Kneading dough, when to stop (basic help required)

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I make flat bread all the time. And for me, when dough comes together and still just a bit sticky, that's when I stop. I'll post the recipe.

Matnakash
Armenian flat bread.

1 pack dry yeast
½ tea spoon sugar
1 full + tea spoon salt
4-5 cups flour
2 cups warm water (not too hot, so not to kill yeast)
2-3 table spoon oil
Mix water, yeast and sugar till dissolved. Add salt and flour, mix well. The dough will still be sticky, cover the bowl with towel or plastic wrap and let it seat in a warm place for an hour. After that push the dough down and mix/ knead for a few minutes, let it rest and then rise again for another half an hour.
Poor the oil on the baking sheet you will use, drop the dough on top of it. Work it with your hands by pushing down. It should be somewhat oval in shape. Then with your fingers push down the border and the straight lines, it should not be more than an inch high. Let it proof for another 20 minutes or so. Brush the top with some water. Bake at 425 deg for about 20-25 minutes. Bread should come out to be about 10 inches wide and about 14 inches long, approximately.

Hm, doesn't really say when to stop. But basically when dough comes together, and get's of the side of the mixing container you use, whatever it is. It's done.
interesting. not much kneading here
 
i desire soft and fluffy pizza bread/ brioche/ oven dough donuts


soft and fluffy ...





i made alex french guy nutella brioche.
kneaded in mixer slow speed probably a bit too long - 13 mins. but this isn't ideal test for fluffiness as dough is braided
 
Your requirements depend as much on the ingredients as on how long you knead the dough. You won't get soft and fluffy bread from a pizza dough recipe.
 
not much kneading in that one.






i timed my kneading. low speed. 12-13.5 minutes, hopefully not 14. i got carried away a little.
but i think this is too much. it's 'braided' so not best for soft and fluffy
 
I making flat bread. Double portion. I started with less flour than recipe. Then added as needed. In total I spent 8 minutes mixing. Dough is still a little sticky, that’s what this bread needs.
All came together in a ball. Now rise fir an hour. Then two more mixes.
 
Chief's white bread:
White Sandwich Bread

Pre-Ferment (Starter):
1 3/4 cups (235 grams) unbleached bread flour
1/2 tsp. (1 gram) SAF Red or Gold instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp. (5 grams) kosher salt
2/3 cup (150 grams) cold filtered water
White Sandwich Bread:
5 1/2 cups (715 grams) unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup (65 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. (7 grams) SAF Red or Gold instant yeast
3 3/4 tsp. (15 grams) kosher salt
3 tbs. (40 grams) granulated white sugar
2 cups (480 grams) scalded milk cooled to room temperature
5 tbs. (75 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Make Preferment the day before. Also called a Poolish

Remove the preferment from the fridge and divide into 6 pieces. Place flour, sugar, salt, and yeast into a large bowl and whisk together. Add milk and poolish pieces. Knead for ten minutes. Wet hands and use a small piece of dough to perform a window test. If the dough is good, rub a small amount of butter all over the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest at room temp. for 1 hour. Add the butter and knead for 5 minutes to fully incorporate the butter into the dough. Do the window test again. If the dough passes, divide the dough into two equal pieces and fold all edges inward. Shape into a rectangle the length of your loaf pans. Gently rock the dough to make the bottom seam smooth. Place into well buttered bread pans. Dust plastic wrap with four and place over the bread pans. Let rise for about an hour at room temperature, or until the dough rises a little over the pan top. Preheat the oven to 350’ F. brush the dough top with melted butter and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. The bead should be lightly browned and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes. Invert loaf pans to remove bread to cooling rack. Brush the loaves with butter. Let cool for 2 hours before slicing.

This dough can also be used to make dinner rolls, cloverleaf rolls, cinnamon bread, etc.

Chief's Multi-Grain Bread

Chief's Muti-grain Bread
Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached bread flour
1/4 cup pearl barley
1/4 cup white chia seed
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
2 tbs. vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup what bran
1/4 cup broken sunflower seeds
1/4 cup psyllium husks
2 tsp. SAF Red or Gold instant yeast*
3 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
3 tbs. granulated white sugar
2 cups plus 2 tbs. cool water
6 tbs. Unsalted butter

Place all dry ingredients, except the unbleached white flour into a blender, and blend to make a smooth flour (multi-grain mixture). Place flour, sugar, salt, multi-grain mixture, and yeast into a large bowl and whisk together. Add room temperature water. Knead by hand for ten minutes, or with a dough hook in your mixer for 7 minutes. Wet hands and use a small piece of dough to perform a window test. If the dough is good, rub a small amount of butter all over the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest at room temp. for 1 hour. Add the butter and knead for 5 minutes to fully incorporate the butter into the dough. Do the window test again. If the dough passes, divide the dough into two equal pieces and fold all edges inward.

