I just started baking bread a few months ago and after starting with overnight no-knead boules, I decided I also wanted to make sandwich bread. So I looked up some recipes and made them a bunch of times and got to where I can make a pretty good loaf of sandwich bread.
The thing is, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed when I started with the sandwich bread recipes, which need to be kneaded as the total rise time is under 3 hours. So I didn’t look up any technique, and I knead by just picking up the ball of dough and kneading it with my fingers sort of like how a cat makes biscuits. Typically I do this for 10 minutes.
I saw a video later with a very different kneading technique. But mine seems to produce a bread that holds together fairly well and has reasonably uniform bubbles throughout, though a little denser at the bottom than the top.
Thoughts? Am I a heretic who should renounce my wildcat ways, or is this fine?
I agree that if what you did works, go for it. But I will also tell you how my mother and grandmother taught me to knead, and see if it helps you any.
I don’t always get the best crumb this way, and I’m still trying to figure out why, but this is how I was taught, and it does quickly create all the nice long gluten strands you want when kneading dough. And that’s the main idea… pushing and pulling the dough in the kneading process makes long gluten strands. Folding the dough like I was taught stretches it. Pushing it, well, pushes it. Rotating it makes sure that you’re getting at all the dough, not just one portion.
But kneading like a cat does? Well, it does push and pull, which is kneading. The only thing I’d be worried about in your method is that it might not get all the dough kneaded, there may be spots left that didn’t get pulled or pushed, and even if you got everything, it might not be everything evenly.
But again… it it WORKS for you, then do what works.