Pre-Shape: Two Different Contexts
Pre-shaping has two overall functions that are very different, depending on its use:
1. You're a professional baker making very large batches of dough.
2. You're a home baker making 1 loaf of bread or enough rolls for dinner.
I'm learning how to make utilitarian bread: white and whole wheat sandwich, pita, tortillas, hot dog and hamburger buns, and (hopefully) Italian sub rolls. I'm not all that much into sourdough; we don't eat much pizza; and most artisan bread crusts are too much for these old teeth.
Much of the bread-making problem-solving on the InterWebs involves sourdough, ciabatta, baguettes or pizza crust. So it's a difficult to find solutions for what apparently is "basic" bread, or "everyday" bread. People seem to think it's so easy, there's no need to explain it much.
Additionally; a whole lot of recipes for these breads involve cups and measuring spoons. For a new baker, it's hard to find out why something fails. Experienced home cooks (Uncle Joe, Grandma or Mom) have done all this for so long, they don't even remember having questions.
A standard step in almost any recipe is to "cut the dough into portions, pre-shape it, and let it rest." Okay, I did that. The "final shaping" became very difficult: The dough had risen a little, and pinching edges didn't stay pinched.
When a friend of hers asked The Proximate Lady for suggestions on bread in a bread machine, I did some looking. There was an entire blog post about "Why to Pre-shape Your Bread." Ah Hah!
For the student home baker, it's reasonable to knead and ferment the dough, then mash it into a loaf pan. Smoosh it down a bit, let it proof and then bake it. Right? The problem is the bread ends up with several problems: Uneven shape, disorganized crumb, and even blow-outs along the sides or top. Not to mention fragile crust.
Making 1 loaf, or one batch of a few rolls is a similar problem. A commercial baker has to divide up many pounds of dough into what eventually becomes individual loaves. With the cutting, weighing, and bits and pieces, the smaller pieces have to take time to incorporate again and close off sliced edges.
Pre-shaping for a commercial baker allows large pieces of dough to generally take on a loaf shape, relax for further manipulation, and re-absorb smaller pieces of dough that were added to create a specific weight.
A home baker usually only has the specific amount of dough needed for the single bake. The only cutting involved has to do with how large or small an eventual roll or flat round will be (pita or tortillas). There can be little pieces that are cut off one piece of the original, which get added to other pieces.
Pre-shaping in the home situation has to do with gluten matrix in the dough that will soon be baked. It will end up as standalone rolls, or in a constrained container like a loaf pan.
So for the home baker, pre-shaping IS the final shaping. After the dough has fermented and it's removed from bowl (whatever), the next step is de-gassing (punching down). At that point, the dough is almost ready for the "second rise," or proofing phase.
Instead of just rolling out a log for a hot-dog bun, or smooshing it into a loaf pan to rise, "pre-shaping" and "forming" are the same thing.
It's better to flatten a piece of dough, then roll it if you're making a loaf of sandwich bread or a hot-dog bun. It's better to form a ball and roll/smear the bottom around on the counter, to make a hamburger bun or dinner roll.
This rolling, smearing, flattening, and bashing around "seems to be" very different from videos of quickly pre-shaping a rough log, then letting it sit for a bit. But that's important when working with huge batches of dough. It's not important for a wee bit of dough at home.
Just punch down the dough, cut (and weigh) it if you're making rolls, flatten it with a rolling pin "pre-" rolling it up, then let it rise. "Pre-shaping" in this case means turn each piece into your final shape. The "pre-" only means "organize the gluten matrix before letting it rise the second time: "pre-" second rise.
You are missing something that has been important for me. As you wrote, things are different for a bakery, and I'm only only a home baker. The pre-form stage lets me adjust the elasticity of the dough:
- if it's too elastic I can let the dough rest before final shaping; sometimes it can get too elastic in the middle of shaping and a rest will make it easier to finish shaping the loaf;
- if it's too extensible I can work/stretch the dough more during preform. Sometimes I stretch the heck out of it to get it to the point it will seem able to hold a shape during shaping.
And, yes, if the dough has a good feel and a good balance between extensibility and elasticity, I will go ahead ang skip a preform.
TomP
@Tom - You make a great point about having the time to adjust the dough. I've had trouble rolling something like a hot-dog bun, only to have it slide right on back to where it started from. Yes, a bit of a rest helps. (Or a claw hammer, a small anvil, and numerous words not appropriate in a church setting.)
But I wouldn't say it's a missed point. The "light-bulb moment" for me was the ambiguity of a term that had two quite different meanings in context. Pre-shaping cut down pieces from a large bucket of dough, versus pre-shaping a single loaf of dough prior to the final proof in the pan.
Pre- meaning Before, is easy to understand. But connected with "shaping" was making me nuts. If I'm making a basic sandwich loaf, one day in the week, and that's all, then when the dough has finished the first rise (bulk ferment) it's pretty much done. It goes into the pan for the second rise (proofing).
Do I just cram the punched down dough in there? Or do some artistic finagling for some obscure reason. That "finagling" is the "shape it before laying it to rest in its final resting place."
The only time elasticity or extensibility has an impact for me is during the "shaping before laying it in the pan instead of cramming a wad of dough in there." But realistically, the bigger problem at that point for me is that the dough has formed enough of a "skin," if you will, that unless it's tightly rolled, pinched, and paid attention to, there can be air pockets in the final bread.
I'm pretty sure a more flexible dough wouldn't matter here. Probably hydration, but I'm working on that.
I almost never bake a free-form loaf of any kind. Even the hot-dog buns use a pan I made, and hamburger buns use rings. However; for sourdough, baguettes, and other loaves that are often free-form, I can see that "shaping before letting it proof" does offer a lot more flexibility, as you're pointing out.
Ultimately, I'm just tired as all get-out of the damn "mysteries" surrounding the "lingo" and "argot" in the baking world. I spent way too much time in the corporate business and financial world, listening to their "secret language" to have much patience anymore. Language should be straightforward, in my opinion, particularly when used to assist people who are just starting out in a career, hobby, adventure, or endeavor. :-)
I'm puzzled by that skin. If the dough is kept covered while not being worked on, it shouldn't form a skin. I cover with a sheet of plastic wrap while my dough rests. Don't you?
Otherwise I only have a problem with the dough not wanting to merge is with fairly dry doughs. Sometimes wetting the seam area before pressing it together can help.
The way the dough is shaped can affect the crumb, both its evenness and its openness. With very high-hydration doughs you may have to simply pour it into a loaf pan without shaping, though.