August 14, 2023 - 11:50am
When to stop kneading
Does it depend on the type of bread?
When I first started learning about bread you knead until you pass the window test. Now I find out you should not be doing that for sourdough at all.
Is that for all sourdough, whether enriched, lean, high hydration?
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I don't knead at all - the dough does it. Others may differ. Enjoy!
and the dough ferments long enough then the gluten develops itself.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/do-nothing-sourdough-bread-recipe
How interesting that you don’t really do anything at all. Fascinating.
It depends on whether you will be doing a long, slow bulk fermentation or not. If you are going to ferment for 6,8,10+ hours, time will do most of the work - a few stretch and fold sessions early in the bulk ferment will most likely be all you need. A windowpane test wouldn't be needed at all.
If you are aiming to be done with bulk fermenting in a few hours, there won't be time for this process to work out fully, so you might need to help it by doing more kneading/stretching near the beginning.
Either way, things will go better (and be easier) if you give the dough a rest after initial mixing. Half and hour seems to be a good length, but at least 15 minutes. This rest lets the flour hydrate and start developing the gluten. Afterwards it will be much easier to complete kneading.
Thank you for the information. =)