The importance of dough strength

There is a lot of talk about dough strength and how important it is.
And make no mistake.
It is important.
Without enough strength, your dough will flatten out and lose all shape.
Most of us have experienced that, and it certainly is frustrating.
So we want to build up as much strength as possible, don’t we?

Well, not really.

You can get too much dough strength, and that will create problems.
I will explain that, but first, we have to sort one thing out.

WHAT IS DOUGH STRENGTH

A strong dough is one that has a well-developed gluten network that can trap and hold together all the CO2 that is produced by the yeast and bacteria.
It will rise upwards instead of flattening out to the sides. It has a high amount of elasticity.

You can develop dough strength by kneading the dough or trough stretch and fold during bulk fermentation.
Laminating the dough is another method.

You can also use flour with higher protein content. There is, however, one thing you must be aware of when it comes to protein in the flour.
Just because you buy flour with high protein content doesn’t necessarily mean you will get a stronger dough.

I will give you an example.

Let us say that you have bought a package of spelt flour. Spelt flour has a fairly high protein content, but try to bake with only spelt flour.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to bake a high raising bread, but I can assure you it’s not easy.

Why is that?

Wheat flour contains two different types of protein, glutenin, and gliadin.
If you want a strong dough, your flour should contain a higher amount of glutenin than gliadin. In spelt flour, it’s the opposite.
Unfortunately, you seldom find information about the glutenin/gliadin ratio on the flour packaging.
At least not here in Sweden.

But let’s get back to dough strength.
The stronger it becomes, the more gas it can hold, and your bread will get more volume.

But only to a certain limit.

TOO MUCH STRENGTH IS A WEAKNESS

This may sound contradictory, but it is nonetheless true.
Your dough can be so elastic that it won’t be able to expand against its own strength.

You can compare it to a car tire.

I think you will agree with me when I say that a car tire is very strong compared to a balloon. You can inflate a balloon until it bursts with your own breath.

Good luck trying that with a tire.

If you start with a flat tire, it will increase in volume quickly in the beginning. But after a while, it will start to fight back, and you will hardly notice any difference anymore.

Besides, it will be very hard to shape the dough into anything except a round boule if the dough is too strong. Baguettes are out of the question.
You can say that the dough is stubborn. It won’t give in.

WE NEED BALANCE IN THE DOUGH

What I mean with that is that we need a balance between strength and weakness. We want both elasticity and extensibility.
The dough must have enough elasticity to hold together and to rise upwards, but at the same time, it should have some extensibility to be able to expand properly.

But how do we get extensibility?

Well, one way is through an autolyse. If you don’t know what an autolyse is, I recommend that you read my article about how to use that technique.

Another way is to add more water to the dough, i.e., increase the hydration. More water will make your dough weaker.

As you have probably already figured out, adding some spelt flour will also help.

HOW DO WE GET THAT BALANCE?

You get there by practice. I honestly don’t think there is any other way.
There is no formula you can follow to the letter.
Bake as much as you can, and test different approaches.
Pay attention to the dough.
Play with hydration and how much you knead the dough, and see what happens.

Don’t be afraid to fail.
Failing is the best way to learn how the dough is not supposed to feel like.
Besides, most so-called failures will still taste good.