Step 0: The Ingredients

Step 4: First proofing / Bulk fermentation
Once a dough has been made it is ready for its first rise, also called bulk or first fermentation. As mentioned in the kneading stage: in order to make a fluffy bread air pockets have to be made. These are grown through fermentation of the yeast. Yeast consume sugars (glucose) and converts this into energy. While doing this carbon dioxide (CO₂) is formed. This is a gas and causes the dough to expand.

Yeast have an optimal growth temperature. In other words, they don’t grow (or very slow) at temperatures below this growth temperature or above this growth temperature. If the temperature is too high it may even be killed. In the fridge yeast still produce gas, but it’s at a lower rate than at room temperature. Nevertheless, these lower temperatures also cause other reactions to occur which develop a lot of flavours!

Apart from controlling temperature, humidity also plays an important role at this point. You do not want the dough to dry out. You can prevent this by properly covering the bowl in which the dough is rising. Take care though that the dough doesn’t touch the cover (keeping in mind that it will still grow), to prevent sticking. In most cases you can do this first proofing period in your mixing bowl which protects the dough against drying out on the sides and makes it easy to cover. A great way to cover your bowls is to use a shower cap, it’s waterproof and puff up so the dough will be able to grow without it touching the cap!
A shower cap gives the dough plenty space to rise. If you use transparent ones you can even see what’s going on in there :-).
Some may use a proofing drawer or an oven that can go to low temperatures. This can help speed up a recipe, but in some cases it can also result in a lower quality bread.
Proofing doesn’t require fancy equipment, your bowls, towels and plastic foil (underneath the towels) work just fine.


Step 5: Shaping
Once the first fermentation is finished the dough has to be taken from the bowl you’re proven it in and split into the required dough sizes. Using a dough scraper (use the plastic one to take dough from a bowl and use the metal one to cut the dough into pieces) here will make your life a lot easier, I say so from personal experience, it will help to prevent your fingers being all doughy even before you started shaping.
It is now time to shape the bread and this was probably one of the steps that is highly influential of the final look of the bread, but is pretty hard to get right without some proper practice. Shaping the bread after the first rising process helps to create a better structure of the bread.
Before shaping the bread the freshly risen bread should be pressed down again and air bubbles should be removed. This will give the bread another chance to rise again since the yeast is fed again with sugars in the dough. Also, it prevents too large bubbles from forming.
After the air has been pushed out you shape your bread. Of course, during shaping you determine the final type of bread you’re making, whether it’s long, round or square. But a good ‘shaper’ shapes the bread in such a way that a tension is created on the outside of the bread. This will make a more even bread when baked.
Here’s a nice short video giving just one way to shape your bread, there are a lot of different techniques that can be used.
Apart from your hands, flour and a working surface shaping a dough doesn’t require a lot of other tools. Larger scale production units will have equipment that shapes the bread using a smart system of rollers and folders, we’ve seen some of these at the Boudin Bakery in San Francisco.