I've found planning my dough for a pizza bake (or another event) can be a little tricky. I know what time I want to eat, and what I want to make, but most recipes and dough calculators make you work forwards. You start now, follow the steps, and eventually end up with dough that's ready at some point in the future.
So I made this planner to do what felt obvious to me. Set when I want to eat, and have it work backward from there, giving all the recipe details along the way.
As its also likely you sleep, work, or just don't feel like dealing with dough at 11pm, you can block out times and the process will move around for you, so the bits that need you to do something happen when you're available.
The app comes with a few basic (or even pretty decent) methods, and an editor allowing you to make your own. The sections below cover some of the critical, or slightly less obvious features. I hope that you'll be able to figure out everything else as you go along!
The bar
The bar under the start time is an easy representation of the entire plan.
Green is hands-on work.
Orange is a rest at room temperature and blue is a rest in the fridge.
The grey band under the bar is when you're away. Hands-on steps are moved out of it.
Striped time is extra rest added to fill an away period, where the plan runs longer than the method.
The fade at the end of a fridge rest is the dough warming up before baking. The small pointer above the bar marks when to take it out of the fridge.
Hover over any part of the bar (or slide a finger) for the step, its length and when it starts.
Start!
When you're ready to begin, press Start! The settings column goes away and the page shows only what you need to make the dough. If you need to tweak something, press Adjust plan to bring everything back.
Away periods
Add the hours you can't do anything, and tick the days they apply to. Use this period switches one off without deleting it. The app will adjust to your schedule. Rests are only ever lengthened, extra time is striped in the bar, and yeast is automatically adjusted. You will find the app makes various suggestions which you can choose to accept.
Methods
A method is the list of steps and times the planner follows, you can use the defaults or set up your own.
Steps. Untick a step to drop it.
Room or fridge. Toggle that indicates if the given rest should be done at room temp or fridge temp.
Lengths. Can be entered manually, or modified by dragging the grips on the editor bar. The tooltip will help you out by showing both steps and when the second one now starts.
Start and Oven boxes. The two boxes at the top of the editor are for planning only, so you can see clock times while you build. Changing either resizes the range, and adjusts rest periods to compensate.
Description. An optional description. Hover over a method in the list (or touch it on a phone) to read it.
Saving.Save method keeps your changes, Save as copy creates a new method and leaves the original, and Share link makes a link anyone can open to add the method to theirs. A method file from an older version of KneadBy opens with Open a file in the save panel.
Backup files
Everything is kept in your browser. The file icon at the top right can be used to save everything out. Allowing you to move between devices or share.
At the bottom of the file panel, Restore starting methods puts the built-in methods back, and Reset everything clears all saved data on this device.
Cloud sync
The file icon at the top right has a Sign in with Google button. Signing in is optional. If signed in, your methods, away periods and settings are kept in your own account and match on every device you sign in on.
Everything still works without it. Your data is always kept in your browser, so KneadBy works perfectly fine signed out.
Only you can see it. Each account holds one private copy. Nobody else can read it.
If two devices disagree. KneadBy asks which copy to keep rather than choosing for you.
Signing out keeps your data on the device and leaves the cloud copy alone. Delete my cloud data removes the cloud copy and your account for good.
Privacy
KneadBy doesn't run ads or trackers.
Signed out. Nothing about you is collected. Your plan, methods and settings live only in your browser.
Signing in. Sign in with Google is handled entirely by Google's own sign-in system. KneadBy never sees or stores your password. Once signed in, Google shares a unique account ID and your email, so KneadBy can tell your data apart from anyone else's.
What's stored in the cloud. The same content as a saved backup file, your methods, away periods and settings.
Who can see it. The database's own rules restrict each account's data to that account alone, nobody else can read it through the app.
Deleting it.Delete my cloud data in the file panel permanently removes your cloud document and disconnects your account. You can also remove KneadBy's access at any time from Google Account's security settings, independently of the app.
We'll walk through the app step by step - this should just take a few minutes. Feel free to actually fill things in as you go. Skip anytime if you'd rather explore on your own.
One quick thing
Everything is saved in this browser automatically, on this device. Sign in with Google from the save icon (top right) any time to sync it across every device you use.
Edit ingredients
Pick any extras this method uses, each as a percentage of the flour.
How the yeast is adjusted
When your plan’s rests differ from the method’s, the yeast is scaled so the dough ferments about as much as the method intends. This is based on Craig’s baker’s yeast prediction chart on pizzamaking.com.
What it assumes
The method’s own yeast is right for its own rests.
A warmer or cooler kitchen changes how fast the yeast works. The calculator assumes room temp of 22 °C and fridge of 4 °C. Your climate will cause differences, currently this can’t be adjusted.
Dough cools in the fridge, and warms up again when taken out, over a few hours. This has been taken into account, but this isn’t a science, the times used are estimates.
This gets more complicated with poolish and biga. Best guesses have been made, but they are guesses.
Its limits
The yeast quantity is capped, never more than twice the method’s, and never less than the data source’s lowest amount (0.003% instant yeast).
The estimate only changes yeast quantity. The poolish amount, water, salt and flour stay as they are.
Yeast freshness, flour, sugar, salt and hydration all change fermentation speed too, and aren’t accounted for. Keep an eye on the dough and bake when it looks ready.
How Optimise my plan works
Optimise my Plan uses an algorithm to run through a number of plan changes, and uses a weighted test to try to create an optimal schedule you can follow that makes dough as close as possible to what the method intends. It keeps your oven time and only changes room or fridge for each rest, and can add up to 3 hours to the proof. Please look through it, it wasn’t practical to test all scenarios, this feature is experimental.
In order of importance, it avoids the following
Hands-on steps during your away periods, or a start time that’s already passed.
Yeast hitting its limits (more than twice the method’s, or below the data source’s lowest amount).
Long room-temperature bulk or proof rests, which weaken the gluten. A poolish or biga is fine.