The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Video showing the stretch and fold method

syllymom's picture
syllymom

Video showing the stretch and fold method

Found video clips of stretch and folding dough and seeing how the dough develops through this method.

 http://www.sourdoughhome.com/stretchandfold.html

bluezebra's picture
bluezebra

wow thanks for this!

i've wanted to see it done and fully explained and have been trying to figure it out (like how long do i knead with the stretch and fold technique, etc.) and he answers that.

one thing though. his dough is much stiffer than a high hydration ciabatta and i realize it works almost the same... but a couple of questions.

1. it's good to know this method works with a drier dough like the one he's working with.

2. he was so careful in the stretch and fold step, then in shaping the dough he takes a rolling pin to the batard. i can understand with the bread loaf one because you want a small holed, tighter crumb for sandwich bread. but why does he also roll the batard? i didn't think you were supposed to do that because of making a smaller whole structure?

are there any videos of the stretch and fold with wetter doughs? i'm especially interested in the step after folding where you place it back into your bowl to rise again.

 thanks!

Mike Avery's picture
Mike Avery

Since I'm him, this may come across as petulant and whiny, but I've never understood why people look at a web site's films or recipes and then ask someone else about the whys and wherefores of what they saw before giving the author of the web page a first shot at the question.

The person who put the website together knows more about the recipe or technique than any random person you are likely to encounter. And they have the most invested in making sure that the recipe or technique will work for you.

In my case, every page of sourdoughhome.com has a "contact us" link. I usually answer my emails within 24 hours.

As to hydration, I have used doughs as thick as bagel doughs and as thin as ciabatta. it works well for all of them.

As to using a rolling pin on the batard, a light touch with a rolling pin helps shape dough quickly. Batards don't have to have big holes. Whether or not you want big holes is a decision you make, and really doesn't tie into the shape of the bread. The holes in the Panama bread were nicely variegated and appropriate for the bread style.

Hope this helps,

Mike

 

JMonkey's picture
JMonkey

Good to see you on this site! I really enjoy your posts on rec.food.sourdough, and Sourdoughhome.com has been a real inspiration to me, especially your 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread recipe. Hope you stick around.

By the way, I'm glad to hear folding works for bagels. I'll try that next time around -- kneading bagel dough is hard on the shoulders ....

bluezebra's picture
bluezebra

Wow! I'm so pumped to meet you! Forgive my faux pas. I surely did not mean to slight or offend you. In fact you really shed light for me and gave a great breakthrough.

 As to why didn't I contact you directly on your contact us page? Well, I have to admit it's because among other things in advertising, I build web sites as well. And even though I put contact us information on all pages of a site, I rarely use them myself because I imagine the emails going to a great black hole and never being answered.

So I returned to this forum that I again, erroniously think of as more "immediate" and posted my question within the thread where the video was introduced. Thinking that everyday bakers would be more likely to answer me, a novice who can't even determine when I've hand kneaded my dough enough to move on to letting it rise!

I'm stilly trying to understand the whole relationship to technique used for making the dough and resultant types of bread derived from it...

 

Thanks for answering! In future, I will post to you directly at your site!

Floydm's picture
Floydm

And even though I put contact us information on all pages of a site, I rarely use them myself because I imagine the emails going to a great black hole and never being answered.

I concur. Last week I sent an email to the contact link of another baking site after I discovered it was highly vulnerable to SQL injection attacks (for the non-techies: that means a hacker could wipe the entire site out in about 7 seconds). A week later, the site has not been fixed and I haven't received a response. So I think your behavior is the exception, not the rule, these days, Mike. Nice to hear it though.

You have great content on your site. Thanks for joining us here.

Mike Avery's picture
Mike Avery

Floydm said:

I concur. Last week I sent an email to the contact link of another baking site after I discovered it was highly vulnerable to SQL injection attacks (for the non-techies: that means a hacker could wipe the entire site out in about 7 seconds). A week later, the site has not been fixed and I haven't received a response. So I think your behavior is the exception, not the rule, these days, Mike. Nice to hear it though.

 

I don't know about you, but over the years my interests change. It happens to lots of people. As a result, you see web pages that are never updated, never changed, and who's creators don't answer their emails. And sometimes stuff happens - I know of a church web site that remained up for 2 years after the church switched ISP's. They never told the ISP to take it down, they never created a new one, the ISP didn't realize they had an extra web site on their servers.... the church members who created the page had moved out of town, and the new members didn't have a clue. Of course, the mailto links were all useless.

 

So, you never know. I always look for a contactus link when I have a question. If the site's staff don't answer in a few days, then I go ahead and ask friends in bakingfun, the BBGA mailing list, rec.food.sourdough, rec.food.baking, alt.bread.recipes or wherever.

 

Mike

Mike Avery's picture
Mike Avery

There are two reasons I encourage people to ask the author for help.

First, the author probably understands the recipes and techniques they describe better than most, and they want their site to be accurate.  So, the author is probably the best source of a good answer as to why a recipe didn't work, or why the author did this or that.

Next, helping the web site author correct the inevitable typos that creep in is a nice way of thanking the author. I know I would far rather get a, "gee, it didn't work for me, can you help me?" email than stumble across a "he's an idiot" comment on a blog somewhere. Which has happened to me, though not this time.  I know I've learned a lot from the emails I get, in addition to having typos pointed out to me.

All too often I see people find a recipe, have trouble with it, and then ask for help in rec.food.sourdough, alt.bread.recipes or rec.food.baking and get a reply along the lines of, "that recipe can't work because it's not the way I make bread!" From someone who has never before seen, much less tried, the recipe. A lot of smoke is added to the discussion, a lot of heat, but not much light.

Mike