This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...
To find out more...
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
Last modified on: June 23th 2021
A few tips for effective kneading at home
Let's start with an observation: these mini-kneaders can handle all sorts of baking and preparation, and are no less effective, when it comes to making bread or viennoiseries, for working a dough using the dough hook.
In practice, if we simply tip all the ingredients into the bowl and start the machine going, of course it will knead, but not very efficiently: the dough will tend to wrap around the hook, risks overheating, etc., and the kneading time shown in the recipe may not be long enough as a result.
In short, it's much better to avoid these issues, so here are 4 basic tips.
It is important to stop the mixer after the first 3 or 4 minutes of kneading and go round the sides with a flexible dough scraper to get any remaining flour into the dough, then carry on kneading.
If you don't scrape the bowl, these bits will end up hardening. They may fall into the dough later, will not mix in properly and will leave unpleasant, hard lumps in the bread. Bonus: your bowl will be easier to wash up afterwards.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this problem: we need to stop the mixer frequently and unwrap the dough from around the hook, then start kneading again.
In practice, if we simply tip all the ingredients into the bowl and start the machine going, of course it will knead, but not very efficiently: the dough will tend to wrap around the hook, risks overheating, etc., and the kneading time shown in the recipe may not be long enough as a result.
In short, it's much better to avoid these issues, so here are 4 basic tips.
1. Ingredients in the right order
In all bread and pâtisserie recipes, we add all the ingredients to the bowl before starting to knead. Does the order in which they are added make any difference? Yes – we need to add the liquid first (water, milk, eggs, wine, etc.) and only then the flour and other dry ingredients. This helps the ingredients to start mixing straight away and makes the subsequent kneading more efficient.
2. Slow speed
Whatever brand of mixer you have, it is worth knowing that they always run too fast for effective bakery-style kneading. So we need to start on the slowest speed every time. It might not be perfect, but this comes fairly close to classic bakery kneading speed.
3. Scrape the bowl
After kneading for a few minutes, the mixture will begin to build the dough structure and form into a ball, which the hook will then turn and knead. But there will inevitably be some flour stuck around the sides of the bowl above the level of the mixed dough.It is important to stop the mixer after the first 3 or 4 minutes of kneading and go round the sides with a flexible dough scraper to get any remaining flour into the dough, then carry on kneading.
If you don't scrape the bowl, these bits will end up hardening. They may fall into the dough later, will not mix in properly and will leave unpleasant, hard lumps in the bread. Bonus: your bowl will be easier to wash up afterwards.
4. Stop the dough wrapping around the hook
After a few minutes of kneading, and especially if the dough is on the firm side, you will see it wrap itself around the hook. Once it is stuck like this, it can no longer be kneaded properly. This is the main disadvantage of kitchen mixers compared with proper bakery kneading machines. The movement of the dough hook is fairly minimal, so it ends up gathering the dough around itself.Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this problem: we need to stop the mixer frequently and unwrap the dough from around the hook, then start kneading again.
To sum up
It is possible to get good results using a mixer to knead bread dough, but there are 4 key points to watch: the order of the ingredients (liquid in the bowl first), the kneading speed (the slower the better), keeping the bowl clean (scrape the sides after a few minutes) and, lastly, the tendency of the dough to wrap itself around the hook (free up the hook at regular intervals).
Lasts posts
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20257345
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20256,5803
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20255,9885
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?August 25th 20256,1775
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20254,3485
Other pages you may also like
Candied fruits: don't get ripped off
Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.June 21th 201765 K 24.2
Drawing a pattern in pastry
Often in the kitchen, in pastry-making, or in baking, we need to trace a pattern on a pastry. It's just a question of aesthetics but it has its effect after baking on a galette, pithiviers, pâté en croute (terrine in a pie crust), etc.May 23th 201934 K4.1
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .February 7th 2017132 K 14.1
The so-called "nervous" meats
You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...April 16th 202135 K4.5
Sausage broth
I've already talked to you about vegetable cooking water, which becomes a precious broth after cooking that would be a shame to throw away. Now let's look at the special case of meat cooking broth, and in particular sausages, which are often poached.June 28th 202311 K5
Follow this page (as 13 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.
The 2 comments already posted on this page
I've never seen a recipe with such detail and hints on every aspect of baking, ( the steaming of the oven was extremely helpful)
My loafs of bread were always flavorful, but the crust was like a rock : ).
I can't wait to bake a loaf of bread again and have a normal this crust.
May you be safe,