I finally stopped kneading sourdough at 3am, the stretch and fold way

Last month I was at a bread class in Portland and the instructor kept yelling at everyone to stop overworking the dough. She had us do 4 stretch and folds over 2 hours instead of 15 minutes of kneading, and my loaves came out way lighter. I always thought kneading was the only way to build gluten, but now I'm converting my whole shop over to this method. Has anyone else switched and noticed a big difference in crumb texture?

2 comments

2 Comments

colescott4d ago

Started folding my pizza dough like that and now my kids think I'm some kinda fancy bread artist.

lunar893d ago

Kneading always felt like a workout for no reason, but I caught a video where this baker explained stretch and folds trap air way better. @colescott, that pizza dough trick is genius, my neighbor swore by it after trying for years. Switched my loaves over and the crumb is softer, less dense, like night and day.