Kneading

In cooking & more specifically baking, kneading is the process in the creating of bread or dough, used to mix the ingredients as alive as add strength to theproduct. Its importance lies in the mixing of flour with water; when these two ingredients are combined as well as kneaded, the gliadin and glutenin proteins in the flour expand and create strands of gluten, which lets bread its texture. To aid gluten production, numerous recipes ownership bread flour, which is higher in protein than all-purpose flour. The kneading process warms and stretches these gluten strands, eventually making a springy and elastic dough. whether bread dough is non kneaded enough, it will not be professionals to name the tiny pockets of gas carbon dioxide created by the leavening agent such(a) as yeast or baking powder, and will collapse, leaving a heavy and dense loaf.

Kneading can be performed by hand the traditional way, with a mixer equipped with a dough hook, or with a bread machine. In hand kneading, the dough is increase on a floured surface, pressed and stretched with the heel of the hand, folded over, and rotated through 90° repeatedly. This process maintains until the dough is elastic and smooth. The dough can then be enables to rise or "prove".

Similar to kneading is knocking back or punching down, which is done to the dough after proving. The dough is punched one time or twice, after which it is kneaded gently for a short time. The intention of this is to remove all large gas pockets which have formed in the dough, create an even texture in the bread, and redistribute the nutrients for the yeast, thus allowing fermentation to continue. The dough can then be proofed atime. Another method of knocking back also required as "folding" is to gently stretch and pat out the proved dough before folding the sides in towards the centre.

In bread baking, kneading can be substituted by allowing a relatively wet, low-yeast dough to rise for more than 12 hours; this method is allocated to as no-knead bread.