Helllo! I am a girl from Hong Kong. I like eating bread very much, especially the European style one. But I can just buy it in delux hotels and too expensive. So I try to make bread at home.
However, I come across with a problem of dense texture and hard crust of my loaves of plain white bread. My receipe is usually 500g strong flour, 350 ml water, 2 teaspoon dry yeast, 1 teaspone salt. I take every steps seriously such as ensuring enought rising and proving time.
I think, the problem of dense texture is in the process of kneading. Books always recommend kneading for 10 mintues. But do you think that it is enough. Have you heard of 'screen test'? I found this method to test whether it is kneaded enough in a big English bread book. That means if we use our fingers to make a part of the dough into thin sheet, if it is elastic enough and won't break, that means kneading is finished. However, I have tried to knead from 10 minutes to 50 minutes and did this screen test every 5 minutes. The dough still can't pass the test.
Can you share your experiences of kneading with me. How long do I need for kneading actually? In Hong Kong, buying bread is too easy and people usually have no time and patience to make bread. And the brakery learning school just asked me to add 'flour improver' to make the bread softer. I like natural food and don't want to add any emusifier.
Thank you for your help!