More Musings on Mixing…
Jan 26th, 2009 by SteveB
In a previous post (Musings on Mixing…), I described what I believe to be a fundamental difference between bread baking at the commercial scale and bread baking atthe much smaller scale of the home baker. At the commercial scale,spiral and obliquedough mixers are quiteefficient at incorporating air into the dough during mixing, makingoveroxidation of the dougha real concern for the professional baker. For the home baker, however, the opposite concern comes into play. Conventional tabletop stand mixers are relativelyinefficient atmixing dough. Therefore,the home bakerhas to look for ways to increase air incorporation during mixing. I concluded in the previous postthat the only way for the home baker to do this effectivelywas through hand mixing.
Hand mixing, whether it be by a slap and fold technique like the one shown here or by just a series of folds during the first fermentation,can produce a nicely developed dough whichyields a loaf havingthe desired open crumb with many large air cells (alveoli). However,it is a technique not without its own challenges. If performedimproperly, hand mixing can lead to a loaf with large alveoli embedded within an otherwise doughy mass.The more I thought about it, the more convinced I becamethat there must be an easyway to use a conventionalhome stand mixer to produce a dough that wouldrival the quality of a professional, spiral-mixed dough.
Before I delve into the details of the technique I’ve devised,I think itimportant to understand the process by which the crumb of a bread is established. During doughfermentation, yeast cells produce and excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide as metabolic by-products. The yeast do not release the carbon dioxide as bubbles but instead, carbondioxide molecules diffuse through the yeast’s cell membrane into the surrounding water. This process continues until the water reaches its saturation point,a point where it can no longer hold any more carbon dioxide.At this point, small air bubbles already present in the dough as a result of the mixing process act as nucleation sites, and begin accepting the dissolved carbon dioxide into their interiors, expanding in the process. As these bubbles growlarger, some beginto cluster and then coalesce, producing a wide distribution of different sized bubbles throughout the dough. It is this matrix ofvarying-sized bubbles that ultimately sets upon baking to become the crumb.
With this as a backdrop, it became logical to inferthat the more small bubbles there were to act as nucleation sites, the greater was the potential for the formation ofthewide open crumb structure for whichartisan bakers strive. Increasing the small bubble population was attemptedusinga two-step flour incorporation technique.Using this double flour addition technique, just enoughflour is first added toa water and levain slurry to achieve aloose batterconsistency. Thisbatter is then mixed using a tabletopstand mixer fitted with awhisk attachment, until the mixture becomes aerated. Finally, the remainder of the flour is added and the dough is mixed with a regular dough hook (or spiral hook, if your mixer comes equipped with one), just until all the flour is incorporated. After a brief autolyse period, the mixing iscompleted as usual. This procedureresulted in a soft, smooth and silky dough with a wonderful elasticity/extensibility profile.
Pain au Levain using Double Flour Addition
Final Dough
- 680 g King Arthur Organic Select ArtisanFlour
- 90 g King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
- 455 g Water
- 15 g Salt
- 300 g Levain (mature sourdough culture, 100% hydration)
The organic white and whole wheat flours were first combined in a largemixing bowl. The water and levain were then added to the bowl of a stand mixerand were mixedon the lowest speed, using the whisk attachment, just until the levain becameevenly dispersed in the water, about 1 minute. Just enough of the flour mixture(~75 g) was then added to produce a loose batter and the mixer speed was then increased tospeed3. Whisking was continueduntil the mixturebecamewell aerated, about 3 minutes. The whisk attachment was then exchanged for a spiral dough hook and after the remaining flour mixture was added, thedough was mixed at the lowest speed until all the ingredients were incorporated, about 2 minutes. The bowl was then coveredwith plastic wrap and allowed torestfor an autolyseperiod of 30 minutes.
After this time,the salt was added and the dough was mixedon speed 3 using the spiral dough hook for 6 minutes. The dough was then placedin a lightly oiled container, covered, and allowed toferment for twohours. No folding was necessary during this first fermentation.
After the two hour first fermentation, the dough wasdivided into two, 1 1/2 lb. pieces and each piece was lightlyrounded. After resting under a plastic sheet for 15 minutes, the pieces wereshaped into boulots, placed in rice flour-coatedbrotformen,covered with Saran Quick Covers and allowed a second fermentation of 3hours. After the second fermentation, the boulots wereinvertedonto a peel, scored, loaded into the oven and then baked at 425F for40 minutes with steam applied for the first 15 minutes (scoring and steaming video can be found here). The resulting loaves exhibited the desired distribution of large, medium and small alveoli and a translucent alveolar wall structure.
lili,
谢谢
：））
Dear Steve,
I’m hoping you can help me solve my sourdough conundrum. Having received a starter from a friend on Friday and fed it myself for three days twice a day I made bread today following your recipe above. I’m not a fan of rye so I used 750g of white spelt flour and the other weights as you specify. The resulting dough was quite wet – too wet to mix using the fold and beat method. I thought this might resolve itself so persevered but the final boulot when turned onto the tray for baking turned into a pizza shape! Where am I going wrong? Should the flour amount be increased for white spelt?
Many thanks for any suggestions.
PatchofPeace,
Different flours have different water absorption characteristics. If you are going to change flours, then you need to change the amount of water you are adding during mixing to obtain a dough with the desired characteristics. The goal here would be to add enough water to obtain a moderately loose dough.
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Hello SteveB, Re: ‘Musings on Mixing’
I found your website through a link on thefreshloaf.com. Thanks for all of your research which benefits the baking community!
