Why knock back dough

Punching down is a common technique used in bread baking and it is essential to almost every yeast bread you bake. Punching down deflates the dough and releases the air so that you can knead it and form it into loaves or other shapes. Luckily, it's very easy to do.

You can even choose to punch or fold the dough to create different textures in your baked loaves. Most yeast bread recipes require two stages of rising also called proofing.

Punching down the dough is done after the first rise or bulk fermentation and it is a simple but important step. Though the name suggests that you might use a full-forced blow, you actually want to be quite gentle with your punch. Yeast is a delicate and living thing, and that's why much of bread making is concerned with nurturing the yeast, not killing it, and allowing it to grow. Be firm but gentle and you'll have better loaves in the end.

Follow these steps to punch down bread dough:. To relax the gluten and make the dough easier to shape, place a cloth or bowl over it and allow it to rest for 10 to 15 minutes after punching. Some bread doughs are more elastic than others and if you find a recipe that is difficult to form into the shape you want, this trick may help. Punching is an extremely important step in making yeast bread. As the dough rises, many tiny air pockets are formed inside.

The goal of punching is to reduce and remove these gasses and bring the yeast, sugars, and moisture back into one cohesive form. Make it relaxing by turning on the radio and setting a timer. Most recipes call for the bread to double in size — this can take one to three hours, depending on the temperature, moisture in the dough, the development of the gluten, and the ingredients used.

Generally speaking, a warm, humid environment is best for rising bread. For deeper flavour and convenience , most doughs can be put in the fridge for their second rise and left to prove overnight. This sounds wrong, given that doughs rise fastest in warm conditions, but it really does work.

Put the dough in the fridge straight after shaping, covered with oiled cling film. It will start to rise but slow down as the dough chills. In the morning, allow it to come back to room temperature and finish rising 45 minutes to one hour before baking as usual. To check that your dough has risen to its full capacity, gently press a fingertip into the surface — if the dough springs back straight away, it means the gluten still has some stretch in it, so you can leave it for a little longer.

This process bursts the tiny air bubbles that have formed in the dough and then forces them to reform again in the final shape you want, which results in a smoother texture. For some bread recipes — such as ciabatta — irregular holes are desired, so the dough is not knocked back.

However, you then need to finish, shape and bake the bread by hand. Our recommendation is to use the bread machine for an everyday loaf, but to make it by hand for a really special bread. Different types of bread require different shaping, and your recipe will provide the necessary details. Here are some general pointers for shaping any bread. Dough for breads with large internal holes such as ciabatta or focaccia needs to be handled very gently so as not to deflate the air bubbles, which create the holes.

For flat breads such as focaccia and ciabatta, dimpling the dough with your fingertips pushes the air bubbles together to create the characteristic large, irregular holes. These doughs are poured or scraped onto a baking sheet that's been coated lightly with nonstick vegetable-oil spray or vegetable oil. While breads like ciabatta and focaccia are only gently handled before baking, others, such as rolls or sandwich loaves, are given a more definite shape.

When shaping loaves or rolls, pinching the seam at the bottom helps to form a tight outer "skin" and results in a higher rise and better form.

There are two surfaces to rising dough—the lower surface that is touching the bottom of the bowl or dough-rising container, which is usually bumpy, and the upper surface, which is not pressing against any surface and so is usually smooth.

You want the smooth surface to become the outside or top of the loaf, so when shaping, place it against the work surface. As you shape the dough, the smooth surface will grip the work surface slightly, helping to create a better final shape. Once dough is shaped, it needs to rise be proofed for a final time. It should be transferred to the pan it will be baked in or on most often a loaf pan or baking sheet first.