Over-kneading dough

Howdy,

I don't know about over-kneading, but I do know that kneading is over-rated...

In fact, for many breads, we are better off with no kneading at all. Generally, more kneading leads to a finer (smaller hole) crumb. That is just the opposite of the goal for many breads. I have found that my mixer (a 20 Quart Hobart) is so efficient, that for many of the breads I do, it "over-kneads" if I run it only long enough to moisten the ingredients.

Hydration alone will create the gluten strands we want for bread...

All the best,

I know that technically it is possible to over-knead dough and I believe that Roy addressed this a while back. That said, I doubt that you could over-knead by hand. Kneading too long in the food processor would soon overheat the dough and that would cause problems. In Cookwise, Corriher describes a phenomena that she calls "unmixing." She says that this occurs when you alternate between fast and slow speeds on a mixer while kneading. This results in a degradation of the gluten network.

You can see the previous discussion here: