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I’ve been baking for 5 years and a lot of you are new to it so I wanted to show you my process in case it helps.
I won’t cover starting and maintaining a starter since that’s its own thread, so I’ll assume you have one going, and you (still) have some flour, water, and salt.
I won’t cover starting and maintaining a starter since that’s its own thread, so I’ll assume you have one going, and you (still) have some flour, water, and salt.
First, a bit of theory: When baking bread, things are measured relative to the amount of flour: 100% hydration = same weight of water as flour. 50% hydration = 50% weight of the flour.
Another important prerequisite or big light bread: Your starter needs to be HELLA active.
Another important prerequisite or big light bread: Your starter needs to be HELLA active.
I’ll feed my starter twice a day for two days before using it to bake. You can make delicious bread successfully without it, but what I’m trying to describe is getting big airy bread that’ll make your IG friends jealous
tidbit: Recipes will call for “young” or “mature” starter.
When you first feed your starter, you start a cycle of growth and decline. At the start of growth, it’s “young”, at peak growth, it’s “mature”.
When you first feed your starter, you start a cycle of growth and decline. At the start of growth, it’s “young”, at peak growth, it’s “mature”.
As your starter ages, the yeast produces sour notes which are acidic. This acid will keep building, until it becomes overwhelming, and will actually affect the strength of your gluten network. However, if done right, it’ll also impart delicious sour notes. Navigate this by feel.
You’ll typically take a small amount of mature starter, and feed it. When it is young, you add it to your bread. How do you know when it’s “young”? There’s a thing called the float test: Take a spoonful, plop it in water, if it floats, it indicates enough fermentation activity.
One last thing before we start: You’ll see me here do something called “Autolyse”. It means mixing flour and water without adding yeast and salt. Hydrating flour starts a process that prepares the food for the yeast you’ll add later. It’ll mean a lot more vigorous activity early
...and it means your dough will be more elastic. I don’t really understand this last part, but it’s real. And you do not want to skip this step.
Alright, let’s start with the process:
Alright, let’s start with the process:
I’m gonna pause here and ask, do you want me to continue? There’s a lot more of this.
Ok let me continue. To recap: So far you should have mixed some mature starter with flour and water and put it somewhere warm to ferment until it passes the float test (I’ll show you later). While it’s fermenting, let’s start the autolyse.
Let’s first talk about flour
Let’s first talk about flour
Beyond flavor, different flour will have different: elasticity (how much the gluten stretches), absorption (how much water it drinks up), protein (how strong the gluten is). The mix of flour you use will impact the final loaf in important ways.
I think at this point it’s important to discuss how these variables affect your bread:
Air pockets in bread are contained within walls of gluten. The elasticity, hydration, and strength of those walls define the size/shape of those pockets.
Air pockets in bread are contained within walls of gluten. The elasticity, hydration, and strength of those walls define the size/shape of those pockets.
If you want big airy instagram bread bae bread, you want high protein for strength, high elasticity for stretch, and high hydration to get big holes. If you’re Norwegian and want Rye bread, you’re going to get denser loaves because rye has weak gluten.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, you don’t HAVE to use Bread flour, but it’s like the vanilla ice cream of bread flour. It’s great, but it’s not trying to say anything.
Ok back to baking.
Ok back to baking.
Mix flour and water, and let it rest for at least 30 min, up to a few hours. I like to start autolyse when I prepare the starter, so I autolyse for a few hours until the starter passes the float test.
Here’s the mixing video. Just flour and water, cover and wait. Easy peasy.
This is the float test. Pretty simple. It indicates your yeast is distributed in the Levain (which is what we call it when you mix start with flour and water and use that in your final dough), and is active.
Next is adding the salt, a bit more water to help the salt dissolve, and the yeast.
Now we mix. You want to evenly distribute these ingredients into the dough. Don’t be precious with the dough here.
There’s a bit of art to knowing when you’re ready, but I generally try to look for a breakdown and rebuild of smoothness. 3-5 min usually does it for me.
There’s a bit of art to knowing when you’re ready, but I generally try to look for a breakdown and rebuild of smoothness. 3-5 min usually does it for me.
Doing another check in, anyone following?
Ok let’s continue. Once you’re done mixing, you start the next phase: Bulk fermentation. This is where the yeast is going to start multiplying, growing, expanding your loaf. This process is extremely temperature driven. Think of it this way:
When it comes to fermentation, temperature is your gas pedal. Higher temp, faster fermentation. Lower temp, slower fermentation. I do. 4 hour ferments at 80F. If you ferment at 73F, you’ll have to leave it fermenting longer.
You’ll have to judge when the bread is done bulk fermenting by feel and sight, and that only comes with experience. For a long time, I was afraid to push, and I always under-fermented here. Don’t be afraid of overfermenting a batch. The lesson will be worth it.
The other thing you’ll be doing during bulk fermentation is a series of stretch & folds to build up gluten strength.
4 stretch & folds, spaced 30 minutes apart, first one is 30 min after start of bulk fermenting.
4 stretch & folds, spaced 30 minutes apart, first one is 30 min after start of bulk fermenting.
Stretch and folds are quite simple, just wet your hands, get them under the dough, stretch up until resistance, then fold over. Turn 90 degrees and repeat on all sides. The first two times, you can be a bit rough with it to give it strength, but after you don’t want to degas it.
After another 30 min at a warm temp, second stretch and fold.
Third stretch and fold.
Fourth stretch and fold. Now that we’re done, we just have to let it sit for another 2 hours to complete bulk ferment. I look for signs to know it’s done: Wobbly when I shake, noticeably bigger, air bubbles on top. Over time, you’ll identify signs unique to you and your bowl.
Once your bulk is done, you have to prepare your bannetons. If you don’t have any, just use a regular bowl, but line it with linen cloth, and flour it heavily. For best results, use a banneton, cover it with linen, and generously flour with rice flour.
Then turn the dough over onto a clean, unfloured surface.
Sprinkle with flour. This video is mainly a tip on how to sprinkle flour evenly on the surface which is a useful skill to have when baking
Divide the loaf. With a 1000g of flour recipe, you’ll typically divide it in half, but I wanted smaller loaves, so I’m dividing into quarters. Comfort and confidence with the bench scraper comes with practice.
