Salted or unsalted? Whole or 2 percent? Bittersweet or milk? A walk down the aisle of any supermarket is a stroll across a gamut of choices. There are so many options, in fact, that we’ve had to reduce them to generic categories in order to process them all. Are you going to the store? Yes. Please grab some milk. But in the process of dealing with so many choices, we’ve stripped something away from food and our eating experience, reducing richness, removing character. We’ve discarded the very identity of what we eat and where it comes from. Beyond their contributions of flavor and color, form and function, and behind the anonymity of commodities and wheat futures, “low-fat” and “sugar-free,” ingredients carry stories. Through the lines they weave from where they grow to where they are enjoyed, ingredients tie eaters to makers, bakers to millers, seeds to farmers, sheaves to dirt, and soil to the earth. Use them with care, look for ingredients that have character, find ways to bake your own narrative, get closer to the “what” and “from whom” of what you consume.
Flour, the milled product of wheat or rye, buckwheat, corn, emmer, chickpeas, and countless other grains, beans, legumes, and nuts, is forever in motion. It appears stable, even immobile, like salt in a shaker, but in fact it is far from inert, far from a commodity. Let’s look at the staple flours in my pantry.
WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR: Grind the entire wheat berry, put everything in a bag, and voilà—whole wheat flour. Only a few years ago we had a limited number of national brands to choose from and knew little about what we were buying. These days, bags contain more information (“Hard Red Winter Wheat,” for example) and we have many more options for sources (even local or regional farmers) and single varieties like Turkey Red, Red Fife, or Warthog.
Is Whole Wheat Bitter?
Wheat, like other cereal grasses such as barley, rice, sorghum, and corn, is a seed. It grows in nature inside its own package (the mineral-rich outer casing we call “bran”), with its own food source for the early stages of growth (the starchy protein-rich “endosperm”) and its own set of instructions for growth (the nucleus of the seed, the vitamin-packed “germ”). As long as the “package” hasn’t been opened (milled, in our case), wheat can be stored for a long, long time. However, once it is milled, the clock is ticking—oils contained in the germ will go rancid. This doesn’t happen immediately, but the best place to store any whole-grain flour is in a plastic bag in the freezer.
So, what should whole wheat taste like? Whole wheat should taste mildly sweet with a bran-balanced backbone of flavor, which gently heightens its complexity. In the same way, because of the skin, apples, potatoes, grapes, stone fruits, tomatoes, and many other things we eat are made more enjoyable and complex when enjoyed intact. If your whole wheat tastes “bitter,” check the expiration date to make sure it hasn’t expired.
WHITE WHOLE WHEAT: Wheat comes in colors. White whole wheat, a wheat that contains less pigment in the bran layer and thus has less color, can be substituted for whole wheat in many recipes. The lighter color (and honestly, the more neutral taste) works well in muffins or pancakes and even as a substitute for all-purpose flour in some cases. I rarely use it in bread, however, as I prefer the flavor of hard red winter wheat.
ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: All-purpose flour is wheat flour that has a moderate level of protein (which can translate to strength in the dough environment) and has been sifted to remove the bran and wheat germ. It does not contain leavening such as baking powder or baking soda (by contrast, “self-rising flour” does contain leavening) and should be unbleached and unbromated. Bleaching is entirely unnecessary—natural carotenoid pigments and vitamins are destroyed in the bleaching process—and bromate has been declared a carcinogen and banned in Europe and Canada (though not in the United States). In addition to all-purpose flour, the world of white flour ranges from “high gluten” to “bread flour” to “pastry flour” and “cake flour,” and includes “gluten-free” options. (Note that gluten-free flour blends should be used in recipes designed for gluten-free baking.) The choices are endless and increase almost daily. The recipes in this book use all-purpose flour whenever white flour is called for. High-quality all-purpose is a versatile pinch-hitter with ample strength for bagels, sourdough loaves, pizza, and baguettes and, if handled correctly, has enough tenderness for cookies and biscuits. It is the only white flour I keep in my house, and makes up the vast majority of what we use in the bakery.
WHOLE RYE FLOUR: Whole rye flour, similar to whole wheat flour, is simply the whole rye berry, milled and bagged. Rye, while glutenous, has different proportions and different qualities of the subcomponents (glutenin and gliadin) that combine to form gluten in the moist dough environment. These differing proportions, in combination with other differences from wheat, create very different handling characteristics. Therefore, when mixing, folding, or shaping doughs with a high percentage of rye flour, you will find that they don’t feel stretchy or rubbery in the same way as wheat-based doughs. In fact, the first time you make Wood’s Boiled Cider Bread Citrus Vollkornbrot or Pain de Seigle you may believe something has gone terribly wrong as the dough will seem more like a stiff quick bread batter than your regular elastic, supple, wheat-based doughs.
