March 31, 2016 - 1:30pm
Oval loaf shaping technique
Hello. I made some olive breads from Tartine Bread this morning. They turned out great, but it bugs me that I had to shape the loaves into rounds again, because I don't know how to shape them into ovals. In Jeffrey Hamelman's book, Bread, he teaches how to form a oval loaf. The steps involve using the heel of a hand to seal the loaf, but I'm not sure if that would work for Chad's wet dough. I wonder if doing that will knock a lot of gas out of the dough. Please help!
Share
Good looking loaves there to start with.
I coerce rounds into ovals by the use of gentle shaping once turned out of the baskets and positive slashing!
So looking at this:
It came out of a round banneton and all I did was gently push the sides in, then made cuts over it (cuts perpendicular to the dough, not aiming for an ear at all) and smaller cuts in-between the big ones (more for decoration though)
Of-course you could just use an oval banneton...
-Gordon
Thanks Gordon. But I would love to learn to do it right :-)
Not if your dough is as highly hydrated as a Tartine loaf. Here's a video of Chad himself forming a loaf for demonstration. He shapes it somewhere around the 3 minute mark. This method creates an inherently oblong loaf that can be rounded off to create a boule (as in the video), or left oval if you prefer.
Cheers!
Trevor
Ah! That is it. Thank you Trevor!
Quinny,
First off….. wonderful looking bread. You should be proud.
I'm not familiar with Chad's Wet Dough. It would help to know the formula's hydration. This would give the 'slackness' of the dough. Which will suggest a method of handling.
What I do when forming breads such as Baguettes, Batards, and free standing rounds is using the heel of my hand to seal the seam as the dough is tensioned and formed. These doughs are generally in the range of 60% to 66% hydration. There are several good video's demonstrating this method.
The important part is the dough cannot be as slack as Ciabatta. And you should understand the process is more of a gentle pull/push than a hammer blow.
Below is a nice video that may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmxDKuGLWuE&app=desktop
Again,,, your bread is great looking….
Thank you for your compliment, Betsy. The breads I made are 75% hydration, so as Trevor mentioned using the heel of my hand to seal the seam probably would not work. Good thing that Trevor pointed me to Chad's demo video. Now I know how to make that. Will probably need to get a oval basket and a oven stone for that kind of shape, because it won't fit in my combo cooker :-)
Quinny,
Thanks for the follow-up. Yes, I understand now.
Have fun…..
At the bakery, Tartine's signature "Basic Country Bread" is shaped as bâtards. Round loaves were specified in the book so they would fit in a round dutch oven.
My go to bread is the San Joaquin Sourdough. It is 75% hydration and is shaped as bâtards or as baguettes. I use classic shaping methods, essentially the same as those Hamelman specifies.
It just requires very good gluten development, appropriate fermentation and tight shaping with a very light, fast touch.
Oh! One more thing ... Practice, practice, practice.
Happy baking!
David
Thanks David! So both techniques would work, I'll definitely try them both. Now, I also need to gather all the tools for baking bread without the cast iron combo cooker, and learn how to create steam in the oven :-)