How to Knead Bread Dough

Kneading the dough is one of the most important steps in bread baking. This step more than any other will determine the outcome of the bread.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Start with dough that has been measured and mixed properly. (See Related eHows for dough recipes.)

2. Turn the dough out on a clean, floured work surface.

3. Flour your hands well.

4. Use the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself.

5. Give the dough a little turn and repeat Step 4. Put the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm.

6. Keep folding over and compressing the dough until it becomes smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny. Check your recipe for specifics. The most common test for doneness is to press it with your finger. If the indentation remains, it's ready for rising. You can also try stretching part of the dough into a rectangle. If it can stretch into a thin sheet without breaking, you've kneaded it enough.

Tips & Warnings

• It's difficult to over-knead dough by hand, but it's actually very easy to do with a machine, so check it fairly often. Kneading one loaf's worth of white-bread dough by hand should take about 10 minutes. Kneading two loaves' worth takes almost double the time. It takes longer for whole-wheat flour as well. (An all-whole-wheat loaf would take twice as long to knead, but you'll seldom make an all-whole-wheat loaf.)

• Kneading does three crucial things for bread: it distributes the yeast and other ingredients evenly and thoroughly, it develops the gluten in the dough, and it introduces air. The gluten, or wheat protein, is what enables the dough to stretch instead of collapsing when the yeast grows inside it. If the gluten isn't developed, the dough won't rise well and will produce a heavy loaf - rather like a brick.

• Some bread recipes call for a second kneading just before the dough is added to the loaf pans. Professional bakers call this benching and shaping the dough.