Whole Grain and Balance
Have you seen “fat-free” and “sugar-free,” “low-carb” and “high-fiber,” and the other dietary trends that pass through town, each promising better health and longevity? If you believe the hype, eating less real food and more chemical sweeteners, thickeners, artificial flavors, colors, and additives will make us healthier. But how could that be? Here’s an alternative: Buy whole ingredients such as flour, butter, dried beans, rice, quinoa, fresh vegetables, meats, eggs, and cheese. Prepare them yourself and eat in moderation. Foods that are unprocessed and minimally transformed from their living state are full of nutrition, natural fiber, flavor, and beauty. In the summer, a green salad with a side of beans or a piece of sausage from Sunrise Farm and a white flour baguette—this is a balanced meal. I don’t have to be a zealot about the fiber content of my bread; it fits within the context of my web of food. If all that I eat is white bread, then, yes, bread should shoulder more of the nutritional burden. White bread fits within my diet, balanced by other sources of fiber. When I use whole grains I don’t concentrate on their fiber contribution as much as I think about their flavor. Keep it simple, keep yourself healthy, and stick to the straighter path that passes right through your own hands and homemade products.
Beyond Wheat and Rye
In addition to the old favorites whose names you know, there are a wide variety of niche grains that can be purchased whole, milled into flour, or rolled into flakes like rolled oats. The bulk section of your local food store or co-op can be a great place to find grains such as emmer, spelt, Khorasan, sorghum, einkorn, and others, which may offer new inspiration. You may also find unique local and regional sources. Furthermore, bulk sections often offer grains and flour, and even high-quality spices, at significant savings when compared with a similar quantity of prepackaged flour or spices. So branch out whenever possible—try spelt instead of whole wheat in a scone, try wheat from a local producer, substitute whole rye for whole wheat in pancakes, or mix it half and half with buckwheat flour, and so forth. Not only are these ways to explore new flavors and enrich our palates, but reaching for alternative grains is a way to support farmers and the environment by creating a financial incentive for growing crops that can be planted in rotation with our staple wheat crops.
Sourcing
One could practically traverse the state of Vermont by leaping from farmers’ markets to CSAs all the way across. CSA, which stands for “community-supported agriculture,” is a system in which consumers pay a farm directly, up front, for a season of produce, meat, eggs, cheese, or even bread. It helps farmers plan and buy seed, and it allows us to get closer to our food providers. In addition to feeding us, the tables of produce at farmers’ markets and the distribution bins at CSA pickups offer a learning opportunity. Availability shows what is frost-hardy and what is not. What are early-season greens and what will fill our bellies in June? When can we pick our first bushel of apples or buy winter squash? I moved to Vermont lacking this awareness—we had big gardens when I was growing up, but the years had eroded all but the memory of gathering horse manure and walking behind the tiller. In New York City our supermarkets carried red tomatoes year-round—a constant supply—from Mexico, Florida, or California. Much can be said about whether this system is a problem or not, but it’s clear that the tomatoes don’t taste better when they are designed for traveling, not eating.
WATER: Our municipal water here in rural Vermont is described as “hard,” or mineral-rich. It is chlorinated, but it works fine for starting new sourdough cultures as well as in making all types of bread. If you find some difficulty with starting a sourdough culture, you might try using spring water instead of tap water. Some municipalities treat tap water with chloramine, which will not dissipate and may interfere with the growing culture.
SALT: I don’t spend any time fretting about sea salt versus table salt, iodized versus hand-gathered, and on and on. Save the special stuff with the high price tag for sprinkling on fresh tomatoes or other uses where the flavor may be noticed and appreciated. The important thing to know is that different salts—kosher versus table salt, for example—have different densities, so a teaspoon of table salt weighs more than a teaspoon of kosher. For this book, use table salt or fine sea salt for all recipes. Everything has been written and tested with that density in mind. If you must use kosher salt, use the gram measurements for most accurate results.
YEAST: Over the past decade, yeast options and methods have changed. In addition to active dry yeast we now have a version called “instant,” which can be mixed with dry ingredients without first hydrating (sometimes referred to as blooming). In the array of things that can push bread from good to better or best, the type of yeast used is actually low on the list. Skilled bakers understand that handling dough, fermentation, shaping, and baking are the components that affect outcomes more than yeast, more than secret recipes, and more than special flour. The most important consideration with yeast is that it be of good quality and within the expiration period. Recipes in this book have been written and tested with instant dry yeast. It is quick to start and needs only dough moisture to activate. Active dry yeast may be used, but it is slower and should be hydrated in a very small amount of warm water before use. Adding it directly to the flour without hydrating is chancy at best.
