difference between sponge/biga/poolish and bulk retardation?
I am not an experienced baker.... I have found in my dabbling though, that if I give the dough a rise at room temperature, deflate it and another rise in the fridge overnight (or longer), then shaped, proofed and baked, the bread is much improved. Actually in my home, there is no comparison in the flavor and also texture of a bread that got that second rise for many hours in the cold vs one that had only one rise at room temperature. Even when I give two rises at room temperature it does not compare. This is true for sandwich type breads and artisinal breads. Even with much acclaimed recipes that give directions for one rise, I have taken a chance and added the long ON second rise in the fridge and the bread improves significantly.
I have never made a bread so far that starts out with a starter where a portion of the ingredients, flour, yeast, liquid, are mixed and allowed to go for a long time and then made into a dough with the balance of ingredients into a dough, proofed, shaped, final proof and baked.
Long intro to ask the question is there something super duper special that happens when you create a starter (like a sponge or biga or poolish) for the texture and flavor of the bread that cannot be accomplished with the kind of bulk retardation that I have been doing? Or they both achieve the same characteristics? If there is a difference what is it?
I want to grow a bit in my bread baking and am wondering what your experience is. If I were to merge the ingredients in a 'starter' recipe and make it into a 'mix all at once' recipe and give it bulk retardation would my bread turn out quite similar?
Thank you
The reasons for a biga and poolish is to improve flavour and texture of the loaf.
Both are preferments where biga has the hydration more like a dough and poolish is high hydration like a sponge.
Bulk ferment is done at the final dough stage to improve the crumb and flavour but the flavour of a preferment is much more pronounced. It still needs to be done even if you have used a biga or polish to get a good structure for final loaf.
There is actually a "method" or steps to breadmaking that describes the process that helps standardize the vocabulary.
http://bakingstories.blogspot.com/p/12-steps.html
Bulk fermentation is the primary rise phase.-usually of a straight through dough. The final fermentation or proofing is another phase and is done just prior to baking. One of the most confusing aspects of using a world-wide site of people is we all use words a bit differently. Nobody is wrong or better or inherently right- it just helps to clarify so we don't talk at cross-purposes.
Biga-poolish-chef-mother-sourdough are all words sometimes used interchangeably. These were developed before commercial yeast was available and were the only source of yeast available. The name usually depends on what part of the world or country you live in. They have the same purpose (a source of yeast)but are made differently and look different from each other.
A preferment is a method where a portion of dough is mixed (with yeast included it) and allowed to ferment before mixing in the rest of the flour and ingredients to make the actual dough. Some bakers mix only flour,water and yeast in a preferment. Others mix a "sponge" which may have more ingredients in it (dairy,etc). This can be done with any form of yeast, natural or commercial. By allowing this to ferment for a period of time before mixing it into the dough (hence the term pre-ferment), it allows a lot of by-products of fermentation to develop which is where the flavor of bread comes from. In the next stage, after the pre-ferment and dough ingredients are mixed and kneaded, the dough is allowed to bulk ferment. Like a fine wine-dough needs time to develop and sometimes it needs more time than a straight-thru breadmaking process allows. Using a preferment of some kind gives a dough a flavor boost. It is a shortcut to flavor that is easier to control. However, good flavor can be obtained from a proper bulk fermentation given the correct dough temp,yeast activity and time. It just takes longer and is harder to control the variables in a home kitchen-most notably dough temperature.
Perhaps closer to an answer in your last paragraph:
Your bread would be deliciously flavorful if you did a straight through method with 1 bulk fermentation if you controlled the temperature of the ingredients and dough temp (DT) at every step of the process. You would need to maintain a steady temp during mixing, kneading, bulk fermentation, shaping, resting and proofing for max. flavor development.
OR
Use other, simpler, methods (a preferment, autolyze, retardation) to encourage flavor development that are not quite so fussy.
Not quite on topic but rather interesting read. I was searching for the stages of breadmaking and found this article on stages of bread production and how/why the different methods produce commercial "marshmallow" bread (my term for store-bought). It is more applicable than you think for homemade bread.
http://www.world-grain.com/News/Archive/Breadmaking-processes.aspx?cck=1
Retardation and autolyze are other methods of flavor development by manipulating the time of fermentation and hydration of the flour particles to affect the flavor and crumb characteristics.
Bread is so simple and can be so complicated. Every baker should strive to make the simplest bread that is enjoyable to make and delicious to eat.
Bake some delicious fun!
As I see it, both preferment's and cold retardation's main benefits are to give the amylase enzymes time to develop and break sugar out of the starch. That way there is a reserve of sugar available for the yeast so that some is left over to flavor the bread after the yeast has done its job of rising the bread. That's why preferments and retardations are so useful for lean breads, breads made from just flour, water, salt and yeast. The enriched breads with added milk, sugar, etc already have plenty of sugar available, so these two techniques don't make much difference with them.
My guess is that you could convert a preferment recipe to a cold retardation recipe and get similar results. The only way to prove it is to try it. I'm sure you would get a good loaf, either way.
Ditto all the above. For me the key benefit of a pre-ferment is I can make it Wednesday, let it rise and then stick it in the fridge until the weekend when I decide what to make with it. (With a pate fermentee I might check to be sure it doesn't over-rise in the fridge, but once it's cold it usually behaves.) The pre-ferment improves with time. By contrast retarding the bulk rise or final proof can be a little more unpredictable: sometimes it takes longer than expected; it is also possible to over-proof it you're not attentive. But there's nothing wrong with the method described in the OP.
Dear friends, all of you, thank you for taking the time to write in. I have actually been reading very carefully what you have written and thinking and reading about this some more.
So far what I gather from what you write is that the two methods of flavor/structure development are similar and different. The preferment method allows more control but maybe as for flavor and texture both are pretty similar?
Rose Levy Beranbaum uses the sponge method over 90% of the time and some biga etc. Then Peter Reinhart does bulk retardation in his book Artisan Breads Everyday, but preferments in Bread Baker's Apprentice(don't have this book) for what look like very similar ingredients.
Is there a book where there is a good commentary on this topic? I am thinking Bread Baker's Apprentice?
But in the end nothing works better than trying it out side by side with my own hands and what is most convenient over all for the purpose at hand.
Thank you again!
There is something I wanted to add. I know the general adage is the leaner the bread the techniques for flavor development are more and more important. However I have repeatedly found that even for complex bread doughs such as brioche, (rich or light) other sweet doughs such as for cinnamon rolls and even doughs that have mashed pumpkin or sweet potatoes, and so have much added flavor, even these improve greatly after an overnight stay in the fridge. It really makes a difference!