kneading with arthritis
Argh . . . Monday morning is not the time for me to knead bread with my hands -- rheumatoid arthritis. What does one do when the hands get stiff? I'm trying to make a sourdough multigrain bread this morning by hand, I love Hamelman's recipes, but the amount or big batch of dough is just too much for me. I usually halve his recipes but my eagerness got ahead of me today and I tried the whole thing! Well, I did a bit by machine and a bit by hand but didn't get it all kneaded well. I am folding an extra time as it rises even though it seems heavy (wait, . . . just folded a third time and it is lightening up some.)
I've learned that for my 'rheumatism' when kneading to . . . #1 use less amounts of whole wheat and grains, #2 try later in the day when there is less ache and stiffness, #3 make looser dough, #4 get the room warm, #5 try more by machine (though, I do find kneading comforting), and #6 experiment more with the S+F methods. More topics on TFL lately are doing the stretch-and-fold or the french fold which I've been doing but sometimes just the mixing by hand is difficult. And I'm not "fond" of the no-knead recipes, I don't like the simpler tastes of them. I want the depth of whole wheat taste and gluten development.
The weather is colder this morning too so that is a factor. And can you believe it, it is lightly snowing this morning, in Tennessee! Anet