How do I build up gluten with the machine?
Hello, I've owned the Ankarsrum for 8 months and I'm very satisfied. I've recently started an education to become a baker and we've learned about the importance of gluten, and I've had a hard time achieving a good gluten development in my doughs. I mainly use the dough hook and make big batches. Do you have any tips for how I can improve gluten development?
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Chose the correct flour, high protein flour makes the gluten stronger.
When mixing the dough, make sure to add all your flour at the beginning. Adding more flour during kneading leads to the gluten being unevenly developed.
Let the machine knead until the dough passes the window pane test, meaning that with a well developed dough, you should be able to stretch the dough enough to see through it, without the dough tearing.
I see that I've been a bit unclear in my response above.
Our recommendation is to mix liquids first as you say, then adding flour in increments until all flour is added. From there on you can increase mixing speed and let the mixer knead the dough. You don't want to add more flour after a couple of minutes of kneading as the dough will contain underdeveloped and/or overdeveloped gluten, making the bread rise unevenly.