5

I'm learning to make wheat tortillas, and it called my attention that this person is not letting her dough rest.

Would you let the dough rest even if the recipe does not have any yeast? or is it not necessary?

Thank you

Andres
  • 153
  • 1
  • 5

1 Answers1

15

There is a difference between resting and proofing.

Resting allows flour to absorb water and lets the gluten that was formed during kneading to relax. Both of these make it possible to work with the dough.

Proofing is letting yeast produce CO2 to raise the dough.

Yeast doughs do both in the rest period after they are kneaded. Unyeasted, glutinous, doughs only have to rest so they can relax and be worked with.

In a tortilla recipe, if you are rolling the tortillas out by hand you will find it much easier to do if the dough has rested. If you are using a press it won't make much of a difference. If they are corn tortillas and don't contain gluten then there is no point to resting at all.

Sobachatina
  • 47,417
  • 19
  • 159
  • 254
  • Thank you very much for explaining the difference. It is very helpful. I'm going to leave here this reference for those who want to learn more about how gluten works: https://modernistcuisine.com/2018/04/gluten-how-does-it-work/ and a link to a similar question: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/77641/what-is-the-purpose-of-resting-non-yeast-flour-dough – Andres Oct 03 '19 at 22:09
  • 1
    There's also enzymatic action to consider. 80% of the dry weight wheat of flour is starch so amylase can contribute to flavour and and a softer texture of the end product. Not much happens in hours but is quite noticeable at timeframes measured in days. Wheat amylase is quite active at 18°C. – goboating Oct 03 '19 at 23:21