Bread Production Terms

Poolish

A French-style pre-fermented sponge made with a small amount of commericial yeast. The ratio of flour to liquid varies, but the sponge is usaully wet rather than firm.

Cloche

A bell-shaped ceramic mini-oven used at home to replicate a brick oven.

Polenta

A coarse cornmeal used both as ingredient and to dust under hearth loaves.

Lame

A curved razor blade used to score, or slash, bread dough.

Hearth

A deck upon which loaves can be baked. It usually refers to deck or hearth ovens, which can be replicated in home ovens with a ceramic tile.

Baguette

A long, thin, cylindrical hearth bread, usually French bread (pain ordinaire), though other doughs can be shaped this way.

Sponge

A pre-ferment used to give flavor, added leavening and structure to dough. There are many ways to make sponges.

Intermediate Starter

A pre-ferment, usually made from a wild yeast starter, used to build a dough. It adds flavor and structure to the finished dough.

Autolyse

A rest period in the mixing cycle that allows the gluten proteins to bond. Shortening the mixing time minimizes oxidation of the dough, preserving the flavor of the natural beta-carotene in unbleached flour.

Banneton

A round or oblong basket, usually made of wood or wicker and sometimes lined with canvas, used for raising bread dough to give a distinctive shape and to keep the dough from spreading sideways while proofing.

Yeast

A single-celled fungus that may be commercially produced or captured in its wild state on fruite, grain, and in the air. There are more than 125 strains. The 2 of most interest to bakers are Sacharomyces Cerevisiae (used in beer), and Saccharomyces exiguus (wild). Yeasts initiates fermentation of the grain, resulting in leavening and flavor.

Starter

A sponge or piece of pre-ferment made with either commercial or wild yeast. It is used as leavening in the finished dough and may be made by a number of methods.

Spritzer

A spray bottle used to mist loaves and oven walls with water in order to create steam.

Windowpane

A test to check if the gluten has set up. By slowly stretching the dough till it forms a translucent membrane, you can determine if the dough has been mixed long enough.

Peel

A thin, long-handled wooden or metal shovel used to load dough or pizza onto a hearth or baking stone.

Maillard Reaction

A type of carmelization caused by the production of simple sugars through fermentation and enzyme activity. It contributes, along with normal caramelization, to crust colorization of yeasted breads.

Couche

A type of linen used for raising hearth breads, especially those too long or too slack for bannetons. Bunching the cloth around the loaves provides a nonstick structure to help rising loaves retain their shape.

Old dough

Also called pâte fermentée or pâte vieille. This is dