In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension. In general, weak, wet, or highly extensible doughs benefit from more frequent folding; stiffer, elastic, lower-hydration doughs require less folding to develop strength.
Once the gluten network has formed, over handling the dough can cause this network to break down. You really only need to handle sourdough minimally. Each set of stretch and folds should consist of 4 stretches and folds. You should aim to do around 4 to 6 sets, but you may need less depending on the dough strength.
How many sets of folds are needed? There's no single answer for how many sets your dough needs. If you hand-mix your dough, two to four sets should do it. Of course, the type of flour and hydration in a recipe also play a big role in answering this question.
Baker's Tip: As a general rule of thumb, the sets for high hydration doughs (wet dough) can be spaced closer together because the dough is slack; about 15-30 minutes apart. For low hydration doughs (dry, stiffer dough), the gluten will need more time to relax, about 30 minutes to 1 hr.
Bread Loaves made with over-kneaded dough commonly end up with a hard crust and dry interior. Often upon cutting, slices will crumble. If your perfect bread loaf turns into a crumbly mess, don't worry. The overworked dough will work great when used as croutons or breadcrumbs.
Over-proofed dough is very soft, when you pull at it, it falls apart easily, it's sticky, it smells sour/acidic and can have a crêpey look/feel. If you've shaped it, it will deflate when you poke at it.
Kneading is usually done in one prolonged stage, which is ideal when baking with commercial yeast as your dough won't be rising or fermenting for an extended length of time, the strong yeast means the dough rises much faster. Kneading is a more vigorous method than the stretch and fold technique.
What is this? Dough made with a young sourdough starter just won't develop. It will stay very wet and sticky, rather than strengthen with each stretch and fold. No matter how long you leave it to ferment, the yeast and bacteria won't actually grow or change.
Generally speaking, yes, you need to cover the dough while it's rising. Covering the dough will create a warm moist atmosphere for the dough to rise nicely in. If it's cold or dry the dough won't rise as well as it should. So covering the dough while it rises keeps the moisture IN and the drying air out.
The second proving has given the bread more elasticity, and made it harder to deflate the air. Second rises may add significantly to the total time it takes to complete a loaf of bread, but the step can be essential to achieving the taste and texture inherent to a number of popular breads.
Once dough has risen to double its size, it must be pressed down or turned to prevent it from overproofing. If bread is allowed to rise to more than double its size, the gluten will stretch to the point of collapse and will no longer be able to hold the gas bubbles that provide necessary structure for the loaf.
Bread recipes typically call for two rises: The first is the “bulk” rise when the dough rises in the bowl, while the second rise comes after the dough has been shaped, like when a sandwich dough proofs directly in the loaf pan.
Regularly stretching to the point of pain, trying to force a stretch, or bouncing during a stretch can cause injury, per Harvard Health. In addition, passive or static stretches before a workout may decrease muscular strength and power.
You Could Risk Tears
Overstretched muscles and unstable tissues in a joint can increase your risk of getting microscopic or full tears. Muscles that are too loose allow your joints to move freely, and the increased range of motion will put too much stress on them.
Dough doesn't become sticky during the rise. It was probably sticky when you put it in the bowl or proving drawer. To avoid sticky dough, add water in drip by drip during the kneading process. Stop when the dough is soft and springy even if you have water left over.
If your dough is tearing when you stretch it out, this usually means that there's not enough gluten in your dough.
Thirty minutes seems to be the right time for most doughs to relax and spread out in the bulk fermentation container—precisely when you want to give it another set. However, if you've minimally mixed or kneaded the dough, and the dough is very slack and weak, you might need only 10 to 15 minutes rest between sets.
Bulk Fermentation refers to the time after you complete gluten development (generally through stretching and folding the dough) until the time when you shape your dough. What is this? You leave the dough at room temperature to "ferment" in one bulk mass.
The dough should generally be proofed for around 1 to 4 hours at a warm temperature or overnight (or more) at a cold refrigerator temperature. As the proofing temperature increases, the total fermentation time will decrease.
Over-proofing happens when dough has proofed too long and the air bubbles have popped. You'll know your dough is over-proofed if, when poked, it never springs back. To rescue over-proofed dough, press down on the dough to remove the gas, then reshape and reproof. (This method won't work for sourdough bread.)