32.2 Yeast doughs: mix, knead, proof

Lean, rich and laminated doughs

Yeast doughs fall into three families, set by how much fat and sugar they carry.

• Lean doughs are low in fat and sugar. The leanest are the hard, crusty breads: French bread, hard rolls and pizza dough. White and whole wheat breads may hold a little fat and sugar, which gives them a softer crumb and crust. Grain breads use other flours and grains, such as rye, oat, flax seed and sprouted grains, and may carry additions that bring sourness or sweetness.
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• Rich doughs hold a lot of fat and sugar, and eggs as well, which makes them softer and richer. They can be sweet or not, depending on the sugar and the toppings. Brioche, coffee cake and dinner rolls are rich doughs.
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• Laminated doughs have fat rolled into them and are folded again and again to build layers, which bake up flaky and buttery. They contain some sugar, but most of their sweetness comes from fillings and toppings. Croissants and Danish are the two main kinds.
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The twelve steps

Bread is made in a fixed order of steps. Each one builds on the one before, and none can be hurried or moved.

• Scaling the ingredients
• Mixing
• Bulk fermentation
• Folding
• Dividing
• Preshaping, or rounding
• Bench proofing
• Makeup and panning
• Proofing
• Baking
• Cooling
• Storing

Scaling and mixing

Bakery formulas are exact, so every ingredient is weighed. Liquids can be measured by volume, but in large batches it is more accurate to weigh them too. Take special care with spices and with salt, which plays a large part in how the yeast ferments. Weighing and scaling are covered with measuring. see chapter 5: Scaling and converting a recipe

Mixing spreads the ingredients evenly, forms a smooth dough, and starts the gluten.

• The flour, yeast and other dry ingredients go in the bowl first and are stirred with the dough hook to spread the yeast through.
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• Then the liquid goes in, and gluten begins to form.
• As the dough comes together it pulls away from the side of the bowl, a stage bakers call take up.
• The hook stretches and folds the dough the way hands do in kneading, which lines up the gluten strands so the dough can rise.
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The mixer and its hook are described with the bakeshop tools. see chapter 3: Mixers

A small loaf can be made by hand.

• Beat the dough with a spoon until the batter drops off in sheets.
• Stiffen it with flour until it is soft and easy to handle.
• Rest it for 5 minutes on a floured surface.
• Knead it for 10 to 15 minutes, until its surface turns smooth and shows small blisters.
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Heat sets the gluten in the oven. see chapter 7: Flour

Bulk fermentation and folding

Bulk fermentation is the first rise, with the dough still in one piece. The yeast feeds on sugars and starches and gives off carbon dioxide and alcohol, and the gluten acts as a net that traps the gas, so the dough grows.

• Mixing time and fermentation time balance each other: a long mix needs a shorter ferment, and a short mix needs a longer one.
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• Getting the time wrong spoils the bread. Dough fermented too long turns hard and tough; dough fermented too briefly lacks volume.
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• Use a container big enough for the dough to expand. Check the dough temperature; the usual target is 80°F. Cover the dough so air cannot dry the top into a skin, which would ruin the texture. Some doughs are oiled instead.
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• For the small hand-made loaf, the dough goes into a greased bowl and is turned once so the top is greased. It is covered with a clean damp towel and left somewhere warm, 26°C to 32°C (79°F to 90°F), until it has doubled: 45 to 60 minutes, or 30 minutes with fast-acting yeast.
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Folding, or punching down, is done during bulk fermentation. As the dough expands, the baker presses out the gas and folds the dough over. Too much carbon dioxide is one of the things that slows the yeast, so releasing it lets fermentation carry on. Folding also realigns the gluten, much as kneading does, and keeps the dough temperature even. How many folds a dough gets depends on how it was mixed.

Dividing, rounding and resting

Dividing cuts the dough into pieces of the right weight.

• Cut a piece close to the weight you need with a bench scraper.
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• Put it on the scale.
• Add or trim until it is right.
• Check the weight again.

