Details about the process of kneading, ripening and baking French bread on the Alaska BM2600 bread maker.
PROGRAM №2. - FRENCH BREAD.
Cycle 1. - PRE-KIX - 18 minutes.
Primary goal:
The main purpose of kneading the dough (dough) is to obtain a homogeneous mixture throughout the mass (not yet dough) from the corresponding ingredients of the bread recipe.
What happens in the bucket:
First, the kneading knife rotates very slowly for some time, carefully mixing the food in the bucket.
Then the rotation becomes more active and intense, and a kind of ball (kolobok) begins to form, but still very sticky in consistency and loose in appearance, does not keep its shape.
Swollen flour particles form a solid mass under the mechanical action of a kneading knife.
Along with solid and liquid products, the dough contains a gaseous phase, which is formed as a result of the capture and retention of air bubbles in the dough.
Part of the air is brought in with the mass of flour, and part in very small quantities - with water.
Therefore, it is best to sift flour before placing food in a bucket, thereby saturating it with air.
The amount of gas in the dough increases during the kneading process.
Achieving the result:
During the first (preliminary) mixing for 18 minutes, only the products are mixed, dry products are soaked in liquid.
The absence in this mixture of lumps of flour, lumps of other products, excess liquid, is usually taken as an indicator of the completion of the process of mixing products and kneading dough (dough).
Temperature inside the bucket:
The stove is not yet heating up.
The temperature inside the bucket depends on the temperature of the stored food, either initially warm, at room temperature or from the refrigerator.
Cycle 2. - PAUSE - 30 minutes.
Primary goal:
The adhesion of swelling particles into a solid mass leads to the formation of a dough mass from flour and other products, as well as to the formation of gluten bonds.
What happens in the bucket:
From the very beginning of kneading flour comes into contact with water, yeast and salt and a number of processes begin to take place in the mass of the resulting dough.
The flour particles begin to quickly absorb water, swelling at the same time.
Wheat dough mass is in the form of a free viscous mass, and spreads along the bottom of the bucket, the dough in this state does not hold its shape.
The pause lasts 30 minutes - at this time, there is a deep interpenetration of products into each other, the dough mass is resting, the flour swells from the water (liquid) taken in.
During a pause, it makes no sense to perform any actions in the bucket, or to add various additives to the dough, since the dough and the kneading knife are at rest.
The added food will simply lie on the dough mass without moving.
Achieving the result:
Gluten bonds begin to form inside the dough mass, which further lead this dough mass to the formation of bread dough.
Temperature inside the bucket:
The stove does not heat up during this period (cycle) either.
The temperature inside the bucket depends on the temperature of the stored food.
Cycle 3. - KNOWLEDGE - 22 minutes.
Primary goal:
By the end of the second (main) kneading, the dough should turn out to be plastic, homogeneous, well-mixed and not contain lumps (impurities) and seals throughout the dough depth.
What happens in the bucket:
The main kneading of the dough and the formation of the bun begins - the kneading time is 14 minutes. During this period of time, intensive heating of the stove begins.
The kneading and rotation of the kneading blade also occurs more intensively, the dough practically beats against the walls of the bucket with force.
During this kneading, it is necessary to finally form the bun, and achieve the consistency of the dough piece you need, for which you can and must also add the missing products - flour or water - whatever dough you make, this is what you get bread.
With an increase in the kneading time, the amount of the air phase in the dough increases, and can reach 20% of the total dough volume.
The gaseous phase formed in the dough during kneading plays an essential role in the formation of the porosity of the crumb.
The temperature of the dough affects the properties of gluten and dough.
When the temperature of the dough rises from 25 to 35 ° C, the elasticity of gluten decreases and its extensibility and diffuseness increase, therefore we see and feel the bun so warm and soft. But this is a temporary and short-term phenomenon in a bread maker and is intended only for more intensive mixing of products in a warm environment.
But, please note that to add additional products you have only 10 minutes out of 22 minutes per cycle, so that the products have time to mix with the rest of the dough until smooth, both along the edges and in the center of the rotating dough, and there are no impurities and seals.
Look into the bucket more often and adjust the dough - this is your last chance, then the dough goes to proofing, that is, to ripening the dough.
Achieving the result:
The dough mass turns from shapeless into an elastic dough piece-bun, becomes very soft and warm, gluten threads develop in it, gluten is released, the dough is saturated with air.
