stages, and it is always a sourdough dough, and then kneading the dough, its subsequent fermentation, cutting, preliminary proving (when the pieces of dough are rounded and allowed to rest before molding) molding, final proofing , notches if necessary, and steam baked goods. It may seem like too much fuss, but we want to bake delicious, beautiful bread, to achieve the best result, so I personally try not to miss anything that needs to be done with the dough. All this is called "technology", "method", but in fact there is a method that arose for a reason, but based on the physical and chemical properties of the components and their ability to influence each other: flour, water, yeast / starter culture, salt, sugar , oils and other additives.

Understanding the processes occurring with the test, understanding what is for what and what is happening at each stage, if necessary, you can simplify the work with minimal losses. Let's start in order.

1) Sourdough dough.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

I usually put it on at night in order to start work in the morning, and I try to use it when it is not fully ripe, swollen, became fluffy, but at the same time it is not overripe or sour strongly (you can read about this method in the article about non-sour bread on sourdough) Sourdough bread - so that it is not sour))... What if you can't knead the dough right now? You can put the refrigerator in the dough and calmly proceed to the test when you have the opportunity. It can stand in the refrigerator for several hours, depending on the temperature and degree of maturity, this will be enough for you to finish the job, finalize the work, feed and put the children to bed and, finally, do what you love))

2) Autolysis.

How to trick (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

I got into the habit of kneading with autolysis, this is especially true for whole grain dough, which takes time so that in addition to protein, bran-germs swell and gluten begins to form. I mix the leaven, water and flour in a dough mixer, cover it so that the dough does not dry out, and leave it for 20 minutes. Note that white flour dough without the presence of sourdough can sit for 40 minutes, or even an hour, the sourdough dough needs much less time, because the lactic and other acids present in the sourdough contribute to the rapid swelling of the protein. Dough made of white flour, in general, can be kneaded without autolysis, but it is better not to neglect it with whole grain. But what if you don't have time to get to the test after 20 minutes of autolysis? If you stay for 10-15 minutes, that's okay, but if it's longer, take a second and put the dough in the refrigerator. The low temperature will slow down the enzymes that break down the gluten, and you can start kneading when the opportunity arises.But if you think in advance that you will not be able to come to the dough at the right time, mixing it, add salt. It will somewhat slow down protein swelling, but it will also slow down enzymes. And in the refrigerator! And if you put the dough in the refrigerator, keep in mind that it will ferment slowly until it gets warm.

3) Kneading.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

Here I don't even know what to say, if you knead with your hands, then this article will be useful to you ( About hands and hooks - features of kneading bread dough ), there is just about machine and manual kneading. If you are too lazy to knead, knead in folds, with periodic short approaches to the dough, or in the process of active kneading, let the dough rest for 5 minutes to relax the gluten, this is a very good way. And here it is important to remember that it is better not to knead than to knead, maybe the bread will turn out to be not so lush, but tasty - for sure. By the way, you can read about overmixing and why the bread turns out to be tasteless because of it in this article.

4) Adding additives and oils.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

You can toss seeds, raisins and nuts at the beginning of the knead, but then these additions will make it difficult for the dough to develop gluten, because they will tear it when kneading. Even in bread makers they are designed to add all kinds of additives towards the end of the batch, when the dough is already formed. Likewise with oil.

5) Fermentation and proofing.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

With fermentation, there are a lot of options. The sourdough dough is convenient because it wanders for a long time and, while it wanders, you can redo a bunch of things and even take a walk with children or go to the store. To speed up the process, you can put it in a warmer place, and if you have a Brod & Taylor proofing cabinet, it is very easy to do this, there the temperature is set and stably maintained until you change it. If you want to increase the fermentation time, the refrigerator will help you, there the dough can stand for a long time, up to 8 hours, and grow slowly. Likewise with the final proofing. If you bake several loaves in turn, while one is baking, the second, so as not to overstay, can be hidden in the refrigerator and so on until baking.

6) Pre-proofing.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

You can skip this stage, but in order to form a workpiece with high quality, it is better to do it. What is it for at all? You divide the dough into chunks to bake two or more loaves, round, and let the dough rest a little. On the one hand, why not mold and put the dough into baskets right away? Pre-proofing will allow you to form better quality. By rounding the pieces, you are already giving them the correct shape, and by allowing the gluten to relax on the matting, you get the opportunity to shape them tighter, while maintaining the internal structure of the dough and the bubbles in it. Bread formed in this way keeps its shape better in proofing and during baking and turns out to be fluffier and rounder. Tense gluten during stretching can break, and the dough can resist (try to separate the dough and roll it out immediately after active kneading, it will resist and shrink), and if you let the gluten relax a little, you can create with it, which is good. Likewise, relatively, if you do not divide the dough, but bake one loaf of them all.

7) The only thing you can't cheat with is baking and moisturizing.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

The baking temperature must be high enough. If you initially choose a low or not heat up the oven enough, the workpiece will float and not be very fluffy, if you overexpose, the bread will burn and the crumb will be too dry. It is the same with steam at the beginning of baking, if the moisture is too much and the moisture is too long (longer than 15 minutes), the cuts will not open and become equal to the crust, and the crust will be smooth and shiny.

Recently, I happened to visit a local bakery, where they recently started baking sourdough bread. Before I tell you how they do it, I will say that their bread is really tasty. So, bakers, in order to optimize production, skip the fermentation process before baking, knead the dough, immediately shape it and put it to proof.

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking How to outwit (simplify) dough and bread when kneading and baking

On the one hand, how can you wander after kneading, fold it in an envelope, strengthen the gluten, dance with a tambourine? And so, production costs. On the one hand, it somehow turns out wrong, but there is a big difference in what professional bakers do, skipping fermentation, and we, amateur beginners. They know and understand what they are doing and why and they have excellent bread at the end, and practice, as you know, is the criterion of truth. But if we start to create whatever we like, we will never learn to bake good bread and work freely with different bread dough, because without knowing the basics, there will be no sense in such work.

To be honest, I immediately tried to repeat their experience and also skip the fermentation process, but in the end it turned out badly. I didn't wait for the bread to fit as it should (but at that moment it seemed to me that it went well)), baked, it turned out, in general, tasty, but flat, and this “flat” concerns both the taste and appearance of the bread ... In addition, the dough behaved somewhat differently during molding, it was too pliable and inelastic.

In the next article, since I had the opportunity to shoot in a bakery, I will tell you how the professional production of bread works, what technique is used in the bakery, and compare with what we can do at home. And, of course, I will tell you more about how local bakers got used to baking sourdough bread without fermenting it after kneading.

Good bread, friends

Anna1957
Thank you Tatiana. Reads like a fascinating novel.
Admin

Anya, THANK YOU! Bake bread for health!
Irina.A
Thank you ! I’m really, I’m just looking at the leaven, so I’ll go on vacation in a week and start working closely (I had the experience of baking bread from leaven, they brought it from the bakery, but I didn’t grow it myself)

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