What is fraisage?

A French kneading technique: use the heel of your hand to smear just-mixed dough across the counter in short, firm strokes — typically about ten passes for a single batch. Originally a pastry technique for pâte brisée, where the goal is to coat the flour with butter without overworking it. In bread, fraisage finishes incorporation and develops gluten without the slap-and-fold of a French knead. Most useful for enriched doughs (brioche, challah) where you want gluten development without warming the dough up too much, and for stiff doughs where stand-mixer kneading risks tearing the gluten network. Skip it for high-hydration doughs — they're too wet to smear cleanly and respond better to stretch-and-fold instead.