Kneading dough

How to tell it is going right

• The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
• The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
• Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
• Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
• After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.

Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.