Knead Need? NWR

I

Ian Fitzsimmons

Ian Fitzsimmons
I baked sourdough for the family every week over a period of about 15 years, laboring under the impression that lengthy kneading is essential to develop gluten, which allows the dough to rise elastically with CO2 burped out as a metabolic byproduct by the yeast beasts.

I've also read about the kneadless method here and there, including here. I have a book on the method In front of me by Jim Lahey, which I'm getting ready to read.

Who here has made bread using this method, and what's your experience been like?
 
I have every week for about three years, and I am satisfied with the results. I have never made bread any other way, so I cannot offer a fair comparison with other methods. I can say the bread rises nicely. I generally use a mixture of whole wheat bread flour, bread flour, and whole wheat flour in my loaf. Generally I made one and a half times the recipe using 600 grams of flour to 465 grams of water, depending on the weather. I have found that the four part flour to three part water ratio he suggests did not work with my flour combination, so I increased the water.

Brad
 
My wife is gluten-free, so it is a rare treat for me to make bread. I started making Jim Lahey's version more than 12 years ago, and thought it was great. I still think it is great.

I am continually gob-smacked that I receive such a wholesale return of wonderful bread out of such a trifling investment of labor. (With apologies to Mark Twain, who both said it first and said it better.)
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Aren't we all gluten-free?
Click to expand...

Regrettably, some of us are more gluten-free than others. I happen to think bread is one of mankind's great inventions, ranking just behind the toaster and the bagel slicer.
 
originally posted by Andrew Zachary:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Aren't we all gluten-free?
Click to expand...

Regrettably, some of us are more gluten-free than others. I happen to think bread is one of mankind's great inventions, ranking just behind the toaster and the bagel slicer.
Click to expand...
Yet sliced bread, ironically, not so much.
 
originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
originally posted by Andrew Zachary:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Aren't we all gluten-free?
Click to expand...

Regrettably, some of us are more gluten-free than others. I happen to think bread is one of mankind's great inventions, ranking just behind the toaster and the bagel slicer.
Click to expand...
Yet sliced bread, ironically, not so much.
Click to expand...

But then ... toasted!

originally posted by Andrew Zachary:
[...] (With apologies to Mark Twain, who both said it first and said it better.)
Click to expand...

Can't this pretty much be said about anything?
 
The flour we get here doesn't respond well to kneading. I mix everything together, 80% hydration or more depending on what flours used, stretch and fold twice in alternate directions, repeat a couple more times as time passes then when risen(not to double the size or anything like it) gently gather the dough underneath and straight into the rising basket,gathered side down.
 
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