Just realized I was overkneading my sourdough for 2 years

I always thought you had to knead until the dough was super smooth and elastic, like glass. Then my friend visited from Portland and watched me beat the hell out of a batch for 15 minutes. She was like 'dude, you're ruining the gluten structure, stop at 7 minutes'. Tried it her way and my crumb went from dense to airy overnight. Has anyone else had a moment where you found out a basic step was totally wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

grace_hunt845d ago

Oh man, that Portland friend did you a solid! I had a similar wakeup call with my pizza dough last year. I always thought a tougher, stiffer dough meant a better crust, so I'd knead it like I was mad at it. Turns out I was basically making bread cement. Once I backed off and let the autolyse do the work, my oven spring went crazy. It's wild how we get these rigid ideas in our heads about what "right" looks like, especially with sourdough where everyone's a guru about their own method. Isn't it funny how the biggest improvement sometimes comes from doing less?

the_miles5d ago

Bread cement." That got me. Holy crap. I literally snorted reading that because it's exactly what I was doing with my sandwich loaves last fall. Thought I was being thorough, turns out I was just punishing the gluten. My loaves came out like doorstops. Dense, heavy, could've used one as a weapon. The autolyse thing changed my whole baking world too. It's weird how doing less feels wrong at first but then your bread finally breathes.