SC - Was Pizza Wars - OOP, Now Bread Rising

[Decker, Terry D.]

In for a penny, in for a pound, I've been baking for 35 years and I'm still
learning things.

Rise until doubled is fine.  You use about 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast or
equivalent for two pounds of flour and make bread.  The rise is fast enough
for most people, the quantity of yeast is low enough so that the bread
doesn't taste like a cake of yeast, and the end product is better than most
of the insipid, underbaked stuff the groceries sell as bread.  I use this
method often, usually with enriched, sweet doughs which do not work well
with extended rises.

Going beyond the common quick rise, you are seeking improvements in texture
or flavor or both.  

The first trick is the sponge.  Dissolve 1 tablespoon of sweetener (honey,
sugar, malt extract, etc.) in 1 cup of warm water.  Sprinkle in 1 teaspoon
of dry active yeast and allow to cream.  Blend in two cups of the flour(s)
you will be using to make the bread to form a dough.  Cover and let stand
for 4 to 24 hours.  The sponge sours slightly producing a better flavor.
Letting it stand 12 to 24 hours is best in my experience.

Break the sponge apart in the remaining liquid for the recipe you are
preparing.  Blend in the remaining ingredients and rise and bake as usually.
Professional bakers tend to use less yeast and allow more time for nature to
take it's course.  

A variation on the sponge is the "quarter rise," where the sponge is created
in stages.  The first step is a normal sponge using 1/4 of the total flour
and water, all of the yeast, and a little salt.  Let it ferment for 12
hours, then break the sponge apart in 5/8 of the remaining water.  Add a 1/3
of the total flour, 1/4 of the total salt and all of the sweetener.  This
will produce a second stage batter sponge.  In an hour add the remaining
ingredients, let rise for an hour, knead and form the loaves.

I don't use this method and I don't really recommend it except as a
experiment.  The method is used with large quantities of dough (the recipe
I've seen it used with calls for 280 lbs of flour and 8 oz. of compressed
yeast).  If you use it in a normal recipe, try a scant 1/8 teaspoon to 4 lbs
of flour.  However, it does point out a simple fact.  If you want a longer
rise, use less yeast.

A sourdough starter is a sponge created from a spontaneous leaven rather
than from a commercial yeast.  It works slower than regular yeast and as
stated previously will take 8 to 12 hours to get a good first rise.  Once
the yeast is spread through the dough, the second rise will be faster.  The
majority of sourdough bread recipes boost the sourdough with yeast to get a
fast rise.  I prefer the longer rise and increasing the salt to control
leavening and sourness of the bread.  

Raising the loaves of bread in a cooler is a professional boulangier's
trick.  It lengthens the time of the rise overnight, so that the baker has
better control of his time.  It is a necessity of economics rather than of
baking.  That being said, a refrigerator rise allows a home baker to delay
baking for up to 24 hours.

The home refrigerator is colder than the boulangier's cooler and not as
benign an environment.  When making bread to rise in the refrigerator, I
tend to double the amount of yeast.  Shape the loaves after the first rise
and put in their tins.  Cover with plastic wrap and put into the
refrigerator.  When you go to bake it, put the dough into a cold oven and
bring it to temperature.  Bake until done (50 to 60 minutes, for standard
bread dough).

Refrigerator rise improves nothing.  It allows the home baker to schedule
more efficiently.  Breads rise in the refrigerator best between 4 and 12
hours.  I use the technique primarily to have bread fresh and hot from the
oven in the morning by letting the dough rise overnight.

A rise extending technique I want to try is "peggy tub," where the rise is
slowed by wrapping the dough in a cloth and immersing it in cool water.
Apparently the rise can be extended to about 12 hours and the water improves
the texture of the bread.  It is a method first described by Pliny when
commenting about Parthian bread.

That's a start.  I have to go and cook supper.  Until later.

Bear
 

> I have professed before that I do bake a bit of bread.  However,
> everything I
> do is the basic "rise until doubled - 1 to 3 hours" or variations there
> of.
> Could we start an educational discussion of other ways and reasons for
> rising
> bread.  Especially extending risings, chilled risings, 8-24 hour risings
> and
> the like.  I am curious as to how to encourage each of these, how to do it
> well, and what it accomplishes - especially that souring pizza dough
> discussion.  Anybody have the patience for an Upper level beginner ready
> to
> move to Intermediate?
> 
> Katarin
> 
> 
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