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I often see recipes that just ask to mix the ingredients until you get an homogeneous mix. Others ask to mix the ingredients to exhaustion.

What happens to the though while I mix it? Does that really make a difference? What should I expect, as final result (after cooking) from a dough that was only mixed to the point it gets homogeneous from one that I mix hard for a long time?

I am mostly talking about bread and cake dough. But I was wondering if there is a general rule so I know what to expect.

nsn
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  • This question is very broad, and not very clear. What kinds of recipes are you talking about? – GdD Mar 11 '16 at 13:29
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    Two words: gluten formation. – Stephie Mar 11 '16 at 13:45
  • Just a heads up: Cake is usually made from _batter_ which will be **way** more slack than _dough_, which is what we'd make breads out of. When we talk about mixing batter until homogeneous, we mean mix until the mixture is smooth, with no discernible lumps. – HandsomeGorilla Mar 11 '16 at 13:56
  • Hi nsn, if your question is not a duplicate, please edit it to point out the difference. To me, it seems to be asking the exactly same thing. – rumtscho Mar 11 '16 at 14:12
  • @rumtscho I actually saw that question. I would like an answer a bit more general and agnostic to the type of dough. I am really interested in know the general concept and chemistry and result from just mix it to mix it hard. – nsn Mar 11 '16 at 14:19
  • Agnostic to the type of dough would be way too broad to be answered. If I hadn't noticed the duplicate, I would have asked you to focus more on a specific dough. You are seeing this in the answers here and there already: they talk about one small aspect of it all (gluten), and the desired amount of gluten is different for different doughs and batters. And the interaction with other ingredients can't even be mentioned because these ingredients have different roles in different types of dough, and are not present in all of them anyway. It's a matter for a book, or at least a book chapter. – rumtscho Mar 11 '16 at 16:01

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Okay, so I presume that we're talking about recipes containing wheat flour and you're putting together a dough (or batter) for a bake or maybe even a pasta.

In general, mixing wheat flour with water results in the production of gluten. Gluten is pretty tough stuff; it's essentially what gives a finished wheat product its chew and contributes greatly to its overall structure. The more you mix (or knead), the tougher the resulting dough and finished product.

HandsomeGorilla
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  • Why would that be good either in a cake or bread? doesnt that make the final result "heavier" ? – nsn Mar 11 '16 at 13:55
  • Well, 'good' is a relative term when we're talking about the final product. It depends largely on _what_ you're baking. I think what you mean when you say 'heavier' is 'denser'--the finished bake will have many tiny air bubbles that are much more closely spaced together, and with quite a bit of bite to them. – HandsomeGorilla Mar 11 '16 at 13:58