If one sets a course for flavorful bread, many roads will lead to the land of “naturally leavened,” also known as “sourdough” or “levain” bread making. Even among professional bakers, these terms, which essentially refer to bread made with a leavening culture, can be a source of confusion. Let’s get a little clarity about what the culture is and then look at the terms.
The leavening culture —which I call “sourdough culture”— that we use in bread begins with a mixture of flour and water. In the fields, many, many strains of yeast and bacteria collect on the surface of grains, then make their way through the milling process into our flour. When flour is hydrated (when water is added) yeast cells wake up and metabolize sugars, producing carbon dioxide (which makes our bread rise!) as well as alcohols and esters as by-products. At this time, bacteria present in the flour also get to work, utilizing the broad range of nutrients present, including maltose, and produce organic acids such as lactic and acetic acid as by-products.
All of this happens naturally; add flour and water to a bowl, stir, wait, and voilà. No hunting parties go out to capture wild yeast in the air; there is no hocus-pocus; the actors are present in the flour, and the stage is set. Over the course of a few days and feedings where a portion of the young fermenting mixture is replaced with fresh flour and water, dominant players will multiply and muscle to the fore-front as the culture moves toward stability and symbiosis. The developing mixture can be referred to as a SCOBY, a symbiotic colony (a community really, as there are diverse strains) of bacteria and yeast. Our diet is replete with examples of SCOBYs, from the drink kombucha to vinegars and kefir, a fermented milk drink.
The terms naturally leavened (meaning no commercial yeast) and levain are also used to refer to sourdough culture. Naturally leavened is misleading as bread made with commercially produced yeast isn’t necessarily unnatural. Levain is the French word for “leaven.” The point of all this is that bread made with a leavening culture is more flavorful.
Cultures may be acquired from a variety of sources, including friends who are active bakers, local bakeries, and mail-order websites (many offer a starter culture for $5 to $10). Or, as I describe below, you can make a culture yourself. There are benefits to acquiring an established culture, but a new one can be made cheaply and easily over the course of about a week, so why not start your own? The satisfaction is worth the time and effort. Ultimately, the important thing is that you get the culture whether by mail order, friendship, bribery, or simply stirring and waiting.
If you’d like to try the stir-and-wait method, keep reading.
In basic terms, to build a sourdough culture, combine measured quantities of whole rye flour (I prefer organic) and water, then wait while things begin to grow. You do not need to wave the open container about, hoping to “catch” anything; you do not need to add exotic juice or grapes or sugar or yeast or get any fancier than the product of these two ingredients plus time. Everything you need is already in the flour. Mix the flour and water at regular intervals and discard a portion of the growing culture (to keep it from taking over your kitchen) during the course of about five days. After it becomes active it won’t need to be fed with the high-octane rye flour; you will switch to all-purpose for slightly better control and predictability. For starting the culture, I recommend whole rye flour as it contains ample nutrients for the growing culture.
DAY ONE
Combine the rye flour and the tepid water (75°F to 80°F). Mix until homogeneous.
Leave in a warm spot (70°F to 80°F) for 24 hours, covered with a lid.
| INGREDIENTS | VOLUMETRIC (APPROXIMATE) | METRIC (GRAMS) | BAKER’S% |
| Organic whole rye flour | scant 1 cup | 100 | 100% |
| Water | ⅓ cup + 2 teaspoons | 100 | 100% |
| Total Weight | All | 200 | 200% |
NOTE: To slightly hasten the establishment of your young starter, give it a stir once or twice a day in addition to feedings. This aeration will promote the process of yeast multiplication.
DAY TWO
It is unlikely that the culture will show activity after 24 hours. If it does, the activity will present as very small, pinprick bubbles.
Discard all but 100 grams of the starter and add 50 grams each of rye flour and the tepid water. Mix until homogeneous.
Leave in a warm spot (70°F to 80°F) for 24 hours, covered with a lid.
| INGREDIENTS | VOLUMETRIC (APPROXIMATE) | METRIC (GRAMS) | BAKER’S% |
| Sourdough culture | heaping ⅓ cup | 100 | 200% |
| Organic whole rye flour | scant ½ cup | 50 | 100% |
| Water | 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons | 50 | 100% |
| Total Weight | All | 200 | 400% |
Feeding Sourdough
To make the process of discarding and feeding simpler, here’s a trick if you are using a digital scale. When it is time for a feeding, put your container of starter (containing 200 grams) on your scale and tare it (the scale will read 0).
Remove 100 grams of starter (the scale will read -100), then add 50 grams of water (the scale will now read -50) and then 50 grams of flour (the scale will be back to 0). This will save you the trouble of washing the container each time.
