Dough

{{Short description|Paste used in cooking}} {{About|the cooking ingredient|other uses}} [[Image:Dough.jpg|thumb|right|Freshly mixed dough in the bowl of a stand mixer]]

'''Dough''' is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes yeast or other leavening agents, as well as ingredients such as fats or flavourings.

Making and shaping dough begins the preparation of a wide variety of foodstuffs, particularly breads and bread-based items, but also including biscuits, cakes, cookies, dumplings, flatbreads, noodles, pasta, pastry, pizza, scones and similar items. Dough can be made from a wide variety of flour, commonly wheat and rye but also maize, rice, legumes, almonds, and other cereals or crops.

== Types of dough == [[File:Servant kneading dough, Egypt, Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, c. 2494-2345 BCE - Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - DSC08067.JPG|thumb|right|A statue of a servant kneading dough, from Egypt, Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, {{c.|2494–2345 BCE}}]]

There is no formal definition of what makes dough, though most doughs have viscoelastic properties.<ref name="levine">{{cite book|author1=Leon Levine|author2=Ed Boehmer|year=1997|chapter=Chapter 12, Dough Processing Systems|title=Handbook of Food Engineering Process|doi=10.1201/9781420049077.ch12|doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 }}</ref>

Yeast-leavened doughs are used to make various types of bread, including bread rolls, loaves and some types of flatbread. Not all yeast doughs require kneading. High-hydration doughs like ciabatta and focaccia may be folded to develop gluten or not kneaded at all. Commercial bread dough may also include dough conditioners, which help make the dough and the final product more consistent.

The addition of milk, salt, fats, eggs, sugar or other ingredients will produce bread products of varying texture. Enriched doughs include Viennoiserie, which can be made in laminated form, which usually used to make croissant or un-laminated that is used to make brioche and king cake. Un-yeasted leavened dough (known as Quick breads in the US and Canada) use leavening agents such as baking powder or baking soda, and include soda bread, scones and biscuits.

Unleavened bread is made not only from wheat but in many cultures has been made from locally available starchy ingredients like corn, oats and cassava since the earliest times.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tylor |first=Edward Burnett |title=Anthropology: an introduction to the study of man and civilization |date=1881 |url=https://archive.org/details/anthropologyintr00tylouoft}}</ref><ref>Cooking through History: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Food with Menus and Recipes. 2020. ABC-CLIO.</ref>

[[File:Paratha Peda's.jpg|thumb|A laminated dough prepared to make a flaky South Asian flatbread known as paratha]]

Laminated dough such as flaky pastry and puff pastry are flour-based doughs folded over fat to create layers and rolled out. The folding and rolling process can be repeated to create very thin layers of dough and butter to create the puff pastry. There are many different techniques to create laminated doughs; some, like paratha, are relatively simple, while others, like mille-feuille, are more laborious.<ref>Goldstein Darra. 2015. The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref> Most laminated doughs are leavened only by the steam created by the folding process. Croissants, however, are made with yeast.<ref name=Davidson/>

Choux pastry is a steam-leavened dough used for some types of sweet pastries, notably cream puffs, eclairs, some homemade funnel cakes,<ref>{{Cite web| last = Carter| first = Noelle| title = How to make your own delicious funnel cake| work = Austin American-Statesman| access-date = 2024-11-21| url = https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/09/03/how-to-make-your-own-delicious-funnel-cake/10041995007/}}</ref> tulumba and churros. Unlike most other pastry doughs, the ingredients for the dough are cooked on the stove top before the dough is baked until achieving the consistency of a thick paste. Choux means 'cabbage' in French. It is thought that the name comes from the shape of the cream puffs made with choux paste.<ref name=Davidson>Alan Davidson. National & Regional Styles of Cookery: Proceedings: Oxford Symposium. 1981.</ref>

Gluten gives dough structure and texture. Gluten-free or low-gluten doughs may need additional considerations. Gluten-free doughs like rice noodles and Japanese harusame noodles depend on the gelatinization of starch for structure.<ref>McGee Harold. 2004. On Food and Cooking : The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Completely rev. and updated ed. New York: Scribner.</ref>

Doughs with higher fat content develop less gluten and are, therefore, generally less elastic than most bread doughs. They tend to become tough when they are kneaded.<ref>{{cite web |title=This is how to make perfect shortcrust pastry |work=Good Housekeeping |url=https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/food-reviews/a553129/how-to-make-shortcrust-pastry/}}</ref> These doughs are often called "short" by bakers. Examples include many cookie and pie doughs such as shortcrust pastry.<ref name="levine"/>

Some dumpling and pasta doughs are similar enough that experts have difficulty distinguishing them, although dumpling is a very general category that overlaps with others like yeasted breads and batter biscuits. Varying the ratio of liquid and flour in a basic pasta dough may create a softer dough like that used for the German soup noodle spaetzle.<ref>Heinzelmann Ursula. 2008. Food Culture in Germany. Westport Conn: Greenwood Press.</ref> Eggs are a very common addition to make the dough moist and easier to roll out. The dough can be filled or shaped various ways and boiled, baked, steamed or fried.<ref>Culinary Institute of America. 2011. The Professional Chef. 9th ed. Hoboken N.J: John Wiley & Sons.</ref><ref>Thaker Aruna and Arlene Barton. 2012. Multicultural Handbook of Food Nutrition and Dietetics. Chichester West Sussex UK: Wiley-Blackwell.</ref>

