To preshape your dough, gently use your flexible plastic scraper to ease the bread out of the bowl or container in which it was bulk fermented and onto your clean, dry work surface. Treat it tenderly. You don’t want to be rough with it and de-gas it, bursting all the air bubbles in it and sending them out of the dough.

With wet hands and your bench scraper, quickly and decisively divide the dough, using a digital scale if necessary to make sure that the dough is evenly divided. Get one piece directly in front of you. Don’t be afraid to pick it up with your bench scraper and move it to where you need it. Using your hand and bench scraper in unison, work the dough toward you, using your fingers to swiftly tuck the outer edges back under the surface of the loaf, shaping it into a neat round (or oval) with good surface tension. Confident, swift movements are best. There will be some sticking, which is why wet hands are essential. Try not to work the dough too much. You don’t want to let out the beautiful gases you’ve spent all this time creating. It takes a lot of practice, but you’ll know when you have it right — it should look like there’s a nice, tight skin wrapping the ball of dough, and it should sit up a bit proud.