PANARY

Craft baking courses, wood-fired ovens, and consultancy

  • Home
  • Courses
    • Baking Courses
    • Apprentice Days
    • 1 Day Courses
    • 2 Day Courses
    • 3 Day Courses
    • Residential
    • Accommodation
  • Watermill
  • Gift vouchers
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Newsletters
    • Bakers’ Topics
  • Contact
  • Course Calendar
  • Buy Our Bread
  • Fees
    • Fees
    • Accommodation
  • Wood Fired Ovens
  • Consultancy
  • About
    • About
    • Testimonials

Finishing a cob

5th December 2017 by Paul Merry

BAKER’S TOPIC – final cob tightening

During the last Baker’s Topic you were shown how to form a cob.
Now we are going to take it a step further by showing how you you rub the piece forwards up the table to make it properly tight as a finished shape should be.
The first pic shows the beginning of the stroke:

See the tension being placed on the piece as it is rubbed forward, the puffy part of the hand where the thumb meets the palm is doing the work. Pay careful attention to: making sure you keep to the very bottom the gathered clump of ragged edges that have been turned inwards by the cob shaping; avoid hooking your hand around at the end of the stroke – your hand must thrust forwards only. There must be no dusting flour on the bench, otherwise you skid in the dust, achieving nothing. Without dust, the bottom of the piece slightly sticks to the bench, increasing the needed tension.


The forward rubbing features a steep hand, with the hand on edge, open palm, a vertical line from little finger to thumb. You push forward as well as pulling downwards on the piece as it is stroked forward. (The other hand is held aside, doing nothing at this point, indeed superfluous).


As it thrusts forward, the hand goes slightly past the piece. When the piece has been thrust so far forward that you are a little awkward and off balance, and you run the risk of pushing it off its axis so that the rough patch is no longer at the bottom, you must stop the forward stroking.


The above shows that you now grip it with both hands and tug it backwards so that it is close to you, and your hand is in a comfortable position to begin the forward thrusting again, as below:

Now you have all the tricks to give any cob a final tightening.
Good baking, Paul

Please share:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Baker's Topics

About Paul Merry

BAKER’S TOPICS

  • 20 degree temperature threshold
  • A New Approach To Sourdough Wheat Leaven
  • Autolyse
  • Bagels and the water bath
  • Baker’s Tip: Coarser flours take more water
  • Baker’s Tip: Simple Plaiting
  • Baker’s Tip:. Quantities of different yeasts
  • Baking on a tile
  • Baking on a Tile
  • Chelsea Buns
  • Dough enrichment: adding fats and oils
  • Dough fermentation: The Fold
  • EASTER BAKING
  • Finishing a cob
  • Firing a cold oven
  • Flour too strong?
  • Green dough
  • How To Make The Devonshire Split
  • Kneading dough
  • Kugelhopf – popular in the Alsace
  • Large ovens: separate furnace or fire on the floor?
  • Making a cob (Part 1)
  • Making the Round Shape, Both Loose and Tight – Part 1
  • Making the Round Shape, Both Loose and Tight – Part 3
  • Malt, Maltose, Malt Products
  • Oxygen in dough
  • Plaiting
  • Plaiting – Part I
  • Poolish
  • Read Paul’s views on “craft”, as they appeared recently in two published articles
  • Rolling Olives & Oil Into Finished Dough
  • Salt
  • Scalded flour
  • Shaping for a tin
  • Slashing the loaves
  • Stollen
  • Stoneground Flour
  • Sweet pastry
  • Table skills – Part I
  • Table skills – Part II
  • Temperature chart
  • The “ferment”
  • The baguette
  • The Chelsea Bun
  • The Country Housewife’s Outdoor Cloche Oven, 1897
  • Types Of Yeast
  • Understanding acidity & sourness
  • Use of the Sponge
  • Volume in a loaf
  • Water temperature and yeast
  • Wedding Rolls: How to Make Them
  • What’s special about wood-fired ovens?
  • Working with stoneground flour
PANARY - Teaching Breadmaking Since 1997
Teaching Breadmaking Since 1997
Every PANARY course is taught by Paul Merry, a master craftsman who favours a very practical approach to learning, regardless of any student’s prior experience..

Helpful Information

  • Cann Mills – Working Watermill
  • Which Course To Select?
  • Testimonials
  • Learn to bake
  • Gift vouchers
  • Accommodation

PANARY Mailing List

PANARY - Teaching Breadmaking Since 1997
For baking tips and special offers.
JOIN MAILING LIST

Contact PANARY

To contact Paul Merry, or speak with him, please ring +44 (0)1747 851102, email using ,  or visit our contact page.

Copyright © 2022 · PANARY

  • Terms of Service
  • Refund Policy
  • Privacy Policy
panary adj [L.panis bread + - ARY] Of or pertaining to bread; p. fermentation
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.