I wanted to please ask you a question regarding Mr. Bertinet’s hand working technique for dough. Do you detect any sign given by the dough (apart from performing a windowpane test) that might indicate that enough gluten has been developed?
I ask because twice recently when working the dough (wet doughs, 80%+ hydration), all of a sudden the dough loses structure, puddles on the work surface, and becomes bad-sticky as the dough releases water. There isn’t any warning this is going to happen. I hope this has never happened to you but was wondering what thoughts you might have on this issue.
Thanks from breadsong
Hi Breadsong,
I’ve found that the windowpane test is an extremely valuable for determining the extent to which gluten has been developed in a dough. That is not to say that all doughs should be mixed to a fine, translucent windowpane stage. The degree to which dough should be developed, and thus how near to a translucent windowpane the dough should be taken, is determined by a number of factors including the amount of yeast being used, the hydration of the dough, the first fermentation time, etc.
When hand-mixing, it is extremely difficult to over-mix a dough to the point where the gluten begins to break down. I suspect that your difficulty might be related to some other factor. For doughs in the 80%+ hydration range, I would suggest using the double hydration technique. Using this technique, the dough is first mixed with only enough water to give around a 65% hydration dough. Once the gluten is developed to the desired level, enough additional water is then added to bring the dough up to your desired hydration and mixing is continued until all the additional water is absorbed. The technique of double hydration is discussed here.
Hi Steve, Thanks so much for your reply. I’d actually already started a poolish so I could try your double-double method for Ciabatta, when I wrote earlier. Here’s how it turned out:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20053/ciabatta-steveb039s-formula-amp-technique-breadcetera
I was wondering if you were willing to post pictures of your emulsion, and dough at the different stages of mixing; I’m curious to see if what I’m seeing in the bowl is the same result as what you’re getting, in terms of aeration.
Thanks again, from breadsong
Hi Breadsong,
Since I’m currently playing around with whole grain flours and having fun with some new bread challenges, I haven’t baked a ciabatta in quite some time. The next time I do, I’ll try to post some photos.
Thanks Steve – I appreciate your willingness to do so and will check back. Hope you’re having fun working with your whole grain flours.
Thanks from breadsong
I have one suggestion that relies on a technique I have used repeatedly: the whole wheat flour will contribute slightly less bitterness to the final dough and resulting loaves if part of the water for the final dough is used the day before to mix with the whole wheat flour and allowed to rest overnight. This triggers enzymatic action (in fact, in some cases I find the whole wheat flour-water mixture to have puffed up overnight as if it had been yeasted) and reduces whole wheat bitterness. This approach is especially advantageous if the goal is a, say, 50% whole wheat flour loaf. I got this technique from one of the volumes of Best Recipes from America’s Test Kitchens.
Hi Jerry,
Thank you for your suggestion. I was wondering if you could elaborate further on the specific bitterness-reducing enzymes that are activated during the resting period and the substrates they are acting upon.
Whole grain, such as whole wheat, flours contain phytin whose constituent parts are primarily magnesium, phosphoric acid, and calcium. Phytin is essentially unassimilable, that is, the desirable components are nutrionally unavailable without enzymatic action. Although that action can take place to a significant extent when the flour is part of a risen dough, much more conversion of phytin to assimilable nutrients occurs if the whole grain flour is wetted and allowed to sit for several hours prior to incorporation into the subsequent dough. This was shown initially by animal experiments testing animal ingestion and utilitization of whole grains with or without prior soaking. It was shown that equivalent amounts of grains were more nutritious if the grain, such as barley, were soaked for several hours prior to being introduced as part of animal feed (e.g., for cattle). Soaking whole grain flour releases phytase (phosphatase), the enzyme that breaks up phytin so that phosphates can easily combine with calcium. In the process, bitter oils associated with bran and wheat germ are also dissipated (by an ornate chemical process that even I dont understand!) resulting in sweeter” whole grain flour. (Probably, what occurs is the initial conversion of starches to simple sugars that proceeds when grains are allowed to continue through soaking to the point of sprouting. The flour, however, can only go so far in this regard since it is ground.) This is especially noticeable when comparing two loaves of mostly whole wheat bread made exactly the same way, but with one utilizing soaked flour and the other performing direct incorporation of the flour into the primary dough. If I remember correctly, without looking, the soaking approach to induce enzymatic action is the keystone to the Secrets of Perfect Whole Wheat Bread” recipe in the March-April 2011 of Cooks Illustrated (NOT!! The recipe in fact stops at the incorporation of 60% whole wheat flour!).
And, cf., the study findings in the link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11714342
Jerry,
Thank you for the information on phytic acid and the related link.
I was actually hoping for further information on the chemical basis for the ‘de-bittering’ process you describe. Are you able to provide any references for this chemical process?
HI Steve,
I baked this recipe yesterday and it came out amazing! I came at this via your ciabatta recipe (double flour/double hydration). Both were a big improvement for me!
One question that occurred to me was what would happen if I tried this recipe in my mixer up until after the autolyse. Then I would hand mix. So, in other words, I would aerate and do the initial mix with my Kitchen Aide and then finish by hand. I am wondering because my mixer seemed to strain a little with this dough vs the ciabatta. If you had any comments, I’d be curious. Otherwise I might just try that.
In any case, this was the best Pain au Levain I ever made! So, many thanks!
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Hi Steve
Have learned alot from your site!
Question? What would happen if carbonated water was used in place of plain water?
Hi Tony,
I’ve never found a need to use carbonated water when baking bread. I’m not sure what would be gained by utilizing such a practice.