April 23, 2020 - 6:31am
Why high hydration bread is usually no-knead?
Hi
I'm new on this Web-site. may be my question will sound silly... I've tried to use a "search" but I wasn't able to find the answer... May be someone can give me a quick answer or give me a link where to read about this. I'm very keen to know what is the science behind the fact that high hydration bread recipes are usually "no-knead"? Why it's better to develop gluten in the very wet dough that way but not just knead it?
Thank you very much.
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It's more the other way around.... the no-knead method requires a wet dough.
"No-knead" is allowing mother nature to develop the gluten network, with maybe a few stretch-and-fold procedures to help it along. This moving around or joining or arrangement of the gliadin and glutenin proteins into gluten is facilitated by the wet slipperiness.
The yeast has something to do with it too, but I'm not sure what the mechanisms are at the microscopic level. I just know that if you mix flour, water, salt, and yeast, and give it time, gluten forms. You can get there quicker with kneading, but the extra time in the no-knead method also allows enzymes, yeast and bacteria to make wonderful flavors out of the flour.
Thanks a lot for your answer.
Yes, it's understandable that there are 2 ways how to develop a gluten in the dough : kneading or time. But why exactly for the high hydration dough "time" is preferred?... It should be some explanation... I think.
sorry I was not more clear... High hydration dough, in and of itself, does not require the extra time. You can still get gluten quickly with a mixer and dough hook with high hydration dough. If you want to put relatively wet dough in the mixer, go right ahead.
It's this: those who want the extra flavor that comes from letting nature work its magic over time (or those who don't have a mixer and don't want to knead by hand) the dough requires high hydration for the magic to work.
"Kneading" often refers to working a dough on a surface with your hands, and high-hydration doughs are generally too wet for that. Most of the "no-knead" recipes still require stretch-and-folds, so you're still working the dough a bit with your hands, though it's not onerous.
I suspect that for virtually all leavened bread methods, time is playing an important role in gluten development. You can speed it up by doing more mechanical intervention. There are also some specific kinds of dough development that require hands or machine. Lower-hydration recipes that ask you to knead to "windowpane" consistency need hands or machine -- no amount of time gets you there. And in my own limited experience, a really convincing ciabatta still needs a few minutes at high speed with a paddle in the mixer, no matter how long its fermentations.
The other general point in favor of time is that it gets you better flavor. That's certainly what pushed me to long-fermentation techniques.
Thank you.
Yes, flavour is another point... I agree.