February 26, 2008 - 12:39am
A video of Richard Bertinet mixing sweet dough
Richard Bertinet has a very interesting kneading technique that I really like. It is similar to the technique that Maggie Glezer describes in her book "Artisan Baking".
Bertinet's method is initially a little difficult to understand from the words alone, but the book is accompanied by a DVD that makes the method very clear.
Today I found a wonderful video online showing Richard Bertinet mixing a sweet dough. It is an excellent video, showing Bertinet's kneading technique. Here is the link to it:
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/03/bertinet_sweetdough
Enjoy!
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This is another great dough handling video. The folding he is doing is something we have been calling the French fold. When I learned to do this simple technique my understanding of gluten development jumped way forward and my breads were greatly improved. I love the way he breaks up the cake yeast and butter with his hands so effortlessly. Thanks for sharing.
Eric
Thank you so much for this link. It always help to see the different techniques.
The breaking of the yeast struck me too. The way he rubbed ingredients into the flour reminds me of the way I rub potatoes into flour for Flour Dumplings. I had never thought about using a dry mixing method with either cake yeast or potatoes for bread dough, I think I'll try crumbling cooked potatoes too! ...never too old to learn a new trick! Thanks!
Mini O
As per the usual, always late to the party!!!
That was a fantastic video and I've never seen dough folded/kneaded quite like that before. I am definitely going to try this dough for some sticky buns that I've been meaning to bake.
His effortless movements and his gentle hands were mesmerizing. I now officially have a crush on him. Hehehe.
Thanks for sharing this. I'm inspired to bake! Will let it overnight and do this tomorrow, but I'm more excited to work with the dough!
I was taught RB's method by the man himself and the speed and ease with which he turns the ingredients into a fully worked dough is amazing. I first came across him on UK tv when he made "puff balls" and watching a flat piece of dough he had made expand to resemble a puff ball with just the application of heat was incredible!
Out of curiosity, the video mentioned "If you're ever in England come and talk about dough", so I did a bit of googling and saw his baking classes. He has a partner who he taugh, and her baking classes are still available.. his are totally sold out far into the future. :)
Someone to keep an eye on. I'm surprised he doesn't have his own show on the cooking channel! :)
I suspect a lot of the ladies would like to see him on tv more often, especially with his French accent!
No doubt! I honestly could not take my eyes off his hands. Very masterful and he's really good at explaining. I've seen other takes on the Bertinet method, but his is quite good.
I decided to make Richard Bertinet's Sweet Dough using his methods in the video. I decided to use the dough to make my caramel cinnamon rolls and so I watched the video a couple of times before clicking the link to the recipe.
In the video, he is adding his ingredients and I saw he added four eggs. So, I cracked my eggs and set them aside to warm to room temperature a bit and began to assemble my ingredients. I ran through the link to the recipe and after I dumped my eggs in, I noticed that the recipe called for TWO eggs, not FOUR. Yikes.
Neverless, I continued to follow the directions and my dough was more of a batter-like consistency. Thick batter, but batter nonetheless. I realized there was no way I was going to get this mass to come together EVER - unless I added more flour. I ended up adding another 7 ounces of flour to the dough. It was just enough to allow me to pick up the wet dough in one piece from the counter.
I kept working and working and working the dough as instructed and it started to come together very nicely. It was quite tacky still, but no longer was sticking so badly to my fingers and it was no longer sticking at all to the counter.
So far so good on the rolls. They are getting ready to go into the oven and I will post pictures when they are done.
Just note that if you are watching the video and then following the recipe, the written recipe is very different than the video. That's what I get for not paying attention! Grrrr!
but have yet to master his kneading method before I have the courage to try his recipes. I'd hate to end up with a counter top covered with a huge mass of wet and sticky dough if I can't handle the dough the Bertinet way.
