Stretch 'n' fold - recent results
Wcsjohn
Ed Okie and I find that a stretch and fold inserted in the normal rising
process for doughs as low as 60% hydration still gives great gains in
elasticity and final gluten structure. As for high hydration doughs, I haven't
used a mixer in 2 weeks - the rough spoon mixing followed by s&f is producing
excellent bread with little effort.
Stretching and folding bread dough is , I'm now convinced, not a passing fad to
be discarded as soon as a more fashionable method comes along - it really is
the greatest single improvement in technique that I've come across in years.
John
Len Freedman
For those of us who just joined this group a day or two ago (me) maybe
you could point us to some explanation of stretch & fold technques.
Is there like a website or something where we could learn about this?
TIA
Wcsjohn
description of the method and a recipe, derived from peter Reinhart, for
Focaccia which is the first bread I made using s&f as the major gluten
development process. The process is also described and photographed in Bread
Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.
If the description is inadequate (quite possible given my limited powers of
expression) and you can't beg, buy, borrow or steal the book I'll attempt to
scan the relevant section for you but quality may be poor - I have a fast new
PC and a very slow, old scanner. If you've ever made puff pastry the technique
will be instantly familiar to you.
John
p.s. If I sound a little evangelical at times it's because, using this method,
high hydration doughs become extremely easy to handle. They no longer act like
"snot wrapped in superglue" as one friend observed, seeing me struggling with
a 90% hydration, experimental Ciabatta dough.
Len Freedman
This reminds me very much of the way I make pasta! There's a simple
roller machine you can buy. You mix the dough and it takes almost no
kneading at all. Instead you run it through the rollers, fold it, run
it through the rollers again, fold it again, etc. At first the dough
tears and behaves badly, but as you fold it and roll it it gets
smoother and smoother until it's almost like some kind of plastic
clay. When it reaches that nice consistancy, then you roll it thinner
and thinner to the thickness you want.
There is a different machine for making noodles that pushes the dough
through extrusion dies. But I've found that noodles made this way
just don't have the wonderful texture of rolled ones. I've always
thought it had to do with the 'lamination' procedure in the roller.
And also I've heard that gluten develops into 'strands' which line up
all in the same direction along the axis of rolling. Pasta is made
with a very high-gluten flour. (No yeast, though. 8^) )
Anyway s&f sounds like the same process! I have to try it!
Roy Basan
This stretch and fold technique reminds me of the kneading
method practiced in the developing countries which they just described
as part of kneading process.
Many of these bakeries do not use mixers but their hands in kneading
the dough.
The typical dough batch is made from a 50 kg flour and the hydration
level is about 65% as they add sufficient sugar and fat to the
recipe.
The dough is manually mixed in a wooden through for several
minutes then it is divided into 10 portions and stretch and folded as
described here by . It is then placed on an oiled bench(to prevent
sticking) and covered with a damp cloth while the rest of the dough is
processed the same.When the last dough is done the process is repeated
thrice.
Then the dough is finally stretched to an oblong shaped
sheet(about 10-15 mm thick) and placed on the bench;the remainder is
done the same and the resulting dough layers are covered with cloth
and allowed to ferment for several hours at ambient temperatures.
The resulting bread baked in a wood fired oven has un uneven
grained rustic crumb structure and good taste.
. I did manage to try it as I was interested how does it feel
to knead the big dough in a primitive manner and lot of sweat beads
did drop on the dough as I bend and handled the dough with it in
the low wooden trough during manual mixing but the baker just smiled
and quipped) as that is normal (and beneficial)as the salt from the
sweat will improve the flavour of the bread..It was the same batch
size I made alone ( from start to finish ).I did find the job as
tiresome and inefficient from the commercial point but that bakery
prospered on that method.
In contrast other bakeries have invested on a dough brake and
exercised the stretch and fold technique(or aptly called the sheet and
fold) but on a lower hydration level(max. 55% as the dough contains
sugar and fat as well).The dough is manually mixed (just incorporate
the ingredients )in the wooden through and the dough batch size then
is equivalent to 100 kg of flour.
Then the dough is fermented for several hours and the baker will
take a 12 kg flour equivalent of the dough and pass it through the
huge dough brake manually (and unsafe procedure that have caused some
hands of their bakers being crushed between the rollers in
accidents).The piece of dough is reduced to a thickness of 15-25 mm
and then folded longitudinally the ends meeting at the center before
it is passed into the roller.They even slung the dough on their
sweating shoulders and back while doing these steps until the dough
gets developed in about 5 minutes.The dough is ready for further dough
manipulation required in the recipe.
I persuaded the bakery manager that I try it with half the
size about 6 kg of flour and ( noticed indeed if you are not careful
you will crush your hands in this rapidly counter rotating rollers as
the baker watched me nervously while I did the process until well
developed dough was formed (to his relief that nothing bad happened
with my hands).
The resulting bread had a very fine crumb similar to a bread
done with modern very high speed mixer in a plant bakery.
