Can you knead too much

It happens when you use a stand mixer or food processor. You will start to notice that it gets hard to manage. If you found out that you have over-knead your dough, there are a few things you can do to try and help fix the situation. You let the dough sit and rest for a while, untouched for about double the time recommended in a recipe. Your dough might have been kneaded too much, but you decided to bake it anyway, you may notice that the result is a little different than expected.

The outside of the bread will be tough and dense. The texture may feel more like a rock than a nice soft bread! You will likely notice that the bread did not rise as much as it was baked , creating a small, solid loaf. The dough had so much gluten that it created a solid barrier inside the bread, trapping the gasses released from the yeast and preventing them from pushing the dough upward.

When using hands, you can feel the dough at every step of the way. You will know if it needs a touch more flour or if it is starting to get firm. When you have your hands in the dough, you will likely stop kneading before the dough ever gets too hard — your hands will also get tired!

Please read the notes in your recipe regarding kneading and try to follow them so that your kneading time coincides with the recommended and proven techniques. It is a very good tutorial. If you bake over kneaded dough straight away, you will end up with rock-hard bread, plain and simple.

Instead of fluffy, warm, soft and smooth bread, you will end up with a dense loaf. The outer texture of the over kneaded bread will be rough and hard. If you cut the bread, you will notice that the inside is crumbly and dry. In the oven, the over kneaded dough will not rise as much as it is supposed to, because the hardened gluten will prevent the yeast from inflating the dough.

In an over kneaded dough, the gluten structure creates a barrier which traps the gases released by the yeast. Thus, preventing the gasses from pushing upwards and inflating the dough in the rise.

If you are a beginner, kneading by hand will seem tedious. Hence you may opt for the stand mixer. But the powerful motor of the mixer could over knead the bread dough. If you are using a mixer, to avoid over kneading you should stop and check the consistency of the dough after every minutes.

If the consistency of the dough is dense, you will know when to stop the mixer. I think using your hands to knead is a good skill to learn because you get to know the feel of the dough at different stages. Kneading your bread dough by a mechanical mixer is easier and faster than using your hands. But the easy road is not always the best road taken.

Again, when you use your bare hands for kneading, you can control the dough better. You can feel the texture of the dough and determine whether it is kneaded well enough or not. Moreover, if you over-knead your dough, it will be easier to fix the problem using your hands instead of using a mixer. There are less limitations to bread baking when using your hands. To knead the dough by hand, first, place it on a surface or counter lightly dusted by flour.

Most bread machines are programmed to mix ingredients and knead the dough for you which makes them an almost fool proof method of kneading. However, bread machines are limited in the kind of bread they can make so not all doughs will work in these convenient kitchen appliances. Many people opt to use a stand mixer to help knead dough.

Most mixers come with a dough hook like this Cuisinart mixer that is designed to knead dough and mimic the hand kneading method. Since stand mixers are very powerful, it can be very easy to over knead a dough using a stand mixer.

If you are using a recipe that suggests using a stand mixer, follow the directions carefully and take note of how long it is recommended to mix the dough and on what speed. Essentially, you will be looking for the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl cleanly, then mixing for about minutes more afterward, depending on your dough type.

The first thing you will notice when you over knead a dough is that it will feel very dense and stiff. It will be hard to press the dough down and flatten it on the counter. It will also be hard to knead by hand and resist being re shaped. The dough will likely rip easily rather than stretch when pulled.

These are all indicators that the dough has developed too much gluten, causing the dough to be overly firm. When the gluten has been over developed due to too much kneading, it will be tight and have almost no give. If you think that your dough have been kneaded too much but you decided to bake it anyway, you may notice that the end result is a little different than expected. First, the outside of the bread will be very hard and dense.

The exterior may feel more like a rock that a nice soft bread! Next, you will likely notice that the bread did not rise much as it baked, creating a small, solid loaf. This is because the dough had so much gluten that it created a solid barrier inside the bread, trapping the gasses released from the yeast completely and preventing them from pushing the dough upward.

When you cut into an over kneaded dough, you will notice that the interior is very dry and crumbly. The slices will likely fall apart rather than holding their shape. While the general taste of the bread may be the same, it will not have a nice mouth feel but, again, be dry, dense and crumbly- no thank you!

If you have found out that you definitely did over knead your dough, there are a few things you can do to try and help fix the dough. First, let the dough sit and rest find out why rest is so important , untouched for about double the time recommended in a recipe. Overworked dough can happen when using a stand mixer.

When we mix our ingredients together, some serious science starts to happen. The yeast begins eating the starch sugars in the flour and releasing those sugars in the form of carbon dioxide. Proofing is the process that allows the build-up of carbon dioxide into the dough, expanded the loaf as its bakes. A cold temperature will slow the reaction and a temperature that is too hot will begin the cooking process and kill the yeast. The dough should feel soft and pillowy.

Before we pop that bread in the oven, give it a score across the top. This is done by using a few slits of the knife on the very top of the dough, which allows the build-up of carbon dioxide from the yeast to release properly when baking.