The day I stopped overkneading my dough

I was making sandwich bread every Sunday for about 8 months and it always came out dense and tough. Then my mom watched me knead for 15 minutes straight and asked why I was punishing the dough. Has anyone else realized they were way too aggressive with kneading early on?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_dylan9d ago

punishing the dough" lol i get what your mom is saying but honestly you cant really overknead by hand unless youre like a pro bodybuilder. 15 mins is totally fine for most bread doughs, it usually needs that long to develop gluten anyway. maybe it wasnt the kneading that made it dense maybe it was your flour or yeast or something else.

black.patricia8d ago

Absolutely agree, I've been there too. I remember once I was making a simple white loaf and I just kept going because I was listening to a podcast and lost track of time. Must have kneaded it for close to 25 minutes and that bread still came out light and fluffy. People get so scared of overworking dough but unless you're literally using a machine it's almost impossible to ruin it that way. Honestly half the time when bread comes out tough it's because the flour was old or the water was too hot and killed the yeast.