DAY THREE TO DAY FIVE (TWICE PER DAY)
By day three, activity should be present. A thriving culture will have small, wispy bubbles (resembling soap bubbles) on the surface; a less active culture will have small pinholes. In either case, continue!
In order to keep up with the activity, the feedings now increase to twice a day.
Discard all but 100 grams at every feeding. Add 50 grams each of rye flour and the tepid water. Mix until homogeneous.
Leave in a warm spot (70°F to 80°F) for 12 hours, covered with a lid.
| INGREDIENTS | VOLUMETRIC (APPROXIMATE) | METRIC (GRAMS) | BAKER’S% |
| Sourdough culture | ⅓ cup | 100 | 200% |
| Organic whole rye flour | scant ½ cup | 50 | 100% |
| Water | 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons | 50 | 100% |
| Total Weight | All | 200 | 400% |
After two full days of this routine (the morning of the sixth day after you began the culture), the culture should be bubbly and thriving. When you remove the cover the smell should be slightly sharp, grassy, even sweet. If it is active but still has only pinprick bubbles, continue for two more days with the twice-a-day feeding schedule.
Once the culture is active you will convert it from its diet of whole rye flour over to all-purpose flour. All-purpose flour has fewer nutrients (remember that the bran and germ are removed). As a result, a starter made with all-purpose flour will be slightly less active, and the characteristics of all-purpose wheat flour that enable it to trap gas and rise in a measurable fashion will help you to better determine its activity level.
At home I maintain a stiff sourdough culture, feeding according to the table below. I keep my starter in a jar, which is round with straight sides—an old peanut butter jar, to be exact. To feed, I place the jar on the scale and tare it (the scale will read 0), then remove 80 grams of starter (the scale will read –80), then add 30 grams of water (after which the scale will read –50). Using a butter knife, I briefly stir the water and culture to combine, then add 50 grams of flour (which will return the scale to 0). Then I stir, making sure to incorporate all of the mixture, moving it around until it is homogeneous. Once it is mixed, I push down the starter with the knife to even it slightly and I put a rubber band at a spot that marks the height of the starter in the jar. In 12 hours the stiff starter should at least double. Knowing my starting mark is a great tool and aid for assessing the activity and health of my sourdough.
Stiff starter maintenance amounts:
| INGREDIENTS | VOLUMETRIC (APPROXIMATE) | METRIC (GRAMS) | BAKER’S% |
| Sourdough culture | heaping 1 tablespoon | 20 | 40% |
| All-purpose flour | ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons | 50 | 100% |
| Water | 2 tablespoons | 30 | 60% |
| Total Weight | All | 100 | 400% |
Refrigerating Culture
There are times when it is necessary to pause the sourdough feeding regimen. Maybe life gets in the way, maybe you’re going to Hawaii, maybe you can’t put the groceries down because BREAD IS COVERING THE WHOLE COUNTER! It happens. It’s happened to me. And good news: it’s possible to pause.
Culture storage can take a few forms; here are some options.
To store in the fridge, give a normal maintenance feeding, let the culture sit for an hour or so, then chill for up to a week. To revive it, put it on the regular schedule of two feedings per day until it at least doubles in a 12-hour period. For longer storage, thinly spread about 60 grams (¼ cup or so) of ripe culture on a piece of parchment paper and dry it at room temperature. After it’s fully dry break it into small pieces and store in a dry place until your money runs out in Hawaii, life stops happening, or people start saying, “Hey, remember when you used to make all that great bread? What happened?” Revive it by soaking the sourdough chips in a small quantity of water until softened, then mix them into the amounts of flour and water called for in the regular feeding schedule and continue, feeding twice per day until fully revived.
One additional long-term option, which Judson Smith of Brimfield Bread Oven says is the fastest way to revive, is as follows. Take 28 grams of ripe culture (2 heaping tablespoons) and knead in flour until the mixture is so dry that it crumbles into small bits. This mixture can be stored in a dry location until mullet hairstyles are cool again, or maybe longer. To revive (the culture, not the mullet), add water to hydrate, forming a dough-consistency mixture. After 12 hours begin normal maintenance feeds until full strength returns (meaning the culture doubles in 12 hours).
“Well begun is half-done.”
Before we can bake, we need to measure ingredients, and the most accurate way to do so is by weight. If ten people scoop a cup of flour, the results will vary wildly. Some will pack the flour, others will sprinkle it into a cup measure, then scrape off the excess; others will fluff the flour in the bag before scooping—no two results will be the same. Can you imagine the problems if approximate measurements were used in woodworking or carpentry, plumbing or surgery? The cup measure is the cubit of baking.
