WET KNEAD METHOD

[CreekWatcher]

Has anyone tried the wet knead method for yeast bread--either for low carb bread, or in previous times for high carb bread? This is a method where most of the gluten development is actually accomplished while the mixture resembles batter as much as dough, then the last of the flour is added to finish. It's supposed to knead more thoroughly than the usual, relatively dry method. (Plus your kitchen Aid isn't wanting to hop all over your counter.)

There is a fascinating page commending this method for pizza making here:

Jeff Varasano's NY Pizza Recipe

...with this [high carb] method, the dough remains pretty wet until the oven, but this is a recipe for super-high-heat pizza; for bread I'm sure the dough would have to end up firmer before going into the oven (so would pizza dough, if it was to be baked in a normal-heat oven)...but I don't see any reason why the method would not be good for bread. For anyone who followed the NY pizza thread a while back, you may be amused by the author Jeff Varasano's resemblence to a high-carb version of Scott123. This guy is pizza-serious!--and sharp.

[pooticus]

Yes, I used to do it all the time when I wasn't LC. I used to make high hydration dough (and had my own sourdough starter that I let die)...

I found his site a while back (maybe 2 years now?) and it was really awesome. LOL. I even made his dough and used his high heat method. Very good stuff.

You should try reading at the fresh loaf dot com it's a good site if you can eat bread. They talk a lot about the French fold method and the stretch and fold method of kneading. Frissage as well. It sure does work. I rarely kneaded anything.

[CreekWatcher]

Thanks a lot, Pooticus, I don't eat regular bread, but I sure am interested in transferring good hc techniques to the great lc recipes that Kevin has developed. (But the translating seems to be hellishly tricky, and I'm not a very tricky person in this area.) In googling this subject, I thought I saw, as you seem to be seeing, a relation between the wet knead method and the no-knead one...

What started the inquiry that led me to Jeff's page was an experience I had while on vacation the other week; wanted to make bread and had only a Braun hand mixer, which has dough hook attachements, to use. It has a pair of long curlicues as hooks, and the dough sort of runs a single-point gauntlet between them as you move it around. Since I didn't know what I was doing, I ended up kneading it for about 20 min or so--and the bread rose to monstrous proportions, and to my surprise did not end up collapsing. It was the best bread I've made, and I've been trying to duplicate the results with a Kitchen Aid (which I certainly would have thought is superior for kneading--but now I'm not so sure).

At any rate, the upshot now is that I'm trying to conduct too many different experiments at once...which is about par for the course for me...thanks very much for the reference.

[pooticus]

most of the people at freshloaf don't use machines or kneading anymore...

[CreekWatcher]

pooticus, how do you navigate at freshloaf.com? (I get a white page, except for the clickable "pictures of Hannah" at the top.

[CopperAnnette]

I think it's THE fresh loaf dot com.

[CreekWatcher]

That's it, thank you pooticus.