Susan: How To Shape Dough Into Sandwich Loaves

Note: This is a continuation of my article on making basic white bread, which you can read here.

There are many ways to shape a lump of dough into a standard sandwich loaf. The easiest way is to simply pat the dough into the shape of the pan and plunk it in.
Whichever way you choose to shape your loaves, the most important thing to remember is that the finished dough should contact the short ends of the pan so they can help support the dough as it rises.

One popular technique is "jelly-roll" style: Press the dough into a rectangle that is as long as the loaf pan and slightly less than twice as wide as it is long. At the narrow end, roll the dough tightly, jelly-roll style. Pinch the ends and seam to seal, turning the ends under if necessary. I've also seen a similar version where the dough is rolled out to 1/4-inch thick with a rolling pin. That is way too much work for me, but it would be interesting to see the resulting loaf.

I use the "log" method, and it comes straight from the pages of the absolutely wonderful book, Amy's Bread. Here it is, word for word, because if you're like me and have trouble thinking three-dimensionally, this isn't the kind of thing you want to try paraphrasing. (Amy, please don't sue me.) It does take a little practice.

"When shaping your loaves, the most important thing to remember is to be gentle with the dough. Your goal is to form an even loaf with a taut skin, while leaving some larger air holes inside.

Very lightly flour the work surface. Start by forming an envelope: Place the dough on the table. Press and flatten it gently with your fingertips to form a rectangle with a short side facing you, leaving a lot of air bubbles in the dough. [Susan's note: I press out any large air bubbles.] Fold the top edge down over the middle of the rectangle, then fold the bottom edge up. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the process, folding the top edge down and the bottom edge up again and overlapping the edges slightly in the middle so the dough looks like an envelope. Pat the seam to seal it. Now you have a smaller, tighter rectangle.

Form a cylinder: Starting from the top edge of the rectangle, fold the top third of the dough over itself with one hand. With the heel of your other hand, gently press the seam to seal it.

Fold the dough one third of the way down again and work from one end to the other to seal the seam. Try to keep the skin of the dough smooth and tight but not so tight that the skin tears.

Repeat this process one or two more times, until the loaf is a nice round log. Seal the final seam completely with the heel of your hand. Ideally your seam should be straight and tight with no openings or flaps of dough hanging out; with patience, this will become natural.

If any dough is protruding from the ends of the log, poke it back in with your finger. [Susan's note: I tuck the ends into the log and then pinch them closed; I find this makes a neater looking loaf.]

The plain log shape can be placed in a loaf pan or left on a cloth for a free-form second rise. From the log shape, you can make other cylindrical shapes."

If you're making three loaves of bread at a time, the best thing to do is shape each one using a different technique and see how they compare. I found that shaping mine into logs resulted in the best looking breads, and I've been shaping them this way for years. But I may find myself switching to a quicker method once our little wholesale bread bakery is up and running and I'm making dozens of loaves of bread at a time. It's probably time for me to do another round of experimenting.

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