A bread starter is a mixture of flour, water, and yeast that improves the flavor and texture of bread. It requires a long fermentation period and bakers should know the difference between the most common starter types. It’s important to monitor the starter to make sure it isn’t overripe.
A bread starter, also commonly called a sponge, pick, or sourdough, is a blend of flour, water, and store-bought or sourdough that is added to bread dough to improve its flavor and texture. For those inexperienced bakers who find the concept of making a bread starter intimidating, a few tips can help demystify the process. First of all, bakers should be aware that a starter requires a fairly long fermentation period. Also, it’s important to know the difference between the most common starter types. Finally, bakers should monitor their starter to make sure it isn’t overripe.
One of the most important things to understand about making a bread starter is that it is a time consuming process. At a minimum, an appetizer is likely to need at least 12 hours of maturation, while many sourdough appetizers need to age for more than a week. In other words, making bread that contains a starter requires a significant amount of thought. While this may seem like too much effort for a product that will literally be consumed eventually, master bakers ensure that the chemical reactions that have occurred in a properly matured starter result in bread with a flavor and texture that cannot be matched by faster recipes.
Despite the fact that each is made from water, flour, and yeast, the most commonly used bread starters tend to produce distinct results. Therefore, it is also important to know the difference between the most common starter types: the biga, the poolish and the sourdough. A biga contains more flour than water, resulting in a dry starter that ultimately produces airy bread like ciabatta. Poolish is a rather “wet” springy starter, containing equal amounts of flour and water and is ideal for making thick bread. Sourdough starters are usually made by allowing the sourdoughs to colonize the starter mixture, resulting in breads with a unique, tart flavor.
Finally, bakers should monitor their starter to make sure it isn’t overripe. That’s because a starter that’s been allowed to age too long tends to lose its gluten, the protein that gives dough its elasticity. Without this gluten, the dough to which the starter is added may not hold its shape well. As it develops, a bread starter will foam up, causing it to rise. The starter should be used before this foam has dissolved, an event which indicates that the mixture no longer contains sufficient gluten.
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