Refreshed
Refreshed is a term we use to indicate that a starter has been recently fed. When we say a starter is unrefreshed, we mean it has not recently been fed, that it has missed at least 1 feeding.
terms
Levain
A levain is a chef that has been refreshed with flour and water. In plainer terms, it is French for sourdough, but it is worth noting the French handle their sourdough to make milder breads than Americans enjoy.
Chef
Chef is another confusing term. In this case, it’s dough-like starter that is either an unrefreshed levain or a piece of dough saved from the previous day’s bake.
Starter
Starter is a term that we use somewhat loosely. It usually means a sourdough starter that we feed and use on an ongoing basis. However, in general use it can mean any preferment.
Hydration
Hydration is a measure, expressed as a baker’s percentage of how wet a dough is. The hydration includes all the flours in the dough, including any in preferments, and all the liquids and fats in the dough, including any in the preferments. While hydration gives you an idea of what a dough will look like,
Preferment
Preferment is a general term for something – usually fermenting – that is done before the final dough is mixed. The first preferment was sourdough. Later preferments include autolyse, bigas, old dough, sponges, and poolish. Baker folklore suggest that the preferments were developed after the introduiction of reliable bakers yeast in the mid to late
Biga
Biga is an Italian yeasted pre-ferment. Unlike a poolish, a biga is usually very firm, around 57% hydration. It uses more yeast than a Poolish, and adds a somewhat nutty taste to breads made with it.
Poolish
Poolish is the French term for a pre-ferment made of flour and water and a little bakers yeast. A poolish is normally made at 100% hydration. The amount of yeast is normally very small. The actual amount of yeast is changed depending on the temperature where the poolish will be allowed to rise and how
Baker’s Percentage
Baker’s percentage is one of the most powerful tools bakers have in their arsenal to help them understand how dough works. In bakers percentages all the flour in a formula, or recipe, is arbitrarily defined as being 100%, and all the other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of that. For example, if there are
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