All-purpose dough refers to a kind of dough that can make multiple types of bread at the same time. You only need to knead the dough once to make multiple different types of bread. For example, we can use a sweet dough to make toast, snack buns, red bean bread, pineapple buns, etc. at the same time, or use a Chinese-style dough to make steamed buns, steamed buns, Hanamaki, etc. The advantage of this is naturally that it saves the time of kneading the dough multiple times and improves production efficiency.
However, it is not just a random recipe that can be used as an all-purpose dough. You need to make sure that the taste of the several types of bread you want to make is not very different, and the lighter the taste of the dough, the wider the scope of application.
In fact, the essence of making all-purpose dough is to master the baking percentage of the raw materials, which we will discuss further below.
1) Baking percentage:
Baking percentage is a method of calculating the proportion of ingredients, which was originally used to calculate bread ingredients. No matter what the bread recipe is, we always assume that the baking percentage of the flour is 100%. To calculate the baking percentage of other ingredients, just divide the weight of the ingredient by the weight of the flour and multiply by 100%. This method saves time when calculating different amounts of dough ingredients.
For example, if the total flour weight of a bread recipe is 200 grams and the weight of dry yeast is 2 grams, then the baking percentage of dry yeast is 2/200*100%=1%. The same goes for calculating other raw materials. Isn’t it very simple? ?
Here I list a common baking percentage of sweet dough ingredients: 100% high-gluten flour, 60% water, 1.2% dry yeast, 1.2% salt, 10% whole egg liquid, 2% milk powder, 8% butter, and 12% sugar. . When modifying the sweet dough recipe, you can first use this ratio as a basis, and then make floating adjustments to each ingredient.
However, to adjust the dough ingredients, you’d better know the role of each ingredient in bread, so that you can be confident. I will briefly introduce the functions of these basic ingredients here.
2) Function of raw materials:
Flour is the main raw material of bread, and its proportion is also the highest. The wheat protein in flour can form gluten, which is equivalent to the backbone of bread, while starch can become filling material and is also the main source of carbohydrates.
3) Flour and yeast:
Water is essential for gluten formation and yeast activation. The increase or decrease in the amount of water will affect the softness of the bread, but exceeding a certain range will increase the difficulty of operation.
The function of yeast is to produce gas and fermented flavor through fermentation, which allows the dough to expand and form a porous tissue. The increase or decrease in the amount of yeast will affect the fermentation speed of the dough. The more yeast, the faster the fermentation will be, but too much yeast will leave an odor.
FAQ
What is an “all-purpose dough” in baking, and what are the requirements for making one successfully?
An all-purpose dough is a single batch of dough kneaded just once that can be used to make multiple types of bread simultaneously to improve production efficiency. For instance, a single sweet dough batch can be split to make toast, snack buns, red bean bread, and pineapple buns all at once.
To make one successfully, you must ensure that the flavors of the different breads you plan to make are not too drastically different. Crucially, the lighter the baseline flavor of the dough, the wider its scope of application will be.
What is the “baking percentage” method, and how is it calculated for dough ingredients?
The baking percentage is a standardized method used to calculate ingredient proportions where the total weight of the flour is always assumed to be 100%. To find the percentage of any other ingredient, you divide its weight by the total weight of the flour and multiply by 100%.
For example, if a recipe calls for 200 grams of flour and 2 grams of dry yeast, the baking percentage of the yeast is calculated as:
2g (Yeast) ÷ 200g (Flour) × 100% = 1%
Using this method allows bakers to easily adjust baseline formulas (such as the standard 1.2% dry yeast, 60% water, and 12% sugar ratio for sweet dough) and easily scale ingredient weights up or down without changing the recipe’s core balance.
