Straight dough is a single-mix process of making bread. The dough is made from all fresh ingredients, and they are all placed together and combined in one kneading or mixing session. After mixing, a bulk fermentation rest of about 1 hour or longer occurs before division. It is also called the direct dough method.
Formula
A straight dough formula might look like this:
Process
In general, the process steps for making straight dough are as follows:
Mise en place: The first step is to look at the formula, familiarize yourself with the ingredients and process, get ready to perform the task at hand. Assess the availability of tools, consider the batch size and time schedule, and gather what is needed.
Weigh ingredients: This is also called scaling. If more yeast is chosen for the initial mixing and it is viable, faster fermentation occurs. If too much yeast is used the result is a noticeable yeast flavor.
Mixing: The ingredients are all placed in a mixing bowl at once and combined together. A variation of this technique is to add ingredients sequentially. This mixing process may be done by hand kneading or by machine. Once fermentation has commenced, it will continue until the heat of the oven kills the yeast during baking. For fast fermentations, long, intense mixing techniques are recommended for dough development, whereas for long-fermented doughs, short-mixing techniques on slow speeds or hand kneading may be used with sufficient later folding.
fermentation: After mixing, the dough is allowed to rest in a bowl or container of large enough size to accommodate dough expansion, usually in a warm location of about. The container is often covered so the dough remains in a humid environment, ideal is 74–77% relative humidity. Without some humidity the dough surface will tend to dry and develop a skin. As the dough rests, it will expand in volume due to the carbon dioxide created as it ferments. The dough will expand to a certain point, then volume growth will stall, and eventually the peak of the dough will begin to fall. When it reaches this point, it is at about 66–70% of its total fermentation time.
Make-up
Proofing : The final fermentation rest before baking. Like bulk fermentation, proofing is ideally done in a humidity- and temperature-controlled environment. It may be performed at bulk-fermentation temperatures, or temperatures up to about, and with 83–88% relative humidity. Yeast thrives within the temperature range of , and within that range, warmer temperatures result in faster baker's yeast fermentation times. The proofing dough rests and ferments until it reaches about 85% of its final volume.
Scoring: If desired, proofed dough is scored with a lame or razor to slash the top of the dough to direct oven-spring expansion. It is also used for its decorative effect.
Baking: The proofed dough is loaded into a hot oven for baking. During the first few minutes, the remaining rise will occur in the dough and is known as oven spring. Starch gelatinization begins at, the yeast dies at, and the baking is finished when the product reaches an internal temperature of.
Cooling: Once the bread is fully baked, it is removed to racks to cool. Bread is sliced once it has cooled to.
History
The straight dough method became popular after the discovery and later mass production of baker's yeast, as well as the massproduction of mixing machines. Straight dough was simpler than sponge and dough, took less time and effort, and was considered superior for commercial purposes. Baking expert Julius Emil Wihlfahrt of The Fleischmann Company wrote in 1915: Prior to 1920, there were two basic kinds of breads, naturally leavenedFrench bread, and Vienna bread leavened with cereal press yeast, an early form of baker's yeast. After 1920, when mixing machines became popular among bakers, rural bakers began to make more sponge doughs and city bakers more straight doughs, both replacing sourdough. By the 1930s, straight dough had mostly replaced sponge dough, and the terms "French" and "Vienna" breads were used less often. Bakers who continued using older methods were generally unable in America to compete on a cost basis, and so with "rare exceptions," were limited to local niche markets.