It's not hard truly. It just takes patience and it's really beautiful to feel it transform in your hands. If I knead all my dough this way, I'll have muscles! :)
I can assure you it works. RB's basic yeasted bread recipe that he taught us is:
500g white, unbleached, bread flour
350g water
10g fresh yeast (or equivalent dry substitute)
10g salt (but you can use less if you watch your salt intake)
If you try with this first it will work - in the end - and when you have mastered the techniques you can move onto more complex recipes or variations because you know how the dough feels and responds. Just don't get too carried away otherwise you can send dough flying across your kitchen or - even worse - into your hair (yes, I have done it once or twice).
Best Wishes Ruralidle
I found a big chunk of dough under my cabinets last night. :)
Any clue as to baking temps for his bread? If I was to make a standard loaf from this, how long to bake and how hot? I like how his doughs all form the basis for many different breads. Hard to believe they come from a basic formula.
Hi BellesAZ
RB recommends pre-heating your oven to 250C then reducing the temperature to between 240C to 220C depending on the form of bread you are baking (generally hotter for loaves and slightly cooler for rolls etc but this isn't always the case, watch out for the tops of loaves that have risen well burning before the main part is fully baked).
I don't know what those temperatures are in degrees F as I mainly use an AGA that doesn't have any temperature settings, just a thermometer that tells you if it is up to temperature, which is about 250C in the middle of the roasting oven!
Length of time again depends upon the form of bread, with rolls taking 15 mins or so. I find that my AGA takes about half an hour to bake a white split tin loaf of this recipe when I put the tin straight onto my stone on the base of the oven. But all ovens differ and it will be down to your experience as to how long to bake things for.
Hope this helps
Best Wishes Ruralidle
To be able to feel the wet sticky mass tranform into a silky smooth elastic dough is one of the pleasures of making bread because it tells me I've succeeded in what I want to achieve. Based on his formula of 70% hydration, can I then go on to reduce the qty of flour used (I don't want to waste too much flour when I practise with it) I can easily half everything but the dough may be too small to work with so I'm think maybe reduce to 350 grm of flour and at 70% hydration I should use 245grm and 2% each of yeast and salt @7grms. I actually managed to get some fresh yeast and would like to see how different it is compared with IDY.
I have been doing a lot of reading on Crust but I'm disappointed to find that his recipes call for much larger quantities and too complex for me to convert.
Thank you both for the encouragement.
Hi jslouey
I would not recommend reducing your quantity much below 500g of flour because it is more difficult to work smaller quantities of dough using RB's method than it is larger quantities. 1kg of flour is a nice balance between ease of working and developing muscles that you haven't used in a while! You may be OK with 350g of flour - I haven't tried it and, without getting my calculator out, I will trust your calculations. You could try a 65% hydration first, to help you get used to the method, but I would not use less than 500g of flour at that level of hydration.
All I can say about the quantities is that the results are generally worthwhile but I would still use 500g of flour as a practical minimum.
Good Luck Ruralidle
Thank you for the advice. I did notice that it was rather difficult to get the dough to stick to the worktop when I try to lift it to fold over and just thought that perhaps it had to do with my clumsy kneading movements or the dough mass not being big/wet enough and now your advice confirms this. I'll try and work with the recommended 500grms and see how I get along. I've been watching his DVD repeatedly to familiarise myself with his technique and I also checked out his website for classes to see if I should choose between SFBI or his school.
Edit: Please note that I have also sent a PM to you with some questions abt the school in Bath. Many thanks. Judy
I saw a young French chef using this method to parepare dough for baguette on Youtube. Didn't know it was Richard Bertinet's method! COOL.
And I am still living in South Korea and that means I cannot attend those wonderfully awesome GF bread baking courses!!!!!! *SOB* I just have to keep my eyes wide open for good recipes that will work... and I cannot get Teff or Amaranth here in Korea... other GF stuff I can at very very high cost. Sucks that I had to go gluten-free before mastering breadbaking with regular flour......