Kneading & proofing bread
Kneading builds the gluten that traps gas; proofing gives yeast time to make that gas and the flavour. Get both right and the loaf rises tall, opens up and tastes of something.
Why it works
Wheat flour contains two proteins, glutenin and gliadin. Add water and they bond into gluten: glutenin gives the dough its spring, gliadin lets it stretch. At first the strands are short and tangled. Kneading stretches, aligns and links them into a continuous, elastic network. Time does some of this work on its own, which is why a long rest can stand in for much of the kneading.
Yeast eats the sugars in flour and gives off carbon dioxide and alcohol. The gas collects in tiny air pockets that mixing folded into the dough, and the gluten network stretches around each one like a balloon. Weak gluten lets the gas escape and the loaf stays dense. Strong gluten holds it, so the dough rises and the crumb opens. Proofing is simply the time you give the yeast to do this, in two stages: bulk fermentation in one mass, then a final proof once shaped.
Flavour comes from the same slow work. While yeast makes gas, enzymes break starch into sugars and bacteria make acids and aromatic compounds. A loaf rushed through in an hour with lots of yeast tastes of little but yeast. Use less yeast, keep the dough at a steady, moderate temperature, or slow it in the fridge, and the bread tastes of wheat.
Bakers measure everything against the flour, which counts as 100%. This is baker's percentage. With 500 g flour, 350 g water is 70% hydration, 10 g salt is 2% and 5 g instant yeast is 1%. The numbers tell you how a dough will behave: around 60–65% is firm and easy to knead, 70–75% is soft and open-crumbed, 80% and above is a wet dough you handle with folds. To scale a recipe, change the flour weight and multiply.
What you need
- Digital scale: Weigh everything, water included; a pocket scale that reads to 0.1 g makes small yeast amounts accurate.
- Bench scraper: Lifts sticky dough off the worktop, divides it and helps build tension when shaping.
- Large bowl or clear tub: A straight-sided container with a marked starting level makes judging the rise much easier.
- Probe thermometer: For checking dough temperature after mixing and the loaf's centre at the end.
- Proofing basket: A banneton, or a bowl lined with a well-floured linen tea towel, supports a free-form loaf while it proofs.
- Cast-iron casserole or baking steel: A lidded casserole traps the loaf's own steam; a steel or stone gives a strong burst of heat from below.
- Stand mixer with dough hook: Saves effort on stiff or enriched doughs such as brioche.
Step by step
Weigh and mix
Weigh the flour and water and mix just until no dry flour remains. For the autolyse, cover and leave this shaggy mass for 20–40 minutes before adding salt and yeast. The flour hydrates, gluten starts forming on its own, and the dough becomes smoother and easier to knead. Then add the salt (about 2% of the flour) and yeast (about 1% instant for a same-day loaf) and squeeze them through until evenly mixed.
Tip: Fresh yeast is about three times the weight of instant: 15 g fresh replaces 5 g instant. Crumble it into the water. Active dry is about 1.25 times instant and is happiest dissolved first.
Aim for a warm dough
Yeast works fastest and most predictably when the dough sits at 24–26 °C, so check it with a thermometer after mixing. Too cold and the rise drags on for hours; too warm and the yeast outruns the flavour and the gluten. Control it with the water temperature.
Tip: Water temperature ≈ 3 × target dough temperature − (room temperature + flour temperature + 5 for hand mixing, or 13 for a mixer). For a 25 °C dough in a 20 °C kitchen, mixed by hand, that is 30 °C water.
Knead to suit the dough
For firm doughs up to about 65% hydration, knead by hand: push the dough away with the heel of your hand, fold it back over itself, give it a quarter turn and repeat, for 8–12 minutes. Wetter doughs stick to everything, so use slap and fold: lift the dough, slap the bottom onto the bench, stretch the top towards you and fold it over, for 5–10 minutes. Or skip intensive kneading and give the dough three or four sets of stretch and folds during bulk. A stand mixer on low to medium speed takes 6–10 minutes.
Tip: Resist adding flour to a sticky dough. It changes the hydration. Wet your hands or use the scraper instead, and the dough will tighten as gluten develops.
Check with the windowpane test
Pinch off a small piece and stretch it slowly between your fingers. Well-developed dough thins into a translucent sheet you can see light through before it tears. If it rips straight away, knead a few minutes more. Doughs built with stretch and folds only pass towards the end of bulk.
Bulk ferment
Cover the dough and leave it somewhere warm and steady. For stretch and folds, every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours, lift one side of the dough with wet hands, stretch it up and fold it over, then turn the bowl and repeat on all four sides. A yeasted dough is ready when it has roughly doubled; a sourdough when it has risen by 50–75%. Either way, it should be domed at the edges, jiggly when you shake the bowl and show bubbles on the surface and sides.
Tip: Go by the dough, not the clock. The rise table below is a guide; your kitchen and flour will move it.
Pre-shape, then rest
Tip the dough onto a lightly floured bench and divide if needed. Fold it loosely into a round and leave it uncovered for 20–30 minutes. This bench rest lets the gluten relax so the final shape does not tear.
Shape with tension
Flip the round, fold the sides into the middle to form a tight package, then roll it up towards you. Turn it seam side down on an unfloured patch of bench and drag it towards you with cupped hands or the scraper. The friction tightens the skin. That taut surface is what holds the loaf upright and steers its rise upwards. Place it seam side up in a floured basket, or seam side down in a greased tin.
