This is what every book promised me over the years, and I have never seen anything amazing happen ever. It goes from not very uniform to uniform, but that’s all.
After years, I found out about giving the dough a bit of folding, or balling it up, or whatever is fitting, and now it doesn’t take forever, doesn’t stick to my hands, and seems at least as good.
Have you seen anything wondrous happen from lengthy hand kneading?
I’d heard that kneading “activates the gluten”, but tbh chemistry was never my strong suit so I have no idea what that means in the real world. I suspect kneading time relates to the level of activation or resulting gluten level, or perhaps even the speed at which the activation occurs. I couldn’t even tell you what gluten does in terms of flavour or chewiness or whatever.
I’ve just never found the right eli5 for me about it. Perhaps split a batch, knead one half and do a comparison taste test?
Chemically, gluten does not exist in flour. It is a composite material which is made of flour proteins and water. It also requires energy to form. Usually warm dough temperature gives enough energy for gluten to form, but the process is very slow. When you’re kneading, you’re adding a lot of mechanical energy and that speeds up the process.
Fantastic explanation. Thank you.
I realize it’s chiefly supposed to be gliadin and glutenin.
It seems to me that any temperature change from hand kneading must be quite modest because I’ve never perceived it.
It’s not temperature from hands, it’s mechanical energy you’re adding through kneading.