But it is easy to fix this inconsistency. If we measure with a scale that is accurate to the gram (a smaller unit of measurement than the ounce), and ask the same people to measure 500 grams of flour, all will measure 500 grams. No error, no variance. In this sense you and I may have a conversation. I can ask for 500 grams in a recipe and that is what you will measure. Our communication is direct and the scale, the baker’s measuring tool, is our $15 communication device.
A few advisories regarding scales: Scales, which are reasonably priced and available for the home market, can be inaccurate for very small amounts. Ingredients that fall within this range are high impact. Make a mistake measuring salt, yeast, baking powder, or cayenne, and the results may be disastrous. For these amounts I advise that you check the accuracy of your scale using either calibration weights or, more simply, a nickel. A nickel weighs 5 grams and works well as a calibration weight or as a simple test of accuracy. There are two other options. First, in addition to your scale with a capacity of roughly 5 kilograms (in 1-gram increments), you may want to purchase a second scale that measures in 0.1-gram increments up to 100 grams. Such scales are quite inexpensive and perfect for measuring small amounts of baking powder, salt, yeast, or baking soda. Second, you may switch to the volumetric column for amounts below about 20 grams. A level measure of salt, yeast, baking powder, or baking soda will have little variance when compared with multiple cups of flour, which return a considerable range of variance.
Reading Recipes
Many of the recipes in this book should look relatively familiar, with the possible exception that in addition to cups and teaspoons (what we call “Volumetric” amounts), you will also see metric ingredient quantities in a column labeled “Metric” (Grams). The gram is a metric unit of measurement. To put the gram in perspective, there are 28.35 grams in an ounce and 454 grams in a pound.
In addition to the columns for grams and volumetric quantities you will notice that ingredients are sometimes but not always listed in the order of use. So, for Oma’s Pie Crust the ingredients list begins with flour and salt; then come the butter and, last, the water. But (and this will require a little explaining— bear with me!), when we get to bread recipes, the order of the ingredients changes slightly to follow the norms of what we call “baker’s math.” In baker’s math (see Baker’s Math for an in-depth explanation), ingredients are listed according to a hierarchy that places flour(s) first, then water (or hydration), and follows with the remaining ingredients, in descending order of percentage. For the order of use, simply follow the step-by-step instructions included with each recipe. Further, in the bread recipes in the book, there is an additional column with percentages, labeled “Baker’s %,” which relates to baker’s math. Again, all is explained in the baker’s math section, so read on!
Measuring. Baking Is Not Cooking
It’s my night to make dinner. Time is limited and I decide on pasta as my kids will eat almost anything that can adhere itself to slippery noodles. I look in the fridge for ingredients. Hmmm . . . some greens . . . a half package of smoked bacon, a bit of cream, walnuts, garlic, fresh herbs from the garden . . . and the journey to dinner begins. On inspection, my greens look best suited for the compost bucket so I step to the garden and snip some broccoli leaves. I toast the walnuts in a dry pan over low heat while I cube and sauté the bacon, add garlic to the sputtering fat and bloom it, then add julienned broccoli leaves and boiled pasta with some of its water. I reduce briefly, add a little cream at the end, and toss in a nice bowl with the chopped herbs and toasted walnuts. Add hard cheese for garnish and a generous grinding of freshly cracked pepper. Dinner. Not a straight line, more riffing than measuring, a side step, a hop and a skip, making it up as I go; I love this.
But this is not baking. Baking is building a stone wall that curves to a row of trees or borders a flower bed. Orderly natural elements marry with measurements as form and order, chaos and proportion combine. Bakers look on function and form the way woodworkers do, delighting in grain and stain, in four legs that kiss the ground evenly. In order for the legs to be equal the woodworker needs precision: measure twice, cut once. Maybe even measure three times and count the sixteenths if you are as accurate as I am with a saw, not in order to be more uptight, but in order to be better. All of the woodworker’s love for design, color, wood choice, and texture is irrelevant if the table doesn’t stand squarely, for measurements enable creative space. Set a proper foundation, then play. For additional information, see Measuring Ingredients.
Did you ever forget the salt in your bread or the eggs in chocolate chip cookies? Did you make pizza dough and leave out the yeast, or forget the baking powder in your pancakes? It happens to all of us, professionals and home bakers alike. In working on this book I’ve been surprised by how challenging it can be to work with focus and accuracy at home. It doesn’t take more than a momentary distraction for attention to slip and the next thing you know a batch of bread may be headed for the waste bin or compost. But this is a relatively easy problem to fix (not the dough in the trash, the one before that when you forgot the yeast!).
Here are a couple of tips:
WORK SPACE: Before you begin, clear your countertop or work space of extraneous items. Gather necessary tools and all the ingredients required for what you will make. This mise en place, or “putting in place,” helps us to set the stage for accurate work.
