"dough" news and stories

If you bake a lot of bread, you've almost certainly come across directions to fold the dough. In times past, bread recipes instructed you to punch down the dough after it had fermented, though now bakers are generally directed to "deflate" the dough. Folding accomplishes the same goals as deflating, but with some added benefits.

Folding is a technique that's more often used with wetter, or more hydrated, bread doughs, as well as doughs that have been underdeveloped for some reason or other. Doing this procedure does two things: it redistributes air/gasses and evens out temperature, and it aligns/develops the gluten structure. Deflating only accomplishes the redistribution element of folding, but that's really all that's needed for less hydrated doughs. Folding is always used as part of the fermentation stage. Generally, you'll proof the dough for an hour (first rise), fold it, then let it proof (rise) for another hour or so. An under-developed, wet dough can be fermented for many hours with multiple folds.

Now that's artisan bread.

To fold, first flour your work surface fairly well. Turn your dough out onto it and pat out most of the gas. I like to work left to right, top to bottom, but use whatever directions work for you as long as you hit all points of the compass. Take the first side, stretch it out and fold it onto the middle of the dough. Repeat this for the opposing side, then do the same thing to the top and bottom. To finish, get you hands under the dough and turn it over so that the smooth side is on top. Then put it back into whatever proofing container you're using and let the dough finish proofing. Check out the gallery below for images matching the directions.

One of the tools that I use the most is my trusty bench knife. Some people call it a bench scraper, and I've also heard it referred to as a bencher, but bench knife is my favorite term.

The main duty of the bench knife is to divide dough and I use mine frequently throughout the day while I'm at work. It's also helpful in moving dough around. If your dough is a little sticky, the bench knife can help you get it from the table/counter to the scale to rising spot. On in addition to all that, the bench knife is great for keeping your work space clean. Experienced bakers know how the dough seems to get into the oddest places and dry there. Use this tool to scrape up all the little bits and then brush them into the garbage. Just be a bit careful on easily scratched surfaces.

I highly recommend a bench knife for anyone really interested in baking. If you're using one at home, you can find other uses for it. The wide surface makes it good for scooping things up, and makes transferring food from board to pan a breeze.

The short answer is that durum flour is flour which is ground from Durum wheat. Durum wheat is a type of wheat that has an especially high protein content, and in fact its name derives from the Latin word for "hard".

Durum flour, with its high protein content, makes dough with unusually strong gluten. It's generally used in pizza dough and pasta, and its more coarsely ground cousin semolina is used to make cous cous. Though you can make bread with durum flour, recipes usually mix durum and regular wheat flour.

Durum wheat can be ground into semolina (sometimes called semolina flour if it's ground more finely) and durum flour, which can be referred to as extra fancy durum flour or extra fancy pasta flour. However, you can't really substitute one for the other. Semolina is a coarse grind and it looks a lot like corn meal. In fact a lot of bakers and pizza makers use semolina to dust baking sheets and peels so the dough doesn't stick (check the bottom of your pizza next time). Durum flour is ground as fine as regular flour and that's why it can be used in bread and pasta doughs.

I haven't ever been able to find real durum flour in a brick and mortar store, so I have to order it online. Semolina, on the other hand, is generally available in grocery stores, at least upscale ones. For more on the subject, here's a good page to check out.

When bakers talk about retarding, they're not being insulting. They're talking about slowing down the fermentation process.

Retarding is the process in which a baker uses refrigeration to slow down yeast activity. This has a couple of benefits, one of which is to get better flavor out of the finished bread. The longer the yeast can ferment, the more organic acid is produced, which makes the bread taste better and also leads to a longer shelf life.

The other benefit of retarding dough is to give the baker more time to work. For a home baker, if something comes up to where you just don't have time to finish your bread, uou can refrigerate your dough just after mixing or just after the final shaping.

Mix the dough as usual, then refrigerate for up to 12 hours, after which you can let it come back to room temperature and continue the first fermentation. After the first fermentation and shaping, the dough can be refrigerated again (for up to 12 hours). Just allow the dough to come back to room temp and finish the final fermentation and then bake as usual. Just make sure that the dough is well covered in plastic before refrigeration to prevent a skin from forming.

The word proof has a lot of meanings. It can refer to alcohol content, a mathematical procedure, or evidence. However, in the world of baking, proof refers to rising dough.

Home bakers, and recipes aimed at home bakers, refer to it as "rising," but professionals call it "proofing." Proofing is a part of the bread making process where fermentation takes place, causing the dough to expand, grow, or rise (whichever term you prefer). Depending on who you ask, proofing can include the first period of fermentation, which is usually called the bulk fermentation. Most of the time, though, proofing is the second stage of fermentation, called the "second rise" by home bakers. This is the period after the final shaping when the dough is left to expand to it's proper size before baking.

Proofing is an important stage in baking (of course each stage is important in its own way) for three reasons. First off, more fermentation occurs for that much more flavor. The fermentation then causes gas production which makes the dough expand to a larger size. Also the gluten is able to relax which allows oven spring to take place.