The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [163]
If the kneading is continued on too far, the dough loses its elasticity, softens, and will pull into long rubbery strands. Finally, it becomes wet, runny, and quite sticky again. Loaves made from overkneaded dough will tear in the shaping or proofing, and they will not rise high.
The amount of time it takes a dough to develop fully depends most of all on the amount of protein in the flour and the speed of the mixer; wetter doughs take a little longer than stiffer ones. With a good strong flour the dough may be mixed and developed in a little less than ten minutes at medium speed, somewhat longer at slow speed. This will vary with the quality of the flour, so watch the changes in the dough and don’t depend on just how much time the machine has been running.
Using your dough hook to knead rye bread
Collect all the recipe ingredients so that they are measured and handy. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Use slow speed to mix the flours and salt in the bowl. Add the liquids slowly but steadily, using the flavored liquids first, plain water last. When you have added the first two-thirds of the wet ingredients and a stiff dough forms, turn the machine off and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Then, drizzle the last third or so of the liquids slowly into the dough as the kneading proceeds. Each time you add water, the dough will fall apart against the sides of the bowl. Wait until it comes back together, and then once again add a little water.
Keep checking as you near the end of your allotted water. Stop adding it when the dough reaches proper consistency. The larger proportion of rye flour there is in the dough, the less kneading it will tolerate; ten minutes is about right for a normal recipe with four cups wheat and three cups rye flour, but there is no set rule. Ideally it will take the same amount of time to add the liquid as it takes to knead up the dough, but if you think that the dough can take more kneading—if it is more than half wheat flour, it might—keep the machine going a little longer. Always be alert to the condition of the dough so that you can stop as soon as it begins to get sticky.
Dough Cutter/Scraper
This tool is truly indispensable for dividing dough for loaves or rolls, and also for scraping the kneading surface clean afterward. Ours came from a bakery supply store more than a decade ago; now they are available everywhere in kitchen shops and hardware stores. The edge is square and not sharp, protecting the tabletop, but it goes through dough without fuss.
There is also a flexible plastic version of this which works beautifully for scraping dough out of the bowl, but not quite so well for the other uses.
Dough Knob
I can’t imagine getting along without the dough cutter, but this bit of practical woodcraft is definitely just for pleasure. For mixing up the dough, no spoon can match its efficiency. We have never seen one in a store or catalog, but anyone who knows how to use a wood lathe could make one in a jiffy. The dough knob is turned from a 1 ½-inch dowel about 11 inches long. The handle is about ¾ inch in diameter. This is the shape:
Pans & Other Miscellany
Bread may not be better-tasting when it is baked in a standard size pan, but it does make predictable slices for sandwiches and for putting in the toaster—not unimportant considerations for most of us. However, you can bake in almost any heatproof utensil that gives room for rising and that will let you remove the loaf after it is baked. (We know someone who thought it would be groovy to use a rustic clay bean pot. The bread did bake well, and he eventually managed to get it all out by various methods.)
We have sized our recipes carefully so that they will fit into two medium loaf pans: 8″x4″ (or, if you measure the top, 8 ½″x4