I just wanted to say Thank you. I have learned so much by reading all the wonderful articles on this site. I love all the science behind your breadmaking. Hydration, fermentation, etc.. I also love the crumb, a lot of you have been getting in your breads.
I have been baking bread, and sourdough bread for about 25 years. I am truly the Lazy Baker. I have never in my life kneaded bread for 10 or 20 minutes, like some recipes have called for. In fact, i rarely use recipes for bread anymore. First I make my sponge the night before. Then I add flour, water and salt. I mix this until the dough is a sloppy mess. Then walk away for 15 to 20 minutes. I come back and knead for maybe 4 or 5 minutes, just until the dough "feels right". I let the dough ferment (rise), and then shape the dough, let rise again, and bake until done. I would also like to mention, that my hands are very soft after using olive oil when kneading.
Today, I am going to make 2 loaves of bread using the method of short kneads. One will be a regular bread, and the other one will be a jalepeno cheese bread. I want to see the difference in the crumb, when I add other stuff to the dough.
I won't be using a recipe, as I haven't taken the time to understand the math, on how hydration works. Example: If x=amount of flour and y= amount of water, my answer would be purple butterflies. :-)
Can't wait to try this "short knead" method. Thanks again for all of your helpful hints, and the time all of you take to make baking more rewarding for people like me.
Update: My Jalepeno cheese bread turned out really well, using the short knead method. I have never seen my bread dough so active, as it was using this method. Very pleased. I also just folded in the cheese and jalepenos, instead of kneading it in.
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