The Perfect Loaf

The following refreshment ratios are the smallest I’d feel comfortable maintaining while still being able to mix a dough at a moment’s notice. Sure, it’s possible to go even smaller, but the following will provide you with about 50g of starter ready to create a levain for many of the recipes in this book (and if you need more, you can scale up your

I WROTE THIS BOOK AS A GUIDE TO TEACHING you how to think like a baker, not follow a recipe.

A sheen across the entire crust; crackles when gently squeezed

As your starter ferments the flour, at some point (about 12 hours for the process described in this book) more fresh flour needs to be added so the microbes have a continued food source.

VITALS TABLE First, the vitals table gives you up front the important information about the bread you’re about to bake. It’s another way for a baker to get a feel for the bread before they even begin. Over time, these terms will carry significance for you when reading bread formulas. (See Baker’s Percentages, this page, for more on these percentage

MICHE is typically quite large—sometimes pushing 2,000 grams—but this adaptation is more approachable for the typical home kitchen and still brings with it all the qualities of a great miche. There’s a tangible joy in handling this dough during shaping; the large dough weight requires the baker to approach shaping with a confident yet delicate hand

LEVAIN TABLE The levain table shows you only the ingredients you need to make the levain (the pre-ferment). This table also shows you the baker’s percentages for the ingredients of the levain with respect to the total flour in the levain. Seeing the baker’s percentages over time will give you an intuitive sense for the characteristics of the levain

Many bakers prefer to keep a “stiff starter,” which is typically around 50% to 65% water to total flour. The consistency is exactly what it sounds like: It’s stiff and requires kneading with your hands or in a small mixer. One benefit is it seems to handle warmer ambient temperatures without becoming overly acidic, and it has a larger window of rip

Since there’s no single point when a starter is perfectly ripe, it’s often the case that you use your starter a little early or a little late—and this is okay. However, I find I make better bread (flavor, texture, and overall eating quality) if I err on the side of using my starter when it’s very ripe, rather than underripe. Using your starter when