Shape each portion into a rectangle the length of your loaf pans. Gently rock the dough to make the bottom seam smooth. Place into well buttered bread pans. Dust plastic wrap with four and place over the bread pans. Let rise for about an hour at room temperature, or until the dough rises a little over the pan top. Preheat the oven to 350’ F. brush the dough top with melted butter and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes. The bead should be lightly browned and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from the oven and let rest for 3 minutes. Invert loaf pans to remove bread to cooling rack. Brush the loaves with butter. Let cool for 2 hours before slicing.

Again, this is a solidly good loaf of bread that is great for French Toast, or toast and butter with fried eggs, as an accompaniment to pasta, stew, or soups. It's also very good sandwich bread, especially for grilled cheese., and BLT's. It has great texture, and tastes great.

Its also a really great bread for making pigs in the blanket with full-sized hot dogs.
Enjoy.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
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Can't be bothered with all that mess. I let my bread machine do all the 'dirty' work on the dough cycle for me then I shape what I want to bake in the oven. Solved all my bread making issues many many years ago. :chef:
 
I make flat bread all the time. And for me, when dough comes together and still just a bit sticky, that's when I stop. I'll post the recipe.

Matnakash
Armenian flat bread.

1 pack dry yeast
½ tea spoon sugar
1 full + tea spoon salt
4-5 cups flour
2 cups warm water (not too hot, so not to kill yeast)
2-3 table spoon oil
Mix water, yeast and sugar till dissolved. Add salt and flour, mix well. The dough will still be sticky, cover the bowl with towel or plastic wrap and let it seat in a warm place for an hour. After that push the dough down and mix/ knead for a few minutes, let it rest and then rise again for another half an hour.
Poor the oil on the baking sheet you will use, drop the dough on top of it. Work it with your hands by pushing down. It should be somewhat oval in shape. Then with your fingers push down the border and the straight lines, it should not be more than an inch high. Let it proof for another 20 minutes or so. Brush the top with some water. Bake at 425 deg for about 20-25 minutes. Bread should come out to be about 10 inches wide and about 14 inches long, approximately.

Hm, doesn't really say when to stop. But basically when dough comes together, and get's of the side of the mixing container you use, whatever it is. It's done.


dough should be smooth looking (not mixed otherwise)
 
8 mins ... that's what i'm thinking ... much less than 13 min
It really depends on what kind of bread you want to make. Some take a few minutes, others can take hours. Some need to rest and rise between kneading or folding.

What kind of bread do you want to make?
 
I knead with a dough hook on my stand mixer. I never let it go beyond 10 minutes on low speed and judge readiness by the look of the dough just from from experience. People above have described properly kneaded bread dough pretty well. The more you knead the tougher from increased gluten the bread will become. If you don't knead enough you won't get a properly baked loaf. So it is important.
 
Often now, recipes are stating approximately how long it should take to get the results you want with the kneading.
For those who don't have the new "dough hook" attachments, you want (as already stated) that smooth elastic look. Probably about 10 minutes or so. Watch a couple of video's to get the good ideas of how actually go about your kneading. That actually helps.
 
Often now, recipes are stating approximately how long it should take to get the results you want with the kneading.
For those who don't have the new "dough hook" attachments, you want (as already stated) that smooth elastic look. Probably about 10 minutes or so. Watch a couple of video's to get the good ideas of how actually go about your kneading. That actually helps.
The problem here is that kneading isn't a consistent process. Different people do it in different ways. My use of a dough hook on a stand mixture is an example. Knead slower than the recipe author and you won't get enough gluten. Knead faster and you may overdo it. The hydration of the dough varies from one to the next. It is more important to know when the dough has the right amount of gluten and the right texture. View suggestions in a recipe as suggestions. They aren't hard rules.
 
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I have no trouble telling when a dough has been kneaded enough. I knead by hand, which is also good for bicep development, and can tell by the feel of the dough when it's properly kneaded. When I taught a bread making class, several of the participants said their arthritis kept them from kneading, so I taught them the roll and fold method, which is less strenuous.
I don't have a stand mixer, so no dough hook.
 
Often now, recipes are stating approximately how long it should take to get the results you want with the kneading.
For those who don't have the new "dough hook" attachments, you want (as already stated) that smooth elastic look. Probably about 10 minutes or so. Watch a couple of video's to get the good ideas of how actually go about your kneading. That actually helps.
Same recipe, different days. Kneading is only ever an approximation. Some people have big hands, some people have small hands. Some people knead quickly, ploof ploof ploof, some people knead slow and steady.

I did find that with a machine (dough hook), someone who has never made bread or kneaded before had a tendency to let the machine knead too long. She wasn't getting the "feel" nor knew the "look" of dough, so she really didn't know what to look for. It wasn't til I went there one day and actually saw what she was doing that I was able to correct her, show her the 'feel' of the dough, that she finally got the crumb she was looking for.
 
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