August 14, 2006 - 12:05pm
My thanks to Floyd!
Floyd,
I'm not usually a 'joiner', but I *had* to join your site.
After reading your lessons, I just made 3 loaves of bread this past weekend, and they all came out good!
The first loaf was an Italian that I baked the same night. The second loaf was the same Italian recipe, but with a biga/starter/sponge, and I baked it the next day. Even better results! The third loaf was a whole wheat loaf. Not as good rise - but still okay tasting! All with King Arthur flour and Kosher salt (and a little honey).
Thank you so much for your website!!!
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Comments
I have started an overnight poolish with as little as 3 _grains_ [1] of instant yeast with good results!
sPh
[1] Colloquial use of "grain" here to mean one of the little round dust specs in the yeast jar, not the jeweller's unit of measure.
The amount of yeast you use will determine, in part, how long a rise you have. If you are going for a slow rise, then you use a much smaller quantity of yeast. Many believe a slow rise results in a tastier loaf. I know I've made an enormous loaf of bread with just 1 tablespoon of sourdough starter, used to inoculate a sponge overnight. I think any quantity of active yeast or starter will ultimately work, it's just a matter of time.
I've also begun to use less and less yeast as I've tried to pull more complex flavors out of my flour. Following the thinking in The Bread Baker's Apprentice, I recently combined the flour and water for a ciabatta poolish and let it sit overnight in the frig. The next day, I added the yeast (a pinch), mixed, let it sit for a while at room temp , and then had it ferment in the frig over night. The resultant bread had terrific oven spring, great flavor and wonderfully big, shiny holes.
Sylvia
In search of the perfect crust & crumb