Overmixing
Mixing so much the gluten breaks down and dough goes slack.
Mixing dough so long or so hard that the gluten network starts to break down. The dough turns slack, sticky, and shiny, and it loses its spring. It's rare when you mix by hand, but it's a real risk with stand mixers on high speed. Long, intensive mixing also works in a lot of air, which oxidizes and bleaches the flour's natural pigments, leaving a whiter crumb with flatter flavor.
By Henry Hunter · Updated
Henry's notes from the bench
- Stay with your mixer. Stop every couple of minutes and feel the dough, because it can go from just right to too far faster than you'd think.
Diagnose and fix
Dough was smooth, then turned sticky, shiny, and slack in the mixer
That's overmixing. It's hard to recover, so bake it into something flat like focaccia, and next time stop as soon as the dough passes the windowpane test.
Crumb looks pale and the bread tastes flat
Shorten the mix and use lower speeds. Let folds during bulk fermentation do some of the strength-building instead.
Dough comes out of the mixer very warm
Mixer friction adds heat. Use cooler water and check dough temperature, since warm dough tears more easily and ferments faster.