Wild Yeast

Allow me to reintroduce my old and faithful — but neglected-of-late — friend, prefermented dough.

Prefermented dough (or “pâte fermentée” if you’re a Francophile, or “old dough” if  you like short words) is the decorous workhorse of the preferment family. Sourdough starter and poolish and most other preferments dawdle along at room temperature until they’re about to lose it and then childishly demand, “Use me! Right now! Or I’m going to get sloshed and start killing off the yeast! I mean it!” Prefermented dough, on the other hand, after a reasonably short heyday on the counter, retires quietly to the refrigerator and stands patiently by until called upon to do its job, which is to add strength to your dough and flavor to your bread.

Prefermented dough contains the four essential ingredients — flour, water, yeast, salt — in the proportions typical of a basic French bread dough. If you’re baking such a bread, you can save a piece of the dough and use it as the preferment in another bread. Or, as I’ve done for this challah, you can make up the prefermented dough just for that purpose. Simply mix the ingredients (no gluten development required), let the dough ferment at room temperature for one to two hours, and throw it in the refrigerator, where it will keep for up to two days. You can let it warm up for an hour or so before using it, or you can use it straight out of the fridge. In the latter case, make sure your final dough water is warmer.

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This is not a cocodrillo.

There is a group I’m honored to be a part of, and it calls itself the Bread Baking Babes. We are three years old today, and we are celebrating by revisiting our favorites from the past 36 months of baking — delicious, adventurous, sometimes frustrating, often challenging, occasionally comical, and always tons of fun.

Rather than all baking the same thing, as is our usual habit, we decided to each select a bread from the Babes’ archives. Because I haven’t been a Babe for the whole three years, I decided to make my bread one of the ones I had missed. And not just any bread I had missed, but possibly the most confounding — and ultimately perhaps the most satisfying for those who managed to master it —  bread the Babes have ever baked: the infamous Cocodrillo.

Now I know what you’re thinking: the bread in that photo does not look like any crocodile I ever saw. Why no, it doesn’t. But no matter, I can give you a mental image of the disaster that was my cocodrillo with one seasonally-appropriate word: snowshoes. And that’s really just enough said about that. Except to express my renewed appreciation for all the Babes and Buddies who tamed that obstreperous beast.

Since I couldn’t bear to arrive at this party empty-handed, I have another offering: the very first Babe bread, and one that got rave reviews down the line: Royal Crown Tortano. Let me add my own nutshell review: like the Babes themselves, this is one spectacular bread. Happy Birthday, dear Babes!

And now, we hope everyone will join in the festivities. It couldn’t be easier: just select your own favorite from the BBB’s archives, bake, post, and send your info to Tanna (My Kitchen in Half Cups) by February 28. I can’t wait to see what everyone chooses!

I am excited to announce that I will hold a bread baking workshop here in my Mountain View kitchen on Saturday, March 5.

– Update: The workshop is now sold out. Please contact me if you would like to be added to the waiting list, or to my mailing list for announcements of future workshops! –

What:   Home bread baking workshop

When:   Saturday, March 5, 2011; 9 a.m. to approximately 5 p.m.

Where:   My kitchen in Mountain View, California

Why:   Bread, learning, fun

I have already shared a lot of what I know about baking bread on this blog. But there are some things you just can’t convey with words and photos — you have to get your hands in the dough!

In this day-long workshop, we will bake two breads, one mixed by hand and one in a stand mixer. I will show you how I gauge dough consistency and gluten development, and shape boules and batards, with plenty of extra dough on hand for shaping practice. We will also talk about selection of ingredients, basic bread science, and setting up a home oven for hearth baking.

I will even feed you lunch!

If you’re interested, please contact me for pricing and details on how to sign up.

I hope to be baking with you soon!

– Update: The workshop is now sold out. Please contact me if you would like to be added to the waiting list, or to my mailing list for announcements of future workshops! –