The Bread Baker's Apprentice

When adding ingredients to the mixing bowl, it is a good idea to avoid placing the yeast and the salt in direct contact with each other, as salt will kill the yeast in such concentrated contact. Instead, you can stir the salt into the flour, and then do the same with the yeast, or simply place the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl prior

Wheat is the grain of choice from which bread flour is milled. This is because wheat contains more gluten, a type of protein, than other grains.

I double the barm at each feeding if I want a very sour bread, but I triple, quadruple, or even quintuple it when I want a less sour flavor. Remember, it takes longer for the bacteria than the yeast to work, so while a larger feeding dilutes both the bacterial and the wild-yeast communities, the yeast bounces back faster than the bacteria, creating

(Note: A new option, the Baking Steel, has become available. It is a solid steel plate that works even better than a baking stone, but it is also, of course, quite a bit more expensive. Unlike a stone, it is indestructible. see Resources, for details.)

biga, an Italian style of firm pre-ferment, differs from a pâte fermentée in that it doesn’t have any salt in it.

100 percent fresh yeast = 40 to 50 percent active dry yeast = 33 percent instant yeast

The cut is made with just the tip of the blade to avoid dragging the back part of the blade through the dough (which would rip it rather than slit it). I often tell my students to say the word slit when they make the cut to emphasize this action—like slitting open an envelope—over any other notion of cutting.

crusty bread is baked until the center of the loaf registers 200°F to 210°F (93°C to 99°C). In most instances, I shoot for 205°F (96°C). Of course,

The delayed-fermentation technique, revealed to me by Gosselin, and intuited by many others without knowing why, is all about how enzymes affect fermentation and release flavor. At culinary schools, we teach a fundamental principle: flavor rules. But to release flavors, remember enzymes.