I’ve been really happy with my bakes lately, and this week I learned a key lesson: don’t over-fold your dough. Let it relax—strength develops naturally, and sometimes, less is more. I wouldn’t have caught this if I hadn’t been journaling my recipes and process.
Which brings me to my second point—I love bread baking for its simplicity and deep-rooted tradition, but also for how technical and nuanced it can be. If you’re looking to improve the look and feel of your loaves, start tracking your process. Notice patterns, tweak small details, and watch how your bread evolves
by PsychologicalPen2560
13 Comments
Flour: 800g
– [ ] 40g spelt (5%)
– [ ] 40g emmer (5%)
– [ ] 80g WW (10%)
– [ ] 640g white (80%)
Water: 600g (75%) 88F
– [ ] Water 1: 584g (73%)
– [ ] Water 2: 16g (2%)
Salt: 16g (2%)
Starter: 160g (20%)
Autolyse 45min. Mix starter, salt, water 2, and let rest for 30min. 3 coil folds 30-40min apart. Total bulk time 7hrs 10min. Pre shape and bench rest 1hr. Shape, room temp proof for 45min then cold proof for 14hrs. Preheat oven and DO at 475F, bake lid on 450F for 22min, bake lid off 425F for 20min
I agree with you! Great tip. I used overwork my dough and it made for an overly tight crumb and tough bread. I’ve since relaxed and my loaves too 🙂
Respectfully, that’s not really a tip. What is too much folding and what is not enough folding? How can you tell if you did one or the other?
Lovely loaves and a great tip. It’s interesting this is the 3rd or 4th time this week me hearing about taking notes and keeping a journal each bake: this must be a sign. I’m getting a little journal tomorrow ☺️
Thanks for the heads-up! I checked my log and realized that I have been keeping a record for slightly more than three years, which might yield some interesting trends once the data is analyzed.
With my crazy Reddit feed I thought that first pic was a mammoth tooth.
I always skip stretch and fold when using KA Bread flour. I BF by going by rise height, not time.
https://preview.redd.it/1h91hw32sxre1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cfdda28b111678f8c205bf91f2b714278d0a461a
I’m gonna agree and also disagree (wouldn’t be Reddit if someone didn’t… but I mostly agree.)
As to your premise: don’t overdo it: yes, definitely.
But, I do tend to disagree on one small point: you don’t HAVE to be constantly tweaking. Sometimes, it’s ok if you get to the point where you like how your bread is coming out.
Be happy and enjoy the bread for what it is.
If you do enjoy tweaking, more power to you. I agree you should track changes so you know what effect each one has.
But if you just wanna eat bread, don’t stress the small stuff.
(While I love this sub and it’s taught me a bunch, I do think the pursuit of perfection can AT TIMES be overemphasized.)
With that said, your loaves look fantastic. I hope they tasted as good as they look.
What bread knife do you have?
>Start tracking your progress
100%. I keep a notebook where I record notes on every loaf. It lets me really tune and manipulate recipes to my liking. I think that because I used to be a research chemist, keeping a lab notebook of my experiments just feels right, be they material science or bread based.
How did you slice your bread? Those even slices!!!
Looks like an armadillo
Yeah this whole thing about stretch and fold, coil fold, lamination fold, every 30 mins is BS, i was working and I forgot about my dough and managed to only do 2 folds and it came out better than ever.