READ THE RECIPE: Before you begin, read the entire recipe. Some recipes are multiple-day processes; others can be completed in less than an hour. Some contain pointers to other sections that will provide important tips, techniques, or methods for baking your best. Trust me, it’s worth the five minutes it will take.
INGREDIENTS: While measuring and adding ingredients do what we do in the bakery and check off each item as you go. If you don’t want to write in the book place a sheet protector over the page and use a dry-erase marker or grease pen to give a hash mark to each item, checking it off as it is used. Refer to the recipe as you proceed, confirming that you are on track.
What is “baker’s math”? Simply explained, baker’s math is a system that helps bakers identify and discuss ingredient ratios. In this system, the total amount of flour in a recipe is weighed and represented as 100%. Against that 100%, the weights of other ingredients are compared, returning a percentage value that is a proportion of the flour weight. If we have 1,000 grams of flour, 750 grams of water, 20 grams of salt, and 10 grams of yeast, we can say that the ingredient proportions (expressed in baker’s math) look like this:
FLOUR: 100%
WATER: 75%
SALT: 2%
YEAST: 1%
If we add up these percentages, the sum is referred to as “Total Dough Percentage.” In the example, our Total Dough Percentage is 178%.
In the early stages of a baker’s growth, the value of baker’s math is relatively low. But as we gain experience and compare recipes, we begin to notice differences with our hands and eyes and also on the page. The Poolish Baguette for example, has 68% hydration whereas the Straight Baguette has 75% hydration. Baker’s math will help you compare apples with apples, giving insight into exact differences and similarities. Furthermore, and perhaps most important, learning these ratios and seeing them quantified by baker’s math will also enable the baker to make minute adjustments and eventually lead to the ability to write his or her own recipes.
In the bread formulas in the book, the place to see total ratios and quantities is the table, included with each formula, identified as Total Formula. The Total Formula is the list of all ingredients and amounts that go into what you are making.
Let me explain. Most breads include subcomponents—a grain soaker or a preferment, for example—that come together with the remaining ingredients in the final mix. The Total Formula allows us to see the big picture. The sub-recipes guide us through the preparation of subcomponents such as the soaker or preferments.
In the SunSeed Total Formula we see that the total amount of water is 76% of flour weight, salt is 2.5%, sunflower seeds are 15%, and so forth. These are total amounts of the respective ingredients. Below the Total Formula are sub-recipes for a stiff levain (which uses some flour and water as well as the sourdough culture; all are incorporated as part of the Total Formula) and for prepared grits.
Below the sub-recipes there is another table, called “Final Dough.”
In the Final Dough table, remaining ingredients and sub-recipes come together for the mix.
In addition to highlighting ingredient ratios within a formula, baker’s math also helps us to identify the amount of “prefermented flour” in recipes. Prefermented flour is flour that is fermented in advance of the final mix, thus the term “preferment.” Preferments are discussed more fully in the Fermentation section that follows.
Bad Bread
Most bread produced in factory bakeries in the industrialized world is made without the critical step of fermentation. Instead, fermentation has been swapped out and replaced with chemicals. Dough conditioners, flavorings, processing aids, gums, fats, and additives are all used in an attempt to save one precious thing, time. If measured by output, the factories are quite good at it, even masterful. They mix, shape, and bake a loaf (tens of thousands, actually) in less than one hour, start to finish. A baker using traditional methods and actual fermentation may take up to 72 hours.
But what is the cost of saving this time? It depends on who you ask. My opinion is that fermented foods, from cheese to cured meats, pickled vegetables to soaked grains, are all made more delicious and, in many cases, more digestible and nutritious, with time. Perhaps the dietary trends that have placed bread and other carbohydrates in the crosshairs would lose their targets if more of what we ate was made with time and integrity. That’s not to say that the news is all bad— across the country, more and more communities find themselves with bakers and bakeries in their midst, making great bread, which takes longer and tastes better.
Setting a proper course for awesome.
Fermentation happens when yeast (tiny single-celled fungi, related to mushrooms and molds) and bacteria (the most common organisms on earth) break down sugars, producing carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. Historically we have had little view into these microscopic activities, yet we have always been intimately linked to their by-products—in fact, we love them. Grapes, gathered and pressed, will naturally ferment into wine that can be stored without spoiling until next year’s harvest. Barley and other grains have a similar eagerness to do something. Once they are moistened, enzymatic processes kick into action and the grains sprout: it is their entire purpose. During sprouting, the sugar content climbs as long starch chains contained in the endosperm of the grain are enzymatically unzipped, freeing food for growth, germination, and fermentation.
