{"id":157,"date":"2009-01-26T23:09:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-27T04:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breadcetera.com\/?p=157"},"modified":"2010-02-26T15:17:55","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T20:17:55","slug":"more-musings-on-mixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.breadcetera.com\/?p=157","title":{"rendered":"More Musings on Mixing…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In a previous post (Musings on Mixing…<\/a>), I described what I believe to be a fundamental difference between bread baking at the commercial scale and bread baking at?the much smaller scale of the home baker.? At the commercial scale,?spiral and oblique?dough mixers are quite?efficient at incorporating air into the dough during mixing, making?overoxidation of the dough?a real concern for the professional baker.? For the home baker, however, the opposite concern comes into play.? Conventional tabletop stand mixers are relatively?inefficient at?mixing dough.? Therefore,?the home baker?has to look for ways to increase air incorporation during mixing.? I concluded in the previous post?that the only way for the home baker to do this effectively?was through hand mixing.<\/p>\n

Hand mixing, whether it be by a slap and fold technique like the one shown here<\/a> or by just a series of folds during the first fermentation,?can produce a nicely developed dough which?yields a loaf having?the desired open crumb with many large air cells (alveoli).? However,?it is a technique not without its own challenges.? If performed?improperly, hand mixing can lead to a loaf with large alveoli embedded within an otherwise doughy mass.??The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became?that there must be an easy?way to use a conventional?home stand mixer to produce a dough that would?rival the quality of a professional, spiral-mixed dough.<\/p>\n

Before I delve into the details of the technique I’ve devised,?I think it?important to understand the process by which the crumb of a bread is established.? During dough?fermentation, yeast cells produce and excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide as metabolic by-products.? The yeast do not release the carbon dioxide as bubbles but instead, carbon?dioxide molecules diffuse through the yeast’s cell membrane into the surrounding water.? This process continues until the water reaches its saturation point,?a point where it can no longer hold any more carbon dioxide.??At this point, small air bubbles already present in the dough as a result of the mixing process act as nucleation sites, and begin accepting the dissolved carbon dioxide into their interiors, expanding in the process.? As these bubbles grow?larger, some begin?to cluster and then coalesce, producing a wide distribution of different sized bubbles throughout the dough.? It is this matrix of?varying-sized bubbles that ultimately sets upon baking to become the crumb.<\/p>\n

With this as a backdrop, it became logical to infer?that the more small bubbles there were to act as nucleation sites, the greater was the potential for the formation of?the?wide open crumb structure for which?artisan bakers strive.? Increasing the small bubble population was attempted?using?a two-step flour incorporation technique.??Using this double flour addition technique, just enough?flour is first added to?a water and levain slurry to achieve a?loose batter?consistency.? This?batter is then mixed using a tabletop?stand mixer fitted with a?whisk attachment<\/em>, until the mixture becomes aerated.? Finally, the remainder of the flour is added and the dough is mixed with a regular dough hook (or spiral hook, if your mixer comes equipped with one), just until all the flour is incorporated.? After a brief autolyse period, the mixing is?completed as usual.? This procedure?resulted in a soft, smooth and silky dough with a wonderful elasticity\/extensibility profile.<\/p>\n

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Pain au Levain using Double Flour Addition<\/span><\/strong>??<\/p>\n

Final Dough<\/strong><\/p>\n