How to Fold Bread Dough

Punching bread dough down after it rises is a tried-and-true method of degassing the dough (removing any air bubbles) and reinvigorating the yeast cells, introducing them to the new food. But folding the dough is also a valid technique for executing these tasks. When you fold the dough, you do three things: expel the carbon dioxide formed during fermentation, strengthen the dough by aligning and stretching the gluten strands, and equalize the dough's temperature which eliminates hot spots.

Punching down and folding affect the dough's texture in different ways. Punching down will result in a finer, more tender crumb—something you would look for in a sandwich bread or pastries like cinnamon rolls. The folding method creates a bread that rises higher and has a looser crumb and air pockets once it is baked. This is a welcome characteristic of artisan bread, baguettes, and dinner rolls. Some recipes that call for folding are oatmeal bread and Landbrot, a sourdough wheat bread. But feel free to try folding in recipes that call for punching down the dough.