There is one easy way to see if the glutten in your dough is ready.
I'll try to explain it. Get a small piece of dough, about the size of
your thumb, from middle knuckle to end. Roll it around the palms of
your hand to make a ball. Now with your two thumbs and index fingers,
slowly start pulling the ball as if you were making taffy, on every
angle, slowly and gently. You will make a thin "window" in the
middle. If the "window" breaks, your dough needs to be worked
further. When you have your glutten ready, you should find the window
will be almost see though, not lumpy, very thin and somewhat elastic.
It's a very good method. It also allows you to feel the dough and get
used to the elasticity .
Hope this helps, it's so much easier to show this method than describe
it.
Cheers,
Lore







Felix Karpfen > wrote in message >...
> On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 18:35:38 -0800, Roy wrote:
>
> > Any baker who has considerable experience in dough preparation be he
> > a hobbyist or a professional can recognize at what level of dough
> > development has been attained It is not easy to explain this to a
> > beginner
>
> I am aware that there are baking enthusiasts who are able to derive
> therapeutic benefits from _feeling_ a sticky mess turn into an elastic
> dough. Regrettably, I do not have what it takes. So I have to make
> do with a dough hook and appearances.
>
> Also, I am suspicious of advice based on experience with manipulating
> large quantities of dough (and its predecessors). The material handling
> problems of large quantities of dough are irrelevant in a kitchen and
> the needed temperature controls are different.
>
> So I start to sit up when I read of:
>
> giving 1000 rotations with a dough hook; the first third at low
> speed and the other two thirds at a higher speed.
>
> That information would be even more interesting if it related to a
> Kenwood Chef and not a Kitchen Aid mixer - since I own one of the
> former and the latter is probably not available in Australia.
>
> > For a varied explanation but dedicated to artsanal baking using a
> > specimen of a french bread 'The Taste of Bread by Raymond Calvel. Here
> > calvel have a different idea how a bread dough should be mixed . He is
> > partial that the dough should be only be mixed nearly half developed
> > and no more.
> >
>
> I suspect that I have already been following his advice routinely.
>
> And not from choice. I may have taken too seriously the possibility of
> irreversible degradation of the dough caused by overmixing.
>
> Thank you for the prompt response to my query.
>
> Felix Karpfen