The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [13]
At first you will want to touch the sticky dough lightly, but as it becomes more resilient, your stroke can be bolder. Try to keep the dough in a ball, stretching it from underneath and folding it back into itself above. Keeping the dough in a ball makes your kneading more effective because all of the dough receives the benefit of each push. For a while the dough will stick to the table and to your palm, but just keep on scraping it up with the spatula. Gradually the ball will become more coherent and less sticky, and your kneading more rhythmic and enjoyable.
Kneading with a food processor: Kneading with a dough hook:
As you work, watch and feel what is going on in the dough. Somewhere around halfway through the kneading, as the dough loses its stickiness, it will also get more springy and elastic, though if you try to stretch it out, it will still rip easily. Looking closely at the surface, you can begin to see brown flecks of bran against a beige background. Although the surface of the dough is much smoother than before, it is still a little bumpy, pocked with tiny craters. (Unabsorbed flour or water from the board would temporarily make the surface appear smooth, if they were present.)
Halfway through kneading you can gently tug and pull the dough out flabby-thin. The surface will still be plenty rough, with little craters all over; the dough will tear easily.
If you stop kneading at this halfway point, your bread will rise, but it won’t be nearly as good as it can be if you continue. Kneading is the secret of truly splendid bread, so continue until the dough is silky smooth. Now when you pull gently on the dough, it should stretch out without tearing. It will lose its wet quality, although on the surface it is still sticky. If your flour is finely ground, you will see a whitish cast to the beige color. If your flour is coarser, brown flecks of bran will be embedded in a bright, white sheet of gluten, looking like freckles on fair skin.
When the dough is fully developed, it will pull into a paper-thin sheet, smooth and bright. When you hold it to the light, you can see the webbing of the gluten strands in the sheet.
Kneading is much easier if you use the weight of your body rather than just the strength of your arms. (Anybody who’s ever held a baseball bat or tennis racket or calligraphy pen has heard that before!) If your table is the right height, your work can be rhythmic and nearly effortless. The motion will be relaxing and, as one friend put it, even therapeutic: “Tell them that kneading a loaf of bread can cure a migraine headache better than medicine.” When you are just learning, though, you will have to work pretty hard, which is why we suggest starting out with only one loaf’s worth of dough. Count your strokes, and stop to rest any time you feel like it. (If for some physical reason this is too hard for you, please consider kneading with a machine. See this page)
For one loaf, 300 substantial strokes or about 10 minutes’ worth of kneading should develop the dough. Two loaves, the standard recipe quantity, really does take twice as long. Beginners may find that they take more time to achieve a really smooth, elastic dough. There is no substitute for kneading if you want high, light, even-textured loaves. But if you are alert to what is happening under your hands and can relax into the rhythm of the process, kneading is interesting as well as pleasant work.
5. Letting it Rise: I (About 1½ to 2 hours at 80°F)
Once you have finished kneading, it’s time for you to rest while the yeast does its part. Keep the dough at an even 80°F if you can, and it will rise beautifully in just the allotted hour and a half.
Warm the clean bowl by rinsing it with warm water. Shape the dough into a smooth round, and put it in seam side down. Cover the