During the main kneading and, especially towards the end of it, the gluten of the wheat dough is already sufficiently developed.
Temperature inside the bucket:
The temperature inside the bucket reaches 35 ° C by the end of the batch.
In general, try to lay in all the products even during the first kneading and adjust the bun so that there is more time for mixing the products and penetrating into each other during the pause.
To do this, during the first kneading of the dough, the bun can be made a little stronger than necessary, and at the end of the second batch, after the products are heated in the dough, the bun will take on the desired consistency.
In the finished bread, all our flaws are very clearly visible, which were made when kneading the dough.
This is, for example, a "striped" crumb inside, if the dough consists of different types of flour, separate crumb seals located in stripes in the dough along the entire contour of the bread, especially along the edges, when flour was added to the original kneading and it remained unmixed along the edges.
The name for these defects in finished bread is dough not kneading.
During these kneading cycles (except for a pause) and at this time, it is possible and even necessary to lift the stove lid and look into the bucket, and interfere in the process of forming a bun.
This is expressed in the fact that you add a few tablespoons of flour, add a few tablespoons of water or vegetable oil, remove stuck flour or unmixed dough from the walls.
Cycle 4. - THE FIRST RISE - 20 minutes.
First proving of dough - first proving (fermentation, raising)
Primary goal:
The purpose of proving the dough is to stretch the gluten network using bubbles of carbon dioxide released by the yeast.
What happens in the bucket:
During kneading and molding of the dough, there is practically no carbon dioxide in it.
The yeast activity in dough is subject to rapid changes.
At the beginning, during the first kneading and first proofing, the yeast is in an aerobic state, there is a lot of oxygen and nutrients around it, and relatively little yeast.
They multiply at a fast rate.
It depends mainly on the starting amount of yeast, the amount of salt and sugar in the dough and the temperature.
The basic process in the production of wheat bread is alcoholic fermentation caused by yeast.
The most noticeable sign of the beginning of alcoholic fermentation is a steady increase in dough volume.
During the fermentation of dough, yeast cells multiply, and the dynamics of their reproduction is different throughout the entire fermentation period.
The first rise in the bread maker takes only 20 minutes.
The intensity of fermentation of dough and dough and the accumulation of acids in them depends on their temperature, and for this, the temperature of 26-28 ° C is maintained in the bread maker at this stage.
It is not recommended to open the lid of the bread maker during this period of time, so as not to start a stream of cold air, and the dough will not fall from this.
Achieving the result:
As a result of the action of the embedded components in the dough, the action of yeast, salt, sugar, the dough is saturated with oxygen bubbles from the air.
Thanks to these bubbles, increasing in size and trying to rise up, the dough "swells" in volume and becomes elastic.
Smell and taste also depend on this process.
Temperature inside the bucket:
At the same time, the temperature in the bucket of the bread machine decreases from 35 ° С (after the second batch) to 26-28 ° С by the end of the first proofing.
Cycle 5. - GASES OUT - 20 seconds.
This is understood as kneading the dough.
Primary goal:
Dough kneading - short-term repeated dough promises - is aimed at improving the structure of the dough, allowing to obtain bread of the greatest volume, with a fine, thin-walled and uniform crumb porosity.
What happens in the bucket:
Between the first and second proofing, it is recommended to knead the dough lightly so that a new portion of oxygen gets into it from the air, since after the first proofing of the dough, the amount of oxygen decreases sharply.
The warm-up lasts only a few seconds.
In this case, not all the dough is crumpled completely, but only partially from the sides, the bun does not even fall off at the same time.
Perhaps, from the point of view of technologists and manufacturers of bread makers, this is quite enough, which can be seen later in the secondary proofing of the dough.
Achieving the result:
The formed carbon dioxide, which suppresses the yeast, is partially removed from the dough.
Yeast cells are evenly distributed in the dough and their nutrition is improved.
They are crushed into smaller gas bubbles with a uniform distribution in the mass of the dough, and along with the entrapment of air in the dough, new additional gas bubbles appear, resulting in an improvement in the rheological properties of the dough.
Temperature inside the bucket:
The temperature in the bucket of the bread machine is kept at the level of 26-28 ° C, which is optimal for proving the dough.
Cycle 6. - SECOND RISE - 75 minutes.
