Smart Monday: Mix more to mix less.

How an initial strong mix helps you to skip steps and make bread in less hands on time. With a recipe for a "lazy" loaf.

I can’t count how many comments I get on my posts about how long it takes to make bread and how much work it is with all those mixing steps, folding, shaping and baking. It seems people are often impatient and need shortcuts although going through the process a few times will teach you exactly that, patience. It will also teach you the process and you’ll start to understand gluten and fermentation and the moment you do, you will actually be able to do shortcuts and make bread that is not lacking anything. But also, the more you do it the more you realize that the hands on time even without shortcuts is actually little and the moment you invest in a mixer you can cut it down to a minimum and not even get your hands dirty which perfectly works for anyone doing a dough on the side while working or doing something with their kids.

The easiest way to cut down hands on time is to mix the dough all ingredients at once to almost full gluten in a mixer. No need for an autolyse, no need to add the salt later and also no need to do as many folds. This sounds too good to be true? Well it is and it isn’t. This method will stress your flour and with it the gluten so you want to use a flour that is strong in protein (min. 11%, better 12-13%) and not too whole when you try this first and then work your way up with other flours to see if this works for them as well. You also need to be aware of the hydration your flour can take as with too much water you’ll end up having soup and as you mix all ingredients at once there won’t be much you can do except adding more flour, but then you’d also need to add more salt and starter and it’ll just get messy so to manipulate processes it is very essential to know your flour and the amount of water it can take.

But what does it mean to mix to almost full gluten?