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If I’m working with a small batch of dough (say for 2-4 loaves) sometimes — about an hour or so into bulk fermentation — I’ll laminate the dough. It’s a way of adding strength to the dough and involves spraying the surface and one’s hands with water, stretching the dough out and then folding it on itself.
I like the feel of the dough at this stage, and just how elastic it already is so early into the fermentation. But it also cools the dough down quite dramatically (in a cold UK kitchen) so I need to work to get the temperature of the dough back up to around 24-26ºC. As ever with fermenting sourdough, temperature is everything.
