very wet dough,

Hi Olivier,

There are any number of videos out there that show doing stretch and fold (probably better for high hydration doughs) in a storage box/oven tray without putting the dough onto the bench.  Once it is developed, you can scale it and shape it on your limited bench space.

As a matter of interest, what hydration have you moved to and why do you expect to get more oven spring by doing so?  Not saying you won't though!

Good luck with your projects

Farinam

 You can try the technique Chad Robertson describes to bake his Tartine bread. He mixes the rather wet dough, lets it set in the bowl for a half hour, then works salt into his dough along with slightly more water (as salt binds water - "dries" the dough slightly, so to speak). Then he will put it in a clean container (bowl or the like), and every half hour for 3-4 hours, make your hand wet, stick it down the side of the bowl to the bottom, grab the dough, pull it all the way up to the top and pull it to the other side of the bowl. Turn bowl by onethird, repeat. Turn by one third again and repeat. Then let it rest for another half hour. This is done in place of kneading the dough, as the stretching will develop the gluten, and the bacteria and yeast within the dough will also work to "tigthen" the dough up all nicely. There is a nice 'short' description of the method in this video recorded in Denmark by danish chef Claus Meyer; 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIIjV6s-0cA

He demonstrates the "turning" in his kinda big container there, and shows how the loaves can be shaped. 

 Hi Olivier

I'm no scientist but, as I understand it, there are two reasons for retarding fermentation by putting dough in the fridge:

1. Slower fermentation allows more complex flavours to develop

2. Slowing down fermentation allows you to manipluate your baking more easily to suit your daily schedule.

Happy baking!

Gongooozler

 Some additional thoughts upon seeing your comments. 

1. Wholemeal flour is more "water hungry" than white flour. This is because wholemeal flour includes the shell of the grain, whereas this is removed in the milling process for white flour. The grain shells are designed to protect the grain seed, and can absorb a great deal more water than the insides of the seed which is what white flour consists entirely of. 

2. Keep a lookout for rye doughs. Rye cant form gluten strings like wheat flour can, so the folding technique wont be as good for this type of dough; I recommend a baking tin. And keep an eye out for the next few days I am planning to share my rye bread recipe - its a bread with a lot of authority though :p 

3. The rising and fermentation of bread is carried out by yeast and bacteria cultures. When you cool them down, you make them work less efficiently. So its really as simple as that, when you retard the fermentation by fridgeing it. 

Not only does cold proofing allow the bacteria and yeast to work longer, it also allows more of the starch to convert to sugar, thus getting more food for the beasties, and more complex flavors.

I think that high hydration doughs are easier to handle when they are cold, and I can do folds whenever I think of it, and it's not on a tight schedule.

I regularly cold proof loaves for 3 days in cold storage, and this has become a standard procedure for all my holiday sourdough cinnamon rolls.