Bread loses about 10% to 13% of its weight to evaporation as it bakes. To make up for it, add about 1½ to 2 oz. of dough for every pound of baked bread you want. A dough divider press cuts a lump of dough into 36 equal pieces, and the same loss must be allowed for.

Preshaping, usually into a ball, gives each piece a smooth surface and pulls the gluten tight so fermentation can go on. It is also your chance to feel the dough. Give a slack, loose dough a tighter shape, and a tough, stiff dough a looser one. Bring the preshape as close as you can to the final shape.

Bench proofing lets the rounded pieces rest on the work surface for 10 to 20 minutes, under plastic wrap laid on loosely. The gluten relaxes, ready for shaping, and the dough keeps fermenting and rising.

Makeup and panning

Makeup is shaping the dough into its finished form: a round, an oblong, a baguette, a dinner roll. How you handle it decides the crumb, the inside texture of the bread. For a tight crumb, press out every gas bubble. For an open crumb, work gently and keep the air pockets, because every bubble left in the dough becomes a hole in the bread.

To shape a pan loaf:

• Punch the dough down and put it on an unfloured board, cloth or counter.
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• Flatten it with your fingers and work out any big bubbles.
• Press it into a rectangle about 5 by 10 inches.
• Roll it up toward you from a short end, and pinch the seam to seal it.
• Seal each end with the edge of your hand, pressing it into a thin strip about ½ inch wide.
• Fold the ends under and set the loaf, seam down, in a greased 6 by 3¼ inch pan.
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Proofing

Proofing is the last rise before baking. It happens either in a proof box or somewhere warm and dry. In a proof box, set the temperature and humidity the formula calls for. Breads high in fat usually proof cooler, so the butter does not melt and run out of the dough. The proof box is described with the bakeshop tools. see chapter 3: Proofing

• Proofing takes from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the dough.
• The dough is ready when it has doubled and springs back lightly when you touch it.
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• Do not knock the gas out of a proofed dough. If you do, it will not rise in the oven. Proofing ends the fermenting and rising stages.
• The small hand-made loaf proofs covered in a warm place, 29°C (85°F), until nearly doubled: 25 to 30 minutes, or 15 with fast-acting yeast.

Baking

Set the oven for the bread you are baking. A convection oven and a deck oven bake differently.

• Washes. Before it goes in, bread may be brushed with water, egg wash, heavy cream or another wash. Each one changes the crust and how the loaf looks.
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• Steam. Ovens that can inject steam help the crust form while letting the loaf expand fast without tearing. Steam also spreads the heat and helps oven spring.
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• Oven spring is the last rise a bread takes once it starts to bake. After it, the structure sets as the dough heats up, and the yeast dies at 140°F.
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• Scoring means cutting slits in the top of the loaf so it does not split as it rises in the oven. Use a sharp knife or a lame, a curved razor tool.
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• The small hand-made loaf bakes at 425°F for 25 minutes and comes out of the pan straight away to cool.

A brown crust, like the outside of a roast, gets its color and much of its flavor from the Maillard reaction. see chapter 8: What roasting is

Cooling and storing

Take the bread out when it reaches the right internal temperature for its type, and set it on a cooling rack. As it cools, extra moisture escapes, and so does the alcohol the yeast made. Most breads cool on their pan, but bread baked in a loaf pan can be turned out and laid on its side, so steam does not collect underneath and make the bottom crust soggy.

Let bread cool all the way before you wrap it.

• Wrapping warm bread traps moisture and makes it wet and soggy.
• Keep it in moisture-proof bags, or wrapped tightly in plastic in its pan, to slow staling.
• Bagged bread keeps at room temperature if it will be eaten within a few hours or days. Freeze it for longer.
• The refrigerator makes bread go stale faster, and so does leaving it unwrapped on the rack.
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• Do not wrap hard-crusted bread; wrapping changes its crust.

A standard loaf

A good white loaf can be judged on three counts.