Sometimes meringue is considered a dough.<ref name=Davidson/> The English recipe for "Satin Biscuit" dates to 1677, and earlier recipes are known by different names. Some included flour like a 1604 recipe for "white bisket bread".<ref>Day Ivan. 2009. Cooking in Europe 1650-1850. Westport Conn: Greenwood Press.</ref>

== Techniques == Techniques used in dough production depend on the type of dough and final product.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rathod |first=Anurag |date=2023-02-09 |title=From Antiquated to Advanced: The History of Pizza Dough Rollers |url=https://www.darbaar.com/history-of-pizza-dough-rollers/ |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=Darbaar.com |language=en-US|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20230223085721/https://www.darbaar.com/history-of-pizza-dough-rollers/|archive-date=2023-02-23}}</ref>

For yeast-based and sponge (such as sourdough) breads, a common production technique is the dough is mixed, kneaded, and then left to rise. Many bread doughs call for a second stage, where the dough is kneaded again, shaped into the final form, and left to rise a final time (or proofed) before baking.<ref name="joy">{{cite book|title=Joy of Cooking|author1=Irma S. Rombauer|author2=Marion Rombauer Becker|author3=Ethan Becker|publisher=Scribner|year=1997|isbn=0684818701|pages=738–742|title-link=Joy of Cooking}}</ref> Kneading is the process of working a dough to produce a smooth, elastic dough by developing gluten.<ref name="joy"/> This process is both temperature and time-dependent; temperatures that are either too hot or too cold will cause the yeast to not develop, and rising times that are either too short or too long will affect the final product.{{citation needed|date=February 2014}}

Pasta is typically made from a dry dough that is kneaded and shaped, either through extrusion, rolling out in a pasta machine, or stretched or shaped by hand (as for gnocchi or dumplings). Pasta may be cooked directly after production (so-called "fresh pasta") or dried, which renders it shelf-stable.

Doughs for biscuits and many flatbreads which are not leavened with yeast are typically mixed but not kneaded or left to rise; these doughs are shaped and cooked directly after mixing.

While breads and other products made from doughs are often baked, some types of dough-based foods are cooked over direct heat, such as tortillas, which are cooked directly on a griddle. Fried dough foods are also common in many cultures.

Pancakes, waffles, some kinds of bar cookies such as brownies, and many cakes and quick breads (including muffins and the like) are often made with a semi-liquid batter of flour and liquid that is poured into the final shape, rather than a solid dough. Unlike bread dough, these batters are not stabilized by the formation of a gluten network.<ref>Stanley P. Cauvain. (2012) Chapter 12: Baking. in ''Food Processing Handbook.'' 2 ed. Wiley. p. 422 {{ISBN|9783527324682}}. This reference is specifically about cake batter.</ref>

<gallery class="center" widths="210" heights="210"> File:Cirdingis36.gif|Dough being kneaded File:Breaddough1.jpg|Yeast bread dough after kneading, before rising File:Breaddough2.jpg|Yeast bread dough after rising (proofing), for 40 minutes File:Pasta machine.jpg|Dough being cut into noodles with a pasta machine </gallery>

== See also == {{Portal|Food}} {{Div col|colwidth=30em}} * Alveograph, a device measuring the extensibility of dough * Baking * Bread trough * Dough blender * Dough scraper * Doughboy (disambiguation) * Farinograph – a tool that measures specific properties of flour * Frozen dough * List of breads * List of fried dough foods * List of pasta * List of pastries * Parchment paper * Proofing (baking technique) * Roller docker * Royal icing * Straight dough * Stuffing {{Div col end}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite book|last=Cauvain|first=Stanley|author2=Linda S. Young|title=Technology of Breadmaking|publisher=Springer|year=2007|edition=2|isbn=9780387385655|doi=10.1007/0-387-38565-7}}—covers commercial dough production * {{cite book|author=DiMuzio, Daniel|title= Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective|publisher=Wiley|year=2009|isbn=978-0470138823}}—covers home and commercial baking and dough techniques * {{cite book|author=Hamelman, Jeffrey|title=Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes|publisher=Wiley|year=2004|isbn=978-0471168577}}—covers home and commercial baking and dough techniques * {{cite book |title=Baking Handbook |publisher=Navy Department, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts |series=NAVSANDA publication |year=1962 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E0UvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11 |ref={{sfnref|Navy Department, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts|1962}} |access-date=2025-03-05 | chapter=Bread Formula Computation|pages=4–1−4–4}}

== External links == {{Commons category}} {{Wiktionary}} * {{Cookbook-inline|Dough}}

{{Bread}} {{Cuisine}} {{Authority control}}

Category:Doughs