Now if you will look at it from a technical point of view the
stretch and fold (and sheet and fold)is another way of getting the
gluten developed but in a different process .The successive stretching
and folding by hand or machine will align the(disordered) gluten
fibrils into a uniform mesh pattern enabling it to entrap gas
effectively. In the same principle that the puff paste dough gets its
layers through the same way.But as the stretch and fold does not have
layers of fat in between;rather the gluten fibers are stacked up in
a criss-cross laminated pattern resulting in a developed dough which
is more smoother and more uniform(if done in a dough brake ) than a
dough mixing done in a normal planetary mixer.(e.g Hobart type).
Although the stretch and fold done manually (without machine)
develops the dough up to of only usually two- thirds or rarely
three quarters of the actual development done by a normal mixer.
It is the long fermentation that takes part of the rest of
gluten development.So if if its done as the method of making normal
doughs without benefit of extended fermentation you will end up with
an inferior bread.
There are mixers called as Artofex type that simulates this stretch
and fold technique but in a continous manner.It is composed of a twin
counter reciprocating arms that lift the dough from the mixer bowl
(that rotates) as the dough is lifted and stretched.The lifting of the
mixer simulates the dough stretching and the movement of the bowl
simulate the folding of the dough angularly.Now these mixing
techniques were widely practiced previously in Europe and elsewhere
but without extended fermentation and produced good bread as well as
the dough was developed properly.
This can be interpreted by some bakers as the mechanized way of
manually kneading the dough as done in the old times.
Meanwhile the stretch and fold(or sheet and fold) technique done
with machine(such as the dough brake) can forego with the long
fermentation process and as the total dough development is already
done mechanically through the sheeting and folding.
A study was done previously by the Canadians, Mr Kilborn and
Mr Tipples at the Canadian Grain Research Laboratory in the middle
1970, and confirmed the development principle of the stretch(or
sheet) and fold technique.
However these people did it with an improvised laboratory model of
dough sheeter.The results were even published in the journal The
Cereal Science Today of the same period.
Roy
Len Freedman
> This stretch and fold technique reminds me of the kneading
>method practiced in the developing countries which they just described
>as part of kneading process.
This was a really interesting post! Thanks!
Can you describe what a 'dough brake' is? I gather it's some kind of
mechanical roller that flattens the dough out.
Wcsjohn
I make most of my breads using a 24 hour preferment, sometimes refrigerated
sometimes not, or if I make a straight dough, I ferment it for a long (8hrs or
so) time while doing stretch&fold at intervals so the gluten development
produced by the s&f is additive to the normal slow process of dough maturation.
The best of both worlds.
I've said this before but it's worth repeating, I'm still astonished by the
extra elasticity developed by each cycle of Stretch&fold.
I've seen one of those folding mixers with arms - they are quite fascinating in
action. I wonder what would be the result if you got caught up in one of those!
John
Wcsjohn
I make pasta the same way but I hardly bother to mix at all. I just get the egg
and durum flour mixture to form a very rough patchy dough and start feeding it
through the rollers - 4 or 5 passes and the dough is as smooth as a very smooth
thing.
John
Roy Basan
Yeah,A dough brake looks like, and operates in the same principle as
the pasta dough sheeter.The dimensions of the cast iron rolls I used
in that bakery was about 15 cm wide and 60 cm long and it can be
used for pasta sheeting as well as they also make chinese noodle dough
from it .It was run by a 15 horsepower diesel engine(outside the
bakery) which connects the gear through a long belt type pulley.It
has levers that connect to a some sort of transmission, a clutch and
brake mechanism to change speed and to stop the gear(or disconnect it
from the engine).
The dough is fed manually between rolls and the extruded sheeted
dough (that comes out from the opposite side)are folded along its
length until the ends met,then passed again.The procedure is repeated
until the desired development is atttained.
For these process of dough development the roll setting is in the
range of 10-25 mm (that varies with the dough size).A 6 kilo flour
equivalent of dough is best passed at the 10 mm-15mm roll gap;while
larger dough size like 12kg flour equivalent requires the 20-25 cm
roll gap setting.
Roy
Roy Basan
> >
>
> I make most of my breads using a 24 hour preferment, sometimes refrigerated
> sometimes not, or if I make a straight dough, I ferment it for a long (8hrs or
> so) time while doing stretch&fold at intervals so the gluten development
> produced by the s&f is additive to the normal slow process of dough maturation.
> The best of both worlds.
>
> I've said this before but it's worth repeating, I'm still astonished by the
> extra elasticity developed by each cycle of Stretch&fold.
I agree with that, a rested dough can become extensible and at the
same time elastic.
> I've seen one of those folding mixers with arms - they are quite fascinating in
> action. I wonder what would be the result if you got caught up in one of those!
I did remember one new baker in one bakery using that equipment, who
was not very familiar with that machine that he touched with his
fingertips on the mixer blades (while it running )to pick a dough
stuck in one of the arms(despite the admonishment of some of his
experienced workmates) and got caught at the moment the mixer arms
was going down the dough.
He was thinking the machine was slow and his hands were faster.
The tip of his index finger was crushed .
Roy