Preamble: None of the following is original to me in the least. Here I’m merely collecting the wisdom of much more experienced bread makers into one easy to find spot. And I’m not even saying this is “all there is”, much more can be found on the web, from other people with different methods.

Stretch and Fold

This is a method of handling dough which pretty much replaces, in whole or in part, the usual kneading of the dough. Although, as with most anything, there are variations on how it’s done, the basic principle is as follows:

Take your dough that’s been raising in a container for about 45-50 minutes (as per recipe), gently press or stretch it into a large squarish shape. Mike Avery says to stretch it to about 1/3 the thickness of the original ball so if you plopped the dough on the surface and it was 3″ tall you stretch it to a square about 1″ thick. Once it’s square-ish, grab the top two corners and fold it down over itself to about 1/3, then grab the bottom corners and fold up over itself so you’ve just folded you square into three. Now take the left side and fold over to the right, then finally the right side over to the left and you’ve got a stack of several folds. You’re done. Return to the raising bowl until your next fold.

Here’s Mike Avery showing how it’s done. Have your audio on because he’s explaining what’s happening and giving tips while doing it.

A complete demonstration with more videos of the Stretch and Fold technique by Mike can be seen here. There’s actually a fair bit of other info in this set of clips that are well worth reviewing.

Here, Bill Wraith shows yet another method:

French Fold

A technique that is SIMILAR to Stretch and Fold is called the French Fold.

Susan of the WildYeastBlog offers a video of her technique here. (See full page here)

Here’s yet another version by someone named “Sourdough guy”:

He has a page over on Carls’ website here.

And here again is Bill Wraith, this time doing a French Fold:

Stretch vs French

“So, there’s much of a difference here?” you might ask. (I sure did.)

With the Stretch and Fold, you’re pushing the ball of dough out and once it’s square-ish, you’re simply folding it over itself to help align the gluten.

With the French Fold, you’re using the weight (and stickiness) of the dough ball to really stretch the mass. Folding it is more, in this case, to put the ball back together into something easier to handle as you turn it around and stretch in the other direction.

It’s been said the French Fold technique is better for the first fold on a somewhat “raw”, softer, wetter dough as it’s more robust stretch helps a new dough get all it’s gluten in order. Once the dough’s been Frenched and left to mature a bit, your next fold should be a Stretch and Fold since the dough will have it’s act together a little more and be smoother to handle.