September 26, 2021 - 2:54pm
stretch and folds
Hi Fellow Loafers
I usually do 4 sets of stretch and folds after autolyse. Today, I only have time to do one set. What should I do to strengthen my dough since I can't get the next 3 sets in . I was thinking of bringing my dough with me to my friend's place to do the s and f's but that seems kinda silly.
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Develop some strength up front with some form of kneading. For medium high hydration slap&folds are great, for very wet dough try Rubaud's method. For low hydration just "traditional" kneading.
Ok so you mean right after autolyse? My dough is 73% hydration. I have 10 more minutes of autolyse . then have to leave the house in half an hour.
Yep! It all depends on your flour, but probably at 73% slap&folds should work nicely. Just do it until the dough get smooth, don't need full development. Just a few minutes. And I'd do one fold just before you have to leave anyway, because why not.
I agree with Ilya, do some form of kneading after autolyse such as slap and folds. Get medium to full gluten development and you should be fine.
If you can’t do any folds during bulk make sure you do a pre-shape before shaping that should help build some additional structure in the dough.
Benny
Thanks guys! I ended up sending a stretch and fold video to my husband and made him do it lol. But next time I'm gonna try the slap and fold so I don't have to babysit the dough for over 2 hours. He commented on how it was hard to stretch the dough compared to the video. My dough has always been that way. I think it's because of the flour I use. Rogers all purpose. Maybe I will try to bulk in a flatter vessel instead next time.
It's past 1am and I'm waiting for the bulk to finish. I have such bad timing sometimes. No sleep for me tonight. I think it's going to take about one more hour maybe 2. Then I still have to do the preshape , bench rest and shape. To make things worse it's not in its usual vessel so it's hard to tell when bulk is actually done.
It's too late to put it in the fridge isn't it? as it will take a couple of hours for it to cool down and may overferment.
So about the bulk timing, I knew the bulk would be done at about 2:30 to 3:30 am (11-12 hours after i started mixing the dough) but I wasn't sure how to proceed to slow it down in the fridge so that I could shape it at a more reasonable time the next morning , like 7am or so. I got home around 10pm and I guess i should have put it in the fridge then but when would I take it out so that I can shape it at 7am before dropping kid off at school, or after 9am after drop off.
I broke down and bought a lame and dough whisk finally so I'm excited to try it for this bake. The danish dough whisk worked great but I wasn't crazy about the handle.