What is the stretch and fold method?
The stretch and fold method is a form of kneading. It refers to pulling a side of the dough with your hand and folding it over the entire dough. It is popular for sourdough bread since recipes typically call for higher hydration doughs that would be too sticky to knead on the counter.
How to stretch and fold?
After mixing your dough, you generally let it rest (or autolyse) for at least 30 minutes before adding salt and starting the stretch and folds. (Refer to my Autolyse & Fermentolyse guide to learn the benefits.)
- Step 1: Wet your hand that you will be using to handle the dough. While holding the bowl with your opposite hand, lift and stretch the dough as far as you can without tearing it, and fold it over.
- Step 2: Turn the bowl 45 degrees to stretch the remaining three sides. (To further develop strength, you can perform additional stretches until the dough resists, which you can see happen in my video.)
During your turns, you may need to wet your hand again if the dough starts sticking too much.
- Step 3: Repeat at least 2 more times every 30 minutes. Add additional rounds if further development is needed.