So you want to make real bread, but you don’t have a mixer? No problem. Today we are learning
to knead wet dough by hand.
I’ll be making my focaccia dough from last week’s video (linked below), but you can
apply this technique to any bread dough.
Place the dry ingredients into a large wide bowl. I prefer light stainless steel bowls
because they are easy to rotate. Whisk them together. In another bowl whisk together your
wet ingredients. Make a big well in the dry ingredients. We have a lot of liquid here.
Don’t do this on the counter. If you misjudge how big of a well you need, the liquid will
escape and run right off your counter and onto the floor, which won’t be fun to clean.
Grab a fork and start mixing. Concentrate on keeping your wet stuff in the center and
adding the flour to it very gradually. We want to get a lot of mixing done before we
run out of flour. This will be a very sticky dough (70% hydration for the folks familiar
with baker’s percentages), and we want to develop at least some gluten before we run
out of flour.
Whisk with one hand, slowly adding tiny bits of flour from the walls of your well while
rotating the bowl with the other hand. When your dough looks something like this, it’s
more effective to start folding it over, kind of like kneading, instead of whisking. See
how I am folding it toward the center and rotating the bowl after every fold.
When the dough gets too stiff for a fork, flour your hand, clean off the fork, and continue
with your hands. Remember to keep one hand clean so that you can rotate the bowl after
every fold. Also try to minimize your contact with the dough. Handle it like a hot potato.
If you hold it for a second too long it will stick to you. Don’t change the direction
of rotation. The goal is to wrap the dough around itself. If you start to stick, scrape
off your hand and sprinkle it with flour from the bowl. The part of my hand that presses
into the dough is the back of the palm.
I know you just want to quickly incorporate all this flour and get a dough, but don’t
rush this step. If you develop some gluten at this stage, the dough will want to stick
to itself more than to you and you won’t be in such a sticky situation later on.
Ok, all the flour is in and it’s time to go onto the counter where the real kneading
starts. I suggest you set a timer for 10 minutes starting at this stage. Beginner bakers often
underestimate how much kneading a dough needs. After 2 minutes, they think they’ve been
kneading for 20 and quit, which is unfortunate because that’s how you get dense yucky bread.
Have a pastry scraper handy to get you out of sticky situations. And repeat after me
-- “I solemnly swear to avoid the temptation of adding more flour.” Sorry dough, this
flour is for my hands, not for you. You are going to pick up the dough with your fingers
underneath and your thumbs on top. Flip it over giving it a good whack and fold it over
away from you. Now pick it up from the side, flip, whack, fold. Yes, you’ll be stuck
in the dough. Don’t fight it, just go with it.
Let’s do it slowly. Pick up from the side,
Flip
Whack
Fold away from you.
Picking up the dough from the side gives you a 90 degree rotation on each fold. The whack
is not just stress relieving. This aggressive beating of the dough, develops gluten faster.
Once you develop enough gluten, the dough won’t stick to your counter nearly as much.
If you left a chunk on the counter after your whack and fold, just hit that spot a few times
and the dough will eventually pick up whatever it lost on the previous fold. If all else
fails, there is always the pastry scraper.
I learned this method under the name of French Fold. I am sure that’s not its name in France.
Maybe in France it’s just called kneading. If you know, leave me a comment.
It’s been about 8 minutes since I got the dough out of the bowl. See how smooth it became.
At this stage, I could even knead it using the method I showed you in the bowl. Fold
toward you, quick press, and rotate. If you use this method, make sure you keep your fingers
up. Don’t grab the dough underneath so that you don’t rip it. Fingers up and don’t
press down longer than a split second.
There are many ways to knead and eventually you’ll develop your own style. But it’s
important to keep folding and rotating the dough in the same direction. Kneading is not
just mushing. It’s training your dough to become more flexible by stretching it.
Into an oiled bowl we go. Hey you, let go. Ah, pastry scraper is man’s best friend.
And we are ready to rise.
Here are some frequently asked questions about kneading by hand.
Why can’t I add flour while kneading? The more flour you’ll add, the fewer holes
you’ll get. And if you don’t want any holes, are you sure bread baking is the right
hobby? I am just kidding, there are dense bread styles too.
And of course, never say never. Sure, there are cases where a little flour is needed.
Maybe your humidity is a lot higher than mine or maybe you are working with a wetter dough.
But it’s important to try to reduce the stickiness through aggressive dough workout
before you reach for flour. Fry the French Fold method for 3 minutes. If your dough is
still too wet, try a little flour.
What’s a good hydration level for beginners? 70% is a good dough to practice on. In other
words, the water weight is 70% of the flour weight. Once you are comfortable with it,
you can move onto wetter doughs. But I also find that there is no need to work with a
soup if you learn good kneading technique. Developing a very strong gluten network can
produce spectacular holes even with 70% hydration. If you have no idea what I am talking about
with all these percentages, watch my basic focaccia video, linked below.
Can autolysing help? Autolyse (or auto-lease depending on whether
you like the English or French pronunciation better) is the technique of resting the dough
before kneading it. After the dough comes together, cover the dough with plastic and
let it sit in the bowl for 30 minutes. Letting the flour hydrate before kneading will result
in easier gluten development. The reason I rarely do it is inconvenience. I don’t mind
getting up to my elbow in dough, but I prefer to get it done so that I can move on with
my day.
Should I knead by hand if I have a mixer? There are no bread quality benefits to kneading
by hand, but there are educational benefits. Judging when you’ve kneaded enough is extremely
hard for beginner bakers. When you are kneading by hand, you’ll actually feel the dough
transform. You can’t just follow the recipe without being 100% mindful of what’s happening.
Some people also find kneading by hand relaxing and therapeutic. When I started learning about
bread, I kneaded by hand. But now, I knead in a mixer.
Can I over-knead my dough? You can’t over-knead bread dough by hand.
When in doubt, knead some more. The only time you really need to worry about over-kneading
is if you are using a mixer with a spiral dough hook.
Can I use this technique for enriched breads, like brioche?
You can certainly use this technique for doughs that contain eggs and butter, but I would
not recommend making a full fat brioche without a mixer. The problem there is not the wetness
of the dough, but the warmth of your hands melting the butter. If you don’t have a
mixer and want brioche like bread, I’ll link to my milk bread dough in the description
below. You can easily knead it by hand and it’s absolutely delicious.
Here are more thought provoking culinary videos for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.