Flour Water Salt Yeast

Managing dough fermentation to get the best results means finding the perfect balance of rising time, proofing time, dough temperature, ambient temperature, and amount of leavening in the dough. A major focus of this chapter is explaining how to achieve a harmony of these elements.

dough ferments for too long, an excess of alcohol and acidity will develop, masking the sweet flavors of the wheat.

Hybrid leavening breads have a lighter texture, more volume, and a thinner crust, whereas pure levain breads are pleasingly rustic, being a little less domed and slightly smaller and denser and having bigger holes and more chew to the crust (in a good way).

Whole wheat dough does not stretch as far as white flour dough, so don’t be too aggressive with it.

folds, I recommend applying the first fold 10 minutes or so after the final mix is done. Each successive fold can occur anytime after the dough has completely relaxed from the previous fold.

This book has levain bread recipes that operate on different schedules. The recipes in chapter 9, Hybrid Leavening Doughsis bread that’s a bit darker and slightly, all follow the same schedule. You feed the levain in the morning, mix the final bread dough in the afternoon, divide and shape into loaves five hours later, and let the loaves rise slowl

This is because whole wheat flour has more nutrients for yeast and therefore ferments faster than white flour. The

What all types of pre-ferments have in common, regardless of name and type, is that each allows for the development of alcohol and bacterial fermentation, which add flavor, acidity, and leavening to the dough.

Straight dough A dough that is made up in a single stage, without pre-fermented dough or a levain culture. Levain The French word for “sourdough,” referring to a naturally leavened dough culture made from just flour and water, containing billions of active wild yeast cells and naturally occurring bacteria that ferment bread dough and allow it to ri