Second proofing - second proofing (fermentation, raising)
Primary goal:
The goal is to allow fresh oxygen to penetrate the dough so that the yeast can continue its activity and evenly spread throughout the dough. In addition, thanks to this action, the gluten network remains tense and elastic.
What happens in the bucket:
Over time, conditions change: there are less nutrients and oxygen in the dough - oxygen is displaced by carbon dioxide, which slows down the process of yeast reproduction.
True, there are now much more of them in the test, but they do not multiply.
To induce a second fermentation (that is, for the dough to come up a second time), it is necessary to recreate the conditions for aerobic activity.
To do this, remove carbon dioxide from the risen dough, replacing it with fresh oxygen.
As a rule, the second proofing is faster, because there is much more yeast in the dough and the amount of carbon dioxide released is much higher.
During fermentation, the volume of the dough increases up to 5 times or more after proofing in comparison with the original, it becomes lighter and acquires a porous structure.
It is not recommended to open the lid of the bread maker during this period of time, so as not to start a stream of cold air, and the dough will not fall from this.
It is permissible to open the bread maker once, briefly and quickly, just to grease the surface of the dough piece before baking, or to check the readiness of the dough before baking bread.
Achieving the result:
The dough that is baked after the second proofing has an elastic structure and a richer taste and aroma.
Its pores are uniform, and their size depends on the amount of water added to the dough.
The sum of the processes that bring the dough as a result of fermentation and kneading to a state optimal for cutting and baking is the ripening of the dough - a concept used in practice.
The following organoleptic methods are used to determine the properties of the dough:
- by lifting height: the end of fermentation will coincide with the beginning of the semi-finished product falling off.
- according to the elasticity of the dough: if you lightly press the dough with your finger and lower it, then with insufficient fermentation of the dough, the hole from pressing is quickly leveled; when the dough is ready, the hole is slowly leveled and with excessive fermentation, the hole remains.
- by external signs: a well-fermenting dough has a convex shape, an intense alcoholic smell and good porosity, while a flat surface, sour unpleasant odor indicates not optimal dough fermentation.
- the fermented dough must have sufficient gas-forming ability.
If you are not yet ready for such a test of the dough piece for readiness, it is better not to risk it and not open the bread maker once again, so as not to spoil the proofing result of the dough.
But it is simply necessary to observe the process of preparing dough and bread, to write down and remember everything for the future, experience can come quickly, and your observations will be useful to you.
Temperature inside the bucket:
At the same time, the temperature in the bread maker is maintained at a level of 26-28 ° C, which is optimal for fermentation of the dough.
Cycle 7. - BAKE - 65 minutes.
Primary goal:
Baking is a process in which a distant dough piece, undergoing heat treatment in a bread maker, turns into a finished product - bread.
What happens in the bucket:
The bread machine begins to heat up quickly and strongly.
During heating and increasing the temperature inside the bread machine, an additional rise of the dough is possible, and at the same time it is very sharp.
This process will stop when the temperature inside the dough piece reaches 55-60 ° C.
This point should be taken into account when placing food in a bucket, so that the finished bread does not support the lid of the baker, which is also not good, the crust of the bread will turn out to be mint and pale.
At this time, complex biochemical processes for baking bread take place in the dough piece.
The surface of the dough piece changes, the appearance of a dark-colored dark thickened crust, the formation of an elastic, more durable crumb from the dough, dry to the touch.
At this time, water vapor is formed, coming out through the crust of bread into the baking chamber, therefore, the window of the lid of the bread machine may fog up at this time.
As the water vapor evaporates, the fogging disappears.
The quality of baking bread is significantly influenced by the mass of the dough piece, the greater the mass (the amount of flour and other products when placing in the dough), the slower the bread maker warms up, the longer it takes to bake bread.
But you will not have enough time, since the bread baking process is automated by the manufacturer, which we ourselves cannot change in a big way.
It is strictly forbidden to open the lid of the bread maker during this period of time, otherwise the dough piece may fall off and never recover.
Achieving the result:
If you follow all the rules, from laying food in a bucket of a bread machine to baking bread, you will get good tasty, beautiful bread.
Temperature inside the bucket:
The ambient temperature in the bucket is very high and can reach 180-190 ° C.
The temperature of the crumb inside the finished bread reaches 98 ° C.
