Making Bread An Easier Way

No doubt the majority of us have believed, at least at one time, that kneading bread dough for 5 or 10 minutes, or longer, was necessary if the bread was going to develop properly and rise.

Fortunately, especially for those of us with problem and painful joints, it simply isn’t true.

Personally, instead of kneading for minutes at a time, I’ll do one of two things:

1. After letting the dough rest for 20-30 minutes (autolyze), I’ll knead for 10 strokes, let the dough rest for 15 minutes, and then repeat twice for a total of 3 sets of kneading and resting. Then, after another 15 or so minutes, I’ll do a few stretch and folds. Then I let the dough rise until doubled in volume, then do the same old shaping and second rise that kneaders do.
2. After letting the dough rest for 20-30 minutes (autolyze), I’ll do a few stretch and folds, then let the dough rest 45 minutes, then repeat for a total of 3 stretch and fold then rest sessions. After the last rest after the final stretch and fold, I’ll shape it and let it do the regular second rise.

Even with my severely borked joints, I can do these, and it’s much easier and much less effort than using my rather, ah, sad food processor to try to mix and knead the dough for me.

Better yet, my bread turns out just as fluffy as bread made by those who knead.

Stretching and folding is something I learned from Sourdough Home when I was looking for easier kneading methods for me. There’s a much longer explanation of the stretch and fold method there, along with videos that demonstrate it. Well worth checking out.

Oh, yeah, and while you’re at it, check out this Panda Bread. Very cute!

Tagged as: kneading, stretch & fold