Preferments
Well-made bread is a fermented food that often begins with a “preferment,” hours before the final dough is mixed. Preferments are made with a portion of the total flour from our recipe, to which we add water and yeast or sourdough culture. Such a mixture ferments, developing flavors that transfer to the final loaf. A preferment acts like a bouillon cube or a marinade. Different ratios of flour and water and different types of leavening make unique flavor contributions; some are forceful, others present themselves with more finesse, but all bring complexity and flavor.
The common preferments can be divided into four large categories with “Yeasted” on one side (meaning that fermentation is initiated with commercial yeast) and “Sourdough” or “Naturally Leavened” (meaning that fermentation is initiated with sourdough culture) on the other. The two other categories are formed by a dividing line between liquid and stiff hydrations, with each hydration enabling different flavor profiles and handling characteristics.
PREFERMENTS, HYDRATIONS
| YEASTED | SOURDOUGH, OR NATURALLY LEAVENED | |
| Liquid 100% to 125% hydration | Poolish | Liquid Levain |
| Stiff ~55 to 88% hydration (see Note) | Pâte Fermentée, Biga | Stiff Levain,Rye Sourdough |
Note: Most will fall into the 55% to 66% hydration range, with Rye Sourdough being the exception at 85% to 88% hydration.
POOLISH: Poolish is a yeasted liquid preferment whose origin is attributed to Polish bakers. It is commonly used in baguettes and other French breads. Poolish imparts a yeasty aroma, gentle acidity, and extensibility. In lay terms, extensibility refers to the ease with which a dough can be gently stretched. No stretching— no long, crispy baguettes! Poolish, in baker’s math, is hydrated at 100% to 125% hydration. It is “ripe,” or ready for use, when its volume has doubled and it is bubbly. You may also notice shallow fissure lines running across the surface.
BIGA: Biga is a stiff yeasted preferment, common in the breads of Italy. Biga contributes strength and a unique floral aroma to breads such as ciabatta. Biga, in baker’s math, is hydrated at 55% to 60% hydration. It is ready for use when its volume has at least doubled and the top surface is slightly rounded.
PÂTE FERMENTÉE: Pâte fermentée, literally translated from the French as “fermented dough,” is a stiff preferment that contains salt. It is essentially dough saved from the previous day’s mix. While poolish is mild mannered, pâte fermentée brings a more assertive fermentation flavor and a set of dough biceps for strength. Pâte fermentée, in baker’s math, is 60% to 68% hydration. It is ready for use when its volume has doubled and the top surface is convex or rounded.
LIQUID LEVAIN: Liquid levain (levain is the French word for “leaven”) is a liquid sourdough preferment. Liquid levain adds mild lactic acidity. It is a common preferment in professional bakeries as it is easily mixed and portioned. Large bakeries even have jacketed tank fermenters that agitate the liquid and use time and temperature controls to regulate activity. Liquid levain, in baker’s math, is 100% to 125% hydration. It is ready for use when filled with large and small bubbles. The surface will have shallow fissures, and small, sudsy bubbles will be present.
STIFF LEVAIN: Stiff levain is a stiff sourdough preferment. Stiff levain adds strength and acidity and pairs well with the mineral flavor qualities of whole-grain breads and sourdough loaves. Stiff levain, in baker’s math, is hydrated at 60% to 68% hydration. It is ready for use when its volume has doubled and the top surface is convex or rounded. I often add salt to a stiff levain that contains whole-grain flour. The increase in fermentation rate that would otherwise be a result of using whole-grain flour in the levain is slowed back down to normal by the addition of the salt.
RYE SOURDOUGH: Rye sourdough is a stiff sourdough preferment that is fed with whole rye flour. Rye sourdough adds strong acidity, a requirement for well-performing breads containing a high percentage of rye flour. It has a unique grassy, bright quality. Rye sourdough, in baker’s math, is usually hydrated around 85% to 88% hydration. If hydrated in this range it will be ready when the top is slightly domed but not collapsed. Note that Wood’s Boiled Cider Bread uses a sourdough with a higher hydration that won’t necessarily “dome.”
The list of grains that can be fermented and put in bread extends to just about every combination of everything under the sun. The list above addresses common scenarios, traditional hydrations, and leaveners. I encourage you to explore other routes once these elements become familiar. Add whole-grain flour to your liquid levain, make a poolish with rye or buckwheat, try a pâte fermentée with spelt, or ferment rice flour and see how it tastes. Play, invent, create. Sometimes you will stumble across a winner; at other times you will keep moving (as I did after my seaweed bread with sesame-miso crust!). But note: Every change has consequences, a cause and effect that will require all senses. Watch, taste, touch, learn, listen, and enjoy.
