I will also leave a link at the end of the article for easy access. If you haven’t experienced making your own sourdough starter I have an amazing complete sourdough starter guide, super easy to follow, just for you. Allowing the naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria to feed and grow, successively developing a stable habitat for microbes to persist. Initiated by the simple combination of flour, water, and time. You can think of a sourdough mother, or starter, as the primary stable source of an active leavening agent to be used in any future loaves prepared and baked. Lasting for as long as it is fed – anywhere from weeks and months, to years, decades, and quite possibly, centuries. The main distinction between wild yeast and bacteria preferments and those using commercial yeast is that they can be sustained over a long time, almost indefinitely. Preferments that Contain Naturally Occuring Yeast It is used to give the yeast a jump-off in larger production facilities. It is allowed to ferment anywhere from 2 to 8 hours and it is used to make the bread dough.Ī liquid preferment that doesn’t contain any flour, and consists of water, yeast, and sugar. Yeast is added, and the amount depends on the amount of time it is allowed to ferment – longer fermenting equals less yeast used in the original mixture and vice versa for a shorter fermentation period.Ī sponge preferment consists of a combination of flour, 60-90%, and water, 60-65% to which compressed yeast is added. It adds a nice tangy flavor to your bread.īelieved to be of Polish origin, it’s more on the liquidy side containing equal amounts of water and flour (100% hydration). Being that it is sourced from bread dough, it contains all the basics – flour, salt, water, and yeast – and is allowed to ferment over several hours.Ī personal note on this: we used to use this at our bakery all the time in our rye bread. It is when a fresh batch of dough is being made and then a portion is set aside to be used for the next day’s bread. It’s used mainly by bakeries for ease and flexibility of making multiple batches of dough.Ī French preferment that translates to “fermented dough”. Additionally, yeast and sugar are added to the brew. This type of preferment contains more water than it does flour, making it much more liquidy making it easier to pump. Once formed it is then given the time to ferment from anywhere between 8 and 16 hours at 59 – 68☏ (15 – 20☌). Preferments that Use Commercial Yeast BigaĪ preferment of Italian origin, it is an aged dough using bread flour, a lower hydration level of 50 – 60%, no salt is included, and uses a small quantity of either commercial yeast or fresh yeast. There are two basic types of preferments those that are made with commercial yeast ahead of the final dough and used up completely, and those that are produced with naturally cultured yeasts a.ka sourdough starter, and can be perpetually maintained and increased as needed when making bread. Some preferments are thick and pasty, others are thin and runny. Preferments can be made with commercial yeast or naturally occurring yeasts cultured from the type of flour used. You will find, however, that the terms are often used interchangeably.Īs mentioned above, a preferment is a mixture of flour, water, and yeast cultures that are prepared in advance, by several hours if not a day before, of combining the final dough. In other words, they are one and the same except that the term mother refers to the part of the starter that is continually fed with flour and water, while the levain refers to the part that has been recently fed, and is used in the bread recipe. Working slightly backward to explain this the levain is the portion of sourdough starter that you take to make bread dough, and the mother is the source from which it is taken. A preferment is a combination of flour, water, and yeast which is mixed before the bread dough. the sourdough starter) and the “levain” are a type of preferment. Knowing the difference between a sourdough “mother” and the “levain” is a great place to start.īoth the “mother” (a.k.a. Whether jabbering with fellow sourdough bread enthusiasts or reading the latest, there are sourdough specific terms and methods. Along with the “emotional” investment, there’s a nice learning curve and hand-in-hand with getting into making sourdough bread, is all the jargon. Obviously, it’s not quite the same, but there’s a lot of time, care, maintenance, and feeding that goes into the final product. It’s certainly been said before, but making sourdough really can be likened to taking care of a baby.
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