Starting with a Starter

     So, to start off I thought it would make sense to begin with starter doughs or pre-ferments. I am by no means an expert about these things. I am new to this so I am in the process of educating myself about the terms and techniques, so you can learn along with me. Not every bread recipe out there calls for a starter but pre-ferments or starters give the bread a richer taste because the yeast has had longer to break down the grain. It seems daunting when you look at a recipe and it says it will take two or three days to make but it really isn’t as scary as all that. Pre-ferments take very little time to make about ten or twenty minutes. Most of the time required for them is the time you let them sit. It takes a little planning. For me it brings a bit more excitement into the whole thing. In these first days of my bread experience every time I make a starter or a dough there is a lot of anticipation. There is the anticipation like waiting the night before Christmas and anticipation like hoping a science experiment comes out right.

                There are a lot of different starters out there and different names for them but in my brief experience there seems to be three main types. There are the Biga and poolish, the old dough or pate fermentee, and sourdough starters. These starters vary in their flour to water ratio and what breads they are meant to be used in. The biga or polish is stickier and old dough has the consistency of bread dough because is very similar to bread dough in makeup. Sourdough starters are a little more complicated than the other two. The first two pre-ferments only need hours to proof or rise before they are ready to be used while a sourdough starter takes days. 

    Bread is something that takes its time. Its not the easiest thing in the world but if you start off with a good pre-ferment than you are on your way.