FAQ for alt.bread.recipes

Dough methods

There are four categories of methods for making dough:

• Straight dough
• One-day pre-ferment
• Multi-day pre-ferment
• Natural levain, or sourdough

Straight dough: The dough is made and baked in one continuous process from mixing through fermentation and rising to baking. This process is the quickest method, but seldom allows the dough to develop the depth and complexity of taste or texture or both that some people like.

One-day pre-ferment (also called the sponge method): In this method, some or all of the water is mixed with some of the flour and some or all of the yeast and allowed to develop for a few hours. Then this mixture, the pre-ferment, is added to the rest of the ingredients and the baker proceeds with the recipe.

Multi-day pre-ferment: In this version, the pre-ferment is mixed on day one and left overnight either on the counter or in the refrigerator. The next day, the baker uses this mixture and the rest of the ingredients to make the dough. This process may be carried over into a third day, or even a fourth day. Be advised, however, that after two days, some sort of sourdough-like process may start up. This will be evidenced by a separation of dough and water or a slightly acrid smell. These have no adverse effect on the bread or your health, but they are evidence that the fermentation process has run to completion and possibly exhausted the yeast's food supply. Should this happen, merely stir the dough and add some flour and water and stir or knead the dough and proceed.

There are several types of pre-ferments:

Old dough, or paté fermentée: This is simply a portion of the previous batch of bread that has been reserved for this purpose, or a small batch of the bread recipe that has been prepared for this use. This pre-ferment has all the ingredients in the same proportions as the dough to be made.

Biga: This is a fairly stiff mixture of flour, water, and yeast, usually around 60–65% hydration (see hydration in the Vocabulary section).

Poolish: This is a very wet mixture of flour, water, and yeast, usually over 90% hydration.

Natural levain or sourdough: Sourdough is a separate topic, so this covers only the basics. A small mixture of flour and water is left covered on the counter for a day or two. Then the same amount of flour and water is added to either half the original mixture or the full mixture. This new mixture is allowed to sit on the counter for a day or two. This process is repeated two or three more times. After the third step, you will notice that the mixture is alive. This is because the natural yeast and lactobaccilli on the flour have become activated. At this point, you have a starter mixture, one that can be kept going for a long time. You may use this as a starter in sourdough bread recipes.

There are many different opinions about the proper way to start, maintain, and use sourdough starters. The newsgroup for people interested in sourdough breads is nntp://rec.bread.sourdough.