A different Method For Making Bread Dough

Description:
Making a good bread or pizza dough requires knowing how to knead the dough properely and working with a nice moist dough. To knead the dough you may tend to add a bit more flour to make handling it a bit easier. Kneading it is an art because you need to knead it enough so as to build the gluten needed to hold the C02 that the yeast produces but you do not want to knead it to much and have a tough crumb. I myself like a finished product that is very airy with nooks and crannies and has a light and crispy crust. When you cut it, you can get a thin slice and it doesn't crumb a part.
Recently, well about a month ago I scoffed at someone that suggested making a dough with out kneading it. Who ever heard of such a thing. Well, I researched it and found the method called a French Fold. Many big bakers use this method when working with very big batches of dough and their machines break down.
There are many different ways to incorporate this technique into making your dough and I am just going to explain the way I found that works best for me.

Ingredients:
3 cups of flour
2 tsp of salt
1 tbs of sugar
2 1/2 tsp of yeast
1 cup of scalded milk cooled
cooking spray, baking spray like Pam

Directions:
I mix my flour except for about a good tbs, salt, 3/4 of a cup of the milk together first and let it rest while I make a type of sponge with my yeast. In 1/4 cup of the cooled milk I add a tbs or so of the flour, the sugar and yeast, stir and cover right in the measuring cup. Let this sit for about 20 minutes. It will rise up to about the 1 cup mark if your yeast is really good. Mix the yeast sponge mixture into the dough.

Let the dough rest and rise for 45 minutes. The dough is very moist and sticky.

After 45 minutes, gently remove the dough from the bowl onto the counter top. Be careful not to press the air out of it. With a bench scraper, gently lift and stretch the dough into a rectangular shape about 2'x16". Be gentle and not knock the air from the dough. Now gently fold the dough in thirds one way and then the other back into a ball. Spray the inside of the bowl with Canola spray and place the dough back into the bowl. Spray the top of the dough and cover, let rest and rise for 45 minutes.
Repeat this step 2 more times. Each time notice how the dough is really gaining strength and texture. It isn't a sticky mass. No extra flour is being used. It's a nice moist dough. After the last rise again stretch the dough and gently shape your loaf. Do your best not to release the air in the dough. Fold into your loaf shape, and seal the seam. I seal my seam by pinching it closed and then applying a few drops of water to the counter top, smear the water to make a big enough wet spot to gently roll the seam of the dough on to seal.

Spray the baking sheat with baking spray like Pam. place the loaf on the baking sheat then spray the top of the loaf with the canola spray. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes. Pre heat the oven to 425*

I put a skillet with water in it on the bottom rack to create steam for baking and to give extra rise.

Before I put my risen loaf in the oven I score the top of the loaf to allow for venting. That way the crust doesn't blow a part when rising further while baking.

Bake the loaf for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the skillet with water after 15-20 minutes of baking the bread.. The steam has a tendency to prevent the bottom of the loaf from browning. After I remove the water I also like to remove the sheet pan the loaf is on an place the bread directly on the rack.

After removing the loaf from the oven, place it on a cooling rack. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes before slicing it.

When you cut into this bread you will be surprised at how lite and crispy the crust is. The inside is light and full of air pockets. If you want to lower the salt content down to the standard 1 tsp go ahead but I like my bread to have more flavor.
I'll add pictures the next time I make a batch of dough.

Enjoy, IC