The best way to shape a boule (bread dough)

so in today's technique video I'm going to show you how I like to shape a bull or a round loaf so there's two styles that I like to employ when when shaping around loaf of bread and I choose which path depending on how the dough feels during dividing and pre-shaping so if the dough is very strong it's holding itself after I divide it and pre-shape it and it feels cohesive and it wants to hold itself together then I can do what I like to call a gather up shaping style for for the wool and that's simply just kind of pulling some points along the dough and Gathering it up to the middle flipping it over and then tightening it up as needed and that style of shaping is very gentle very delicate and it really preserves kind of that open Airy interior of the loaf it's one of the most simple ways I find to shape a loaf of bread in general but especially a round loaf the other approach that I'm going to show you today is how I like to shape a slack or weak dough and that's a dough that might be more extensible it might be spreading more on the counter when you're pre-shaping it's kind of harder to get it into shape it's a dough that needs a little bit more structural support built into it so that it can hold its shape all the way from shaping to bake time so I determine which of these two approaches I like to take really based on how the dough feels when I divide and pre-shape it we're going to start with a dough that's already been mixed bulk fermented it's been divided pre-shaped and it has been rested for 30 to 35 minutes on the counter so it is ready at that point for final shaping before you get to shaping your dough into a bowl have your baskets ready for proofing I have it lightly dusted with white flour on the inside I also have my basket with white flour inside that I'll use to dust the dough and keep everything non-stick and then I have my bench scraper to help flip these pre-shaped rounds over so the first Bowl shaving technique I'm going to show you is for a slack or weaker dough so this dough is higher hydration and it's medium protein content so it's not a strong high high protein bread flour and it's a dough that I think is going to need a little bit more shaping and structure put into it to ensure that it holds its shape sufficiently in the basket and also that structural support that you add in during shaping especially if it's a slack and a weak dough that's going to ensure that your loaf will rise tall because if you have a dough that's shaped very Loosely and kind of disorganized and it's high hydration you're going to get a lot more spreading in the oven so you'll end up with a squatter loaf which isn't a bad thing but with a little bit more shaping and a little bit more structural support we can bring the height of that loaf up a little bit while still preserving a nice open and Airy interior be sure you've dusted your work surface with enough flour to ensure that your dough doesn't stick the first step is to get your bench scraper and scoop your dough up and flip it over onto your floured work surface you have kind of a long piece of dough in front of you so you have almost a rectangle shape and that is done so that you can fold this bottom up to the middle and it gives you plenty of space on this rectangle to do so so grab the bottom piece this is the first step fold it up to the middle after doing that we'll fold the sides over into the middle as well you can do both at the same time or you can do one side at a time like I'm showing you here okay now you're starting to get kind of a nice package here you have a long rectangle shape then what we'll do is we'll take the front we'll stretch it out a little bit and Fold It Down to just a little bit higher than the middle of the dough once you've folded that down then we can take the bottom and flip the whole package over like this and now we'll use our hands to tighten up this dough on the work surface be sure your hands are floured so that they don't stick so we're kind of rounding and pushing the dough with our fingers and our pinkies as they drag on the work surface to tuck the dough under itself you can see now the dough is starting to tighten up starting to hold its shape if you need to reposition it you can grab your bench scraper and continue to drag the dough on the work surface to tighten it up if you have any large bubbles you can tap to disperse and you'll see that at the end the dough is a very nice top round and it's ready to be transferred to its proofing container what we'll do is we'll use our bench scraper to pick up the dough flip it over into the proofing basket with the seam side up place the dough right inside if you have any large holes on top you can always pinch them together to kind of make a nice uniform bottom here to the dough when we bake tomorrow we'll flip this basket over and we'll end up scoring the side that's down inside of the basket so now cover your basket and place it in the refrigerator or leave it out on the counter to finish proofing so let's take a look at how I like to shape a strong dough into a bowl or round shape so this style of shaping is very simple very delicate and very gentle we're simply going to flip the pre-shaped round over and then kind of gather up a few tips on the sides towards the middle flip it over and then gently use both hands to kind of coerce it into a tight round shape so this I think is one of the most simple ways to shape a loaf of bread and I pretty much always use this approach when I'm shaving a bowl as long as the dough isn't super highly hydrated this stronger method works great lightly dust my work surface now you don't want a lot of flour on your work surface when shaping up this kind of bowl because you need a little bit of tension on the work surface as you're as you're shaping the dough I also like to lightly dust the top of the round that I'm going to be flipping use your bench scraper to lift the dough up and flip it over so with this gather up style method what you're going to do is just grab points on the dough that are kind of up on the top and we're gonna pull two opposing points over and kind of bundle it up like you would bundle up a little package that's in a cloth so we're going to grab these two sides fold them up over each other grab the two opposing points do the same thing then two more will be exposed do the same thing so you can see you're starting to get a nice package here as you keep folding these up so do maybe one or two more and now the dough is nicely bundled up and you can see how gentle this was there was no pushing or degassing all we're doing is kind of like little mini folds here now we're going to flip this package quickly over so that the seam is on the bottom now I use my hands dusted with flour to drag and Tuck the dough gently under itself you can spin the dough if you need to but this is the point where you don't want a lot of flour on the surface because as you're pulling and tucking the dough under itself the dough needs to slightly stick to the counter or your work surface to develop this tight skin that's forming on the outside you can push with your dominant hand a little bit more forcefully and then tuck if you need to rotate this round what we're trying to do is get this into a uniform circle with as few motions as possible because this dough is rather strong I'm going to stop there you can see how it's a nice tight package place it right in you can see there's no major seams or holes here on the bottom if you have any big gaping holes you can pinch them closed and seal them shut Now cover your basket and proof as directed in the recipe

Channel: The Perfect Loaf

Views: 37,699

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Id: 7suBiDyRzYs

Length: 8min 53sec (533 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 14 2022