Tip: Rice flour, or half rice and half wheat, stops dough sticking to a basket far better than wheat flour alone.
Final proof or cold retard
Cover and proof until the poke test says it is ready. Flour a finger and press about 1 cm into the dough. If it springs back quickly, give it longer. If it fills back slowly and leaves a slight dent, bake it. If the dent stays put, it is over-proofed, so bake straight away. For better flavour and an easier timetable, put the shaped loaf in the fridge at 3–5 °C for 8–16 hours instead, and bake it straight from the fridge.
Tip: Cold dough always springs back slowly, so the poke test is less reliable on a retarded loaf. Judge it more by how much it has grown.
Bake hot, with steam
Heat the oven to 240–250 °C for at least 45 minutes, with the casserole or steel inside. Turn the loaf out, slash it with a razor about 1 cm deep, and bake 20 minutes with the lid on, then 20–25 minutes uncovered at 230 °C. No casserole: put a tray on the oven floor and pour in a cup of boiling water as the loaf goes in, then remove it after 15–20 minutes. The steam keeps the crust soft so the loaf can expand, then lets it brown and crisp. Lean loaves are done at an internal temperature of about 93–98 °C and sound hollow when tapped underneath.
Tip: Tin loaves and enriched doughs bake lower: about 200 °C for a sandwich loaf and 180 °C for brioche, which is done at around 90 °C inside.
Cool before slicing
Cool the loaf on a rack for at least an hour, two for a large one. The crumb is still setting as starch firms and steam escapes. Cut it hot and the inside turns gummy and compressed.
Baker's percentage formulas
| Ingredient | White sandwich loaf | Country loaf | Focaccia | Brioche-style |
|---|
| Flour | 500 g strong white (100%) | 450 g strong white + 50 g wholemeal (100%) | 500 g strong white (100%) | 400 g strong white (100%) |
| Liquid | 320 g water (64%) | 360 g water (72%) | 400 g water (80%) | 60 g milk (15%) |
| Eggs | – | – | – | 200 g, about 4 (50%) |
| Salt | 10 g (2%) | 10 g (2%) | 10 g (2%) | 8 g (2%) |
| Instant yeast | 5 g (1%) | 2 g (0.4%), for an overnight retard | 5 g (1%) | 6 g (1.5%) |
| Fat | 20 g butter (4%) | – | 25 g olive oil (5%), plus more for the tin | 160 g soft butter (40%) |
| Sugar | 10 g (2%) | – | – | 40 g (10%) |
| Dough weight | 865 g | 872 g | 940 g | 874 g |
| Bake | 900 g tin, 200 °C, 30–35 min | Casserole, 240 °C, 40–45 min | 23 × 33 cm tin, 230 °C, 20–25 min | 900 g tin, 180 °C, 30–35 min |
Rise times by dough temperature
| Dough temperature | Bulk, to roughly doubled | Final proof, shaped |
|---|
| 18 °C | 3 h 30 – 5 h | 1 h 30 – 2 h 30 |
| 21 °C | 2 h 30 – 3 h 30 | 1 h – 1 h 30 |
| 24 °C | 1 h 30 – 2 h | 45 – 75 min |
| 26 °C | 1 h – 1 h 30 | 40 – 60 min |
| 28 °C | 45 – 75 min | 30 – 45 min |
| Fridge, 3–5 °C | Not recommended for a first rise | 8 – 16 h, after a full bulk |
Troubleshooting
The loaf is dense and tight
Usually under-proofed, under-kneaded, or both. The gluten could not hold enough gas, or the yeast had too little time to make it. Check the windowpane before bulk, let the dough properly double, and use a thermometer: a dough at 20 °C needs far longer than the recipe that assumed 25 °C.
The loaf spreads flat in the oven
Weak surface tension, over-proofing, or a dough too wet for your experience. Shape more firmly, dragging the loaf on the bench until the skin is taut, and proof in a basket for support. If you are new to high hydration, drop to 68–70% until shaping feels easy.
It rose, then collapsed
Over-proofed. The gluten stretched as far as it could and the gas bubbles merged and escaped. Catch the final proof earlier with the poke test, or retard in the fridge. An over-proofed dough can be reshaped once and proofed again, briefly.
The crumb is gummy
Either the loaf was cut while hot or it was underbaked. Bake to at least 93 °C inside, leave it in the oven another 5 minutes with the door ajar if the crust browns early, and cool it for at least an hour before slicing.
The dough tears when I shape it
The gluten is too tight, either from a skipped bench rest or from heavy handling. Let the pre-shaped dough rest 20–30 minutes, then shape with fewer, gentler moves. A tear can also mean the dough was under-developed, so check the windowpane next time.
The crust is thick and tough
Too little steam, too long in the oven, or too low a temperature, which dries the crust before it browns. Bake hotter and shorter, keep the lid on or add steam for the first 20 minutes, and brush tin loaves with milk or butter as they come out for a softer crust.
Watch the steam
Steam from a preheated casserole or a tray of boiling water burns faster and deeper than dry oven heat.
- Stand back and open the oven door at arm's length for the first second or two.
- Lift casserole lids away from you, and use thick, dry oven gloves; wet cloth conducts heat straight through.
- Never pour water onto a glass oven door or a cold glass dish, which can shatter.