Good bakers are much more than just bakers. Before anything can be shaped, baked, or eaten, we guide, coddle, and nurture fermentation through the manipulation of dough temperature. It used to be that “water the temperature of bath water” was close enough, regardless of how hot you like your bath, or how hot the house is, or if your flour is kept in the fridge or freezer. If we want more consistent results, consistent fermentation is key. By starting doughs in a controlled temperature range, we can be on our way to good fermentation and great bread. In order to control fermentation, bakers adjust water temperature. Of all the factors contributing to temperature in the dough environment, water temperature is the easiest to control because adjustment can be made at the tap by selecting hot, warm, or cold and specific temperatures in between. Flour is generally already at room temperature, as are other elements.
In order to determine the proper water temperature, we use a method called desired dough temperature, or DDT. We measure the temperature of three to four factors which, when calculated together, get us close to the water temperature required for mixing. The factors are as follows:
1. Flour (the temperature of all flours that will be included in the final mix; you may ignore salt and yeast)
2. Air (a measurement of ambient conditions where the dough will ferment)
3. Water (the easiest factor for us to adjust, also a major ingredient)
4. Preferments (poolish, biga, liquid levain, etc.)
Most breads in this book have three to four factors. Ciabatta which has a biga, might look like this in my kitchen:
FLOUR: 62°F
AIR: 62°F
PREFERMENT: 65°F
Next, check the desired dough temperature, DDT. In the case of Ciabatta, my DDT is 76°F (most doughs in this book and in professional bakeries will fall between 74°F and 82°F). If all factors (flour, air, preferment, and water) measure 76°F and we average them, the average is 76°F. But in our example, in order for the average to equal 76°F, we need to warm the water.
In order to determine the water number, we first:
Multiply 76 times the number of factors (4 factors for Ciabatta). That equals 304.
Next, subtract flour temperature (62), air temperature (62), and preferment temperature (65) from 304. So, 304 – 62 – 62 – 65 = 115°F. Therefore, 115°F is the water temperature required to give us an average of 76°F when we combine all ingredients.
One additional note regarding doughs that have much of their water (even all in some cases) tied up in preferments, soakers, or other sub-ingredients, leaving little water for the final mix. In these cases the final flour, soakers, and other components should be left in a spot that measures as closely as possible to your desired dough temperature. So, on top of the fridge, or in a warm spot in winter and in a cooler location in warm months.
Professional bakers additionally calculate to determine the friction generated by mechanical mixers. However, most of the doughs in this book are mixed by hand only to incorporation, which generates little to no heat.
Dough Temperature and the Goldilocks Zone
If you tried reading Setting Temperatures to learn how to guide your dough temperature but all the technical talk was dumping a bucket of cold water on your baking fervor, here is a shortcut that will get you pretty close.
In broad strokes we want your dough to rise at a rate that favors flavor and form; not too fast, not too slow, the Goldilocks zone of yeasted goodness. The easiest way to make this happen is to adjust the water temperature for your mix.
Here’s how you do it:
First, find the desired dough temperature (DDT) for your recipe; most are 76° to 78°F. For instance, Mama’s Bread has a DDT of 76°F.
Next, make an educated guess about the average temperature of the flour and air in your kitchen. Let’s say your flour is sitting on the counter and the kitchen is about 70°F. So our average temperature number will be 70°F; it’s close enough.
Now, go to the 76°F table below and find your kitchen temperature in the “Average Temperature” column. You’ll see that next to your 70°F in the “Water Should Be” column it says 88°F. Therefore, your water for this mix should be 88°F, or if you don’t have a thermometer, use water that feels neutral or barely cool to your hand.
| DDT 76°F | DDT 78°F | DDT 80°F | |||
| AVERAGE TEMPERATURE | WATER SHOULD BE | AVERAGE TEMPERATURE | WATER SHOULD BE | AVERAGE TEMPERATURE | WATER SHOULD BE |
| 60 | 108 | 60 | 114 | 60 | 120 |
| 62 | 104 | 62 | 110 | 62 | 116 |
| 64 | 100 | 64 | 106 | 64 | 112 |
| 66 | 96 | 66 | 102 | 66 | 108 |
| 68 | 92 | 68 | 98 | 68 | 104 |
| 70 | 88 | 70 | 94 | 70 | 100 |
| 72 | 84 | 72 | 90 | 72 | 96 |
| 74 | 80 | 74 | 86 | 74 | 92 |
| 76 | 76 | 76 | 82 | 76 | 88 |
| 78 | 72 | 78 | 78 | 78 | 84 |
| 80 | 68 | 80 | 74 | 80 | 80 |
As you grow from basic breads to more complicated recipes, I recommend closely following the instructions in Setting Temperatures for best results.
