Knowing When To Stop Kneading. Kneading for 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-10 minutes in a mixer are the general standards; if you've been massaging the dough for that length of time, you can be pretty confident that you've done your job.
If the dough doesn't spring back when pressed with a finger, or tears when you pull it, it needs more kneading. If it springs back immediately when lightly pressed, and doesn't tear when you pull it, it's been kneaded enough and is ready to rise.
Overkneaded dough will be tough and make tough, chewy bread. If you've kneaded by hand, you don't need to be too worried about overworked dough—you'll start to notice it getting difficult to manage. It takes a lot of elbow grease to knead bread dough; you'll likely tire yourself out before you can over-knead.
A guide to kneading times
Kneading with a KitchenAid mixer for 2 minutes is equivalent to kneading 10-12 minutes by hand. KitchenAid does not recommend kneading bread dough for more than 2 minutes at Speed 2, and that the total mixing and kneading time does not exceed 4-6 minutes.
Under Kneading
Instead of rising, the dough will spread out flat. The dough may even fall back onto itself and collapse as the gases produced by the yeast escapes. Once baked, an under-kneaded bread loaf will be flat and dense in texture.
Yeasted bread dough must be kneaded to create a smooth, elastic dough that will bake into a light, well-textured loaf. Once properly kneaded, dough will be ready to rise.
Bread Loaves made with over-kneaded dough commonly end up with a hard crust and dry interior. Often upon cutting, slices will crumble. If your perfect bread loaf turns into a crumbly mess, don't worry. The overworked dough will work great when used as croutons or breadcrumbs.
These gases get trapped inside the dough buy the mesh the gluten makes. This is what causes your bread to be airy and fluffy. This mesh is formed by kneading the dough. If you do not knead a dough enough you do not give your bread a chance as the gluten did not have enough time to build that mesh.
But the more you knead, the smoother the texture will become. You can tell your dough is well kneaded if it springs back after you press down on it. Another way you can check whether your dough is kneaded enough or not is through the windowpane test.
Stretch a section of dough between your fingers. If the dough tears, it needs to be kneaded more. If it stretches without tearing (making a windowpane of sorts), your dough is ready. Once you've determined that your dough has been kneaded enough, it's time to allow it to rest.
As you continue to knead, more gluten forms and, as a result, the dough becomes stronger. If you've ever over-kneaded dough, you've probably noticed that it's really hard to roll out—the direct result of too much super-strong gluten holding the dough together!
When kneading, you need to stretch the dough out and then fold it back on itself and flatten it, and then repeat the process, making sure you turn the dough round between stretches. It can take between 5 and 10 minutes until the consistency of the dough changes and it becomes smoother and more elastic.
Kneading the dough slowly unfolds the entangled network and aligns the long gluten strings in a stretchy, layered web. A pinch of salt helps as well because it neutralizes electrically charged parts of the gluten, allowing them to better slide along one another.
Kneading dough develops and lengthens the gluten strands making the bread chewier and giving it more structure and a more define shape when it bakes. For a softer bread, you need to knead it less.
If your dough is too sticky and it's impossible to work with you can add some extra flour, just a little at a time. Make sure you weigh the extra flour you add and then you'll be able to adjust the recipe correctly the next time you bake.
Simply put, you have to control the temperature of the bread. Allowing ample time for your bread dough to rise and the yeast to form will create the holes in the bread that give it a lighter texture. Letting your dough get puffy and grow before it goes into the oven is critical.
Over-kneading has a tendency to result in chewy bread. Here's how to tell if you've kneaded enough. Another possibility—you used bread flour when all-purpose flour would do. If a recipe with bread flour turned out chewier than you like, try it with all-purpose and knead only as much as the recipe directs.
Resting the dough gives the gluten structure a chance to loosen and unwind, and it will give you a better final product.
Over-proofed dough is very soft, when you pull at it, it falls apart easily, it's sticky, it smells sour/acidic and can have a crêpey look/feel. If you've shaped it, it will deflate when you poke at it.
Properly proofed dough will be much more consistent in structure, with a soft and fluffy interior, and larger, but more evenly dispersed air bubbles present in the crumb. Over proofed bread is likely to have a very open crumb structure, due to the development of excess CO2 during the proofing stage.
This rest allows the starches and the gluten to expand and fully absorb the water, which makes the dough easier to handle and can shorten the time needed to fully knead the dough. This is especially helpful in dough that is very sticky, like ciabatta.
Yes. After the first rise, you can knead the dough lightly to remove some gas that causes air bubbles. This step is ideal if you want your dough to be flat and dense or if you want bread with a close crumb, like sourdough. If you prefer sourdough with an open crumb, just knead the dough lightly.