Photo Gallery #9 Two-Handed Rounding Gesture

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Published 2025

Be sure there’s no flour on the bench. Your dough needs surface tension to round smoothly. In a dry or drafty kitchen, a damp cloth helps your dough grip the table as you round it.
With your left hand, push the dough directly away from you, travelling no more than 2 or 3 inches across the bench. Watch how the leading edge of the dough grips the bench and tucks itself under the moving dough.
With your right hand, pull directly toward you, returning the dough to its starting point. Don’t try to rotate the dough. The dough rotates by itself as its leading edge grips the bench.
Use the heel of your hand and your little finger to push or pull the dough. Don’t grab the dough with your thumb or first three fingers.
When the first blisters appear on the surface, the dough is round enough.
To check your skill, invert the dough with a bench scraper. Proper rounding leaves a swirled center on the bottom of the dough that bakers call the navel.
Don’t leave the bench. The moment the Heel of your Hand is lifted from the bench, the dough loses surface tension and all rounding stops.
Gluten stretches in two directions. 1 The top stretches toward your hands as the heel cups the dough and pushes forward. 2 At the same time, the gluten on the leading edge stretches and tucks underneath.