Even for the most basic baker, kneading is a familiar term and technique (and if you're new to it, check out our video, How to cook bread dough). But what if, instead of dough, a recipe guides the baker fold their dough?
Photography by Mark Weinberg; Food styling by Liz Neily
When it comes to bread, what does folding mean and why do you do it?
First, let's talk about why you bake or fold bread dough. When you first combine the flour and water, gluten begins to develop, forming an elastic and extensible network that is able to capture carbon dioxide released by yeast (like wild yeasts in sourdough culture and commercial yeast). And although that rough mass of flour and water has already begun to develop gluten, it still lacks strength and falls apart easily. This is where stirring and folding come in.
folding usually involves folding pieces of dough over themselves bulk fermentation; there are several different methods, which I describe in more detail below. It's gentler than boiling, but it's done for the same reason: Folding helps strengthen the gluten network, allowing the short chains of gluten to link into longer strands, resulting in a dough that is more stretchy and therefore better able to capture the gases released by the yeast. During the process of boiling or folding, the dough turns from a rough mass into a smooth and elastic dough.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
How does stirring differ from folding?
Boiling is a more vigorous process than folding; usually occurs at the beginning of bulk fermentation and can be done by hand or in a machine. It's an excellent method for breads that will have a shorter fermentation (or rise) period, such as those made with commercial yeast, as it starts development quickly.
Instead, folding is a gentler (and more gradual) way to build strength and elasticity into the dough. It is usually recommended in bread recipes that are made with sourdough culture, such as Country bread AND Sourdough bread without dough, although it can be used in almost any bread recipe instead of boiling. The dough is folded by hand at regular intervals for the first hour or so of the bulk fermentation, after which the dough is left to do a longer, slower fermentation, during which time the sticky network continues to develop and the dough takes on flavor . For a full rundown on how and when to fold, check out Maurizio Leo's blog, Mass fermentation, explained.
How do you fold bread dough?
There are several different ways to fold bread dough, but the most common are bowl folds and spiral folds.
To perform a bowl fold: With wet hands, reach into the bowl, grab the bottom of a piece of dough and gently stretch it up until you start to feel resistance, then fold it over the top of the dough. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees (a quarter turn) and repeat until you've made a full rotation, then flip the dough over so the folds are down.
To perform a spiral fold: With wet hands, reach under the dough and gently stretch the middle up until the dough comes out of the bowl. Roll it forward from your hands, allowing it to fold (or “coil”) in on itself. This is called spiral folding. Rotate the container 90 degrees (a quarter turn) and repeat. Continue doing this folding action until the dough feels like it won't stretch and stretches easily, usually four to five times at first.
Kristen dough
Should I cook or fold?
Since both baking and folding strengthen the dough and develop the gluten network (albeit at different times), you may wonder why some bread recipes instruct you to cook your dough and others to fold.
In some cases, it's a matter of baker's preference (see baker Martin Philip's impassioned argument for folding, Why doesn't this professional baker cook?). Philip argues that “folding achieves the greatest amount of dough strength for home bakers” and is a great choice if you don't own a mixer or don't want to knead the dough by hand for a long time but still want to make bread . But there are also practical considerations for choosing one method over another. For example, in the case of highly hydrated doughs (also known as lean doughs) such as Crystal bread, boiling such a sticky mass by hand is basically impossible, but folding with a wet hand is easy. (For more on working with high hydration doughs, see this blog, 5 tips for working with high hydration doughs.)
For enriched doughs, such as butter croissant or plush, fluffy milk bread, it is difficult to properly incorporate the butter into the dough by hand through folding; machine kneading is recommended for these recipes.
After all, both folding and broiling each have their useful applications, and mastering the techniques (and knowing when to use them) will make you a better baker.
Cover photo by Martin Philip.
