Hand Techniques

Although modern equipment seeks to duplicate, and thereby nullify, the hand work of the baker, in the actual bakery setting there is no true substitute for skilled hands. Dividing and shaping equipment is vastly speedier than laborious hand scaling and hand forming, yet the mechanical equipment can never be as subtle and considerate of the dough as can the hand. In many bakeries, production requirements make it mandatory that equipment is relied on more than hand work. However, for someone aspiring to be an artisan in the historical sense of the word, that is, a skilled manual worker whose hands are integral to the creation of the product, a firm mastery of hand technique is required.