The baker is lucky,lucky indeed, to have this life of the hands. Walk into a bakery and watch. The shaped loaves are enclosed in their snug linen couches; the master touches the surface of one and says to the aspiring young worker, “We’ll load them in six minutes.” How does the master know? A loaf is pulled from the oven, golden and crackling. A quick squeeze from the master, who says, “Give them another half minute.” How does the master know?
For thousands of years, most of the world’s work—the “days of hands,” as T. S. Eliot called it—was manual and required the ineffable sensitivity of the human hand. To be sure, there were people of wealth and power whose hands had little purpose. But for the bulk of humanity, the hands were the conduit between effort and result. Then, perhaps 90 percent or more of the population was engaged directly in hand work of some form. And now, per- haps the number is reversed. Today, increasingly, the primary use of the hand seems to be for computer and telephone.
The life of the hands has characterized the work of the baker for dozens of centuries. Machines have been devised to divide and to shape bread, and even to score the fragile loaves at the moment of the load. More machines will surely follow. None will replace the confident knowledge of the skilled hand.
It’s true that the machines of today can with certainty guarantee a consistency of out- put, and breads can be produced of predictable good quality. On the other hand, the baker who relies on his hands will surely have mishaps, and at times his efforts might yield only a 75 percent level of quality. But at other times he will coax loaves of incredible beauty and taste, and score a 95 percent! He lives for this, and the memory of these surpassing loaves lingers. He strives for perfection, for the perfect loaf, secretly hoping never to attain it—for where would he go from there?
b
c a
D
Shaping a round roll (view from the side)
b a
To preshape, the scaled-out dough is placed on the bench, which has a very slight film of flour cover- ing it. If there are any small scrap pieces of dough resulting from the scaling, these should be on the top of the dough. As the preshaping proceeds, the scrap will be incorporated into the body of the dough. We will refer to the side of the dough that has the scrap as the “seam side,” since the seams of the shaped loaf will eventually be on this side; the bottom side of the
preshaping
Generally speaking, round loaves, oblong loaves, loaves baked in pans, and baguettes are preshaped after scaling, and after a period of rest, the final shap- ing is performed. Once divided, the dough is in an irregular, disorderly condition, and the purpose of preshaping is to take the scaled-out dough piece and lightly bring it to roundness, from which state it will be much easier to accomplish the final shaping.
Preshaping
a b
D c
between 5 and 30 minutes, depending on the type of bread and the tightness of the preshaping. The more tightly the dough is preshaped, the longer the time needed to rest it before beginning the final shaping. If the dough rests too long on the work surface, it will become overaged and difficult to shape, excessively slack and gassy, and its final color and appearance could be impaired. If it is not sufficiently relaxed, there is a risk of tearing the outer surface of the dough because the dough is still too tight to accept further working. This too, of course, impairs the final appearance of the loaf. It is difficult to verbalize the exact time requirements for the bench rest phase; however, with experience the baker learns to ascer- tain when the dough is sufficiently relaxed and final shaping can begin. Remember, the dough shouldn’t be too tight or too slack, and should accept the final shaping with fair ease.
Lightly flour the work surface, pick up the dough, and place it in front of you, good side down. Repeat the initial steps of the preshaping, from the patting out of the air with a flat hand to the folding of the dough to the tucking and folding. Since you are now performing the final shaping, more exertion is helpful as long as there is no tearing of the outer skin.
Once you have achieved a more-or-less round loaf, place it seam side down. Now the good side of the loaf is on top. Lightly dust both hands, either by running them along the work surface or patting them quickly in flour. Place both hands over the loaf in such a way that the sides of each hand, from the tip of the pinky all the way to the base of the palm, are on the work surface. Loosely overlap your thumbs on top of the loaf (if the loaf weighs more than about 2 pounds, or if your hands are small, the thumbs may not overlap completely). Your hands will form a sort of cage, within which the loaf will rotate and tighten. Keep the sides of your hands on the work surface and begin to rotate your hands in a clockwise direction. As your hands move through the circular motion, they should remain approximately parallel to each other, moving as a single unit. As the loaf is rounded, the pinkies of both hands help to tighten and form the base of the loaf, and the pressure from the thumbs and other fingers helps to tighten the dough piece will be referred to as the “good side”;
that is, it is the seamless outer surface of the dough, intact and unbroken. This good side will remain the good side throughout the entire preshaping and final shaping process, and will eventually become the top of the baked loaf.
To begin the preshaping, pat out any large air pockets in the dough with a few quick strokes, using a flat hand. Do not knead the dough with the fingers, or dimple it. Keeping the hand flat will quickly and effectively achieve the necessary degassing. Next, fold the dough away from you, almost in half. Now, pick up the dough with both hands, with the seam side away from you and the bottom side (the good side) facing you. Your thumbs should be facing up, and all fingers should be in contact with the seam side. Lay the portion of the good side that is farthest from your fingers onto the bench. Now, commence a process that incorporates two actions at the same time: As your fingers begin to tuck the seam side of the dough in on itself, roll the dough piece toward you. This rolling will stretch the outer skin (you may notice flecks of flour stretching on the outer skin of the dough); the tucking will help consolidate the dough into a more rounded form. Once the dough has been rolled and tucked in this manner and is again on the bench, pick it up at a point a quarter or a third of the way to one side (this enables you to work a new quadrant of the dough) and repeat the rolling and tucking. A light hand is all that is needed, and any surface tearing of the dough indicates han- dling that is too harsh. Repeat the above steps, and after 3 or 4 sequences of rolling and tucking, the loaf should be somewhat rounded. Remember, at this point you are only preshaping, so avoid overworking the dough. More exertion and more thorough tight- ening will occur during the final shaping. Once the loaf is preshaped, lay it good side down, on a slight film of flour and cover lightly with plastic.