UK baker Dan Lepard maintains that when yeast, flour and water are combined, the resultant dough will rise, regardless of whether it’s kneaded or not. This process is known as autolysing.
I decided to test this theory out on a batch of pizza dough we made yesterday.
Into a large mixing bowl went my usual ingredients:
- 500g bakers flour
- 10g dried yeast
- 7g fine sea salt
- 320g water
- 50g extra virgin olive oil
I squelched these together until all the dry ingredients were moistened…
The mixed but unkneaded dough was left in the mixing bowl, covered with cling film…
Here it is after an hour…
…and at the two hour mark…
I scraped the risen dough onto the bench…
…and gave it ten folds, no more, which was enough to turn it into this…
The dough was divided into four, shaped into balls and rested for a further half hour before shaping and baking.
We made four man’oushe – Small Man’s favourite – and the delicious pizzas came out of the oven with large air pockets, a sign that the yeast was active and doing its job.
The whole process took longer than usual (I allowed the dough to bulk prove for two hours, whereas I would normally leave it for less than one), but the end results were no different to our regular pizzas.
Is it necessary to knead dough? In this case, it would appear not!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 