Lead to too much free water in the dough, making the dough sticky.

(2) Forget to add salt to the formula, or add too little salt.

Salt helps to strengthen the gluten texture in dough, and through the action of salt, it tightens the gluten and makes the dough elastic as a whole. Therefore, bread without salt will not closely form a complete gluten texture, resulting in sticky dough and unable to blend into the dough state.

③ The maturity of flour is not enough.

At this point, the dough may become sticky due to insufficient oxidation. In addition, because the flour is not mature enough, the water absorption rate becomes low and the dough becomes too soft. As mentioned above, the part of ③ cannot be judged by visual inspection or touch, and it must be made into dough to be judged by the result. If it is judged that the flour is not mature enough, oxidant can be added to the dough incrementally to promote the oxidation of the dough and improve the viscosity.

In addition, the oxidant can be replaced by lemon juice. When 1kg flour is added 10g (or 10cc), the vitamin C contained in lemon juice has the same effect as the oxidant of dough, which can make bread dough compact.

On the Maturing of Flour

Flour made by the milling company is kept in the barrel for 1-2 months before being sent to the logistics organization. This step is called ripening. People often say that flour is too new or too old, which means the length of ripening time, but the expression is different. Generally speaking, the water absorption of new flour with short cooking time is low, and the dough made is easier to stick; When it is too ripe, the water absorption of the old flour is too high, and the dough will be tight and feel slightly dry.

However, due to the long ripening time of the old wheat, the water in the wheat flour evaporates into dry powder, which is constantly oxidized, and the water absorption rate is high, and the oxidation degree of gluten in the dough is also improved. In this way, the dough will be tight and feel slightly dry.

These situations are just like cooking at ordinary times. When cooking new rice, because new rice contains more water than old rice, the gelatinization state of starch changes, so it is necessary to adjust the water consumption. Just as far as white rice is concerned, new rice will taste better, but as far as flour is concerned, new wheat may not be more suitable for making bread. It is very important to fully understand the characteristics of new wheat and old wheat and apply them to bread making.

Q: Bread dough loses its elasticity after kneading. What should I do?

This is entirely the result of excessive stirring, and the dough has exceeded the completion stage and entered the state of fracture stage. At this time, the gluten tissue in bread was destroyed and the gas produced by fermentation could not be maintained. When the kneaded dough becomes this state, the final fermentation temperature should be increased and the humidity should be reduced to promote fermentation. In this way, the fermentation time of dough becomes faster, which can improve the sticky situation of dough. Then, in the steps of rounding and shaping, the strength must be stronger than usual to induce the residual gluten elasticity in the dough as much as possible.

Reference source: Sohu Education original article