Hey there, I hope you're doing great.
I have a situation with my dough. It's cinnamon rolls. I've been doing cinnamon rolls for a long time. I kneaded the dough by hand but since it was a 8 kilogram batch everyday, I bought a mixer or kneader. I have to say it's really powerful and fast (I can't change the speed or levels). The thing is, that I started kneading in the machine for 2:30 minutes. I thought it was okay, but then started to increase the time of kneading to 3:30 and they came out great. Still, I thought the dough was always very sticky and it seem "shaggy" when taking it out from the kneader. I increased the time to 4:30 minutes and did the windowpane test. Dough was smooth and it seemed it has a good level of gluten formation.
The thing I don't understand is when I roll it out as a rectangle in the counter. When I roll it, it starts breaking, and I can see the table or the counter (at this point the dough is still very soft and well fermented). When I place them in to a pan and let them rise, they start breaking or cracking. And when they are in the oven, they don't rise well and they keep cracking.
Let's say I make 10 boxes/pans of cinnamon rolls in a day. The first 3-4 are good, they don't break or crack at all. The problem is with the last ones. And if I put the dough in the fridge (even if it was the last dough) for a little bit, and roll the dough in the counter, it doesn't break (this is driving me crazy).
So, I have some theories for this, but I would like to hear your opinions.
1) Letting the dough rise for a long time in room temperature.
2) Using to much yeast (I use 85-90 grams for 5000 grams of flour)
3) Overkneading (?)
To what I can recall, I don't remember this happening when I kneaded by hand.
My cinnamon roll dough look kinda like this (left dough in the picture) after kneading it and forming it in balls.
Maybe the powerful fast mixer is tearing the gluten when mixing for too long. Maybe try 2 sets of 2 minute mixes with 15 - 20 minutes rest in between to let the gluten relax?
I did something similar to check and feel the dough every 30 seconds, starting when the dough was 2:00 minutes already kneaded. From the 2:00 - 3:30, the dough is still sticky to the point I can't take it off of my hands. Even at the 4:00 minute mark, when I take the dough off the kneading bowl, a lot of the dough sticks to the bowl. I have to spend some time getting it out.
Another point I forgot to tell is that when I do half of the dough (just 4 kilograms), it gets nice and without the problems of cracking when proofing, and I let it knead for 3:30 minutes, so it's strange to me that kneading the double amount of dough with just one more minute, could damage the gluten a lot?
of the mixer.
Can you rig a device to reduce the amount of power going into the mixer? Between the mixer plug and the power source? (Hoping an electrician gives advice here.)
Will try that out and also contact the manufacturer to see what I can do.
Thanks!