Baking School

A liquid or stiff starter will work for all the recipes in this book (in my experience, the levain has a larger impact on the final dough characteristics than the starter). Each recipe begins with making a levain, and they assume a 100% hydration starter to make this levain. If you maintain a stiff starter, you may need to add more water when makin

A good starter should always be doubling or tripling in size when fed. If you’re not baking bread every day or two (and that’s most people), you should keep your starter in the fridge between uses. It can be used as soon as it’s warmed up to room temperature again. If you have any doubts about its bubbliness, then you can take it out the night befo

The starter is usually ready to be made into a pre-ferment 12 to 24 hours after its last feeding, depending mostly on temperature and how sour you want your bread to be.

Any time you use your starter, don’t forget to replenish the jar with another feed, which is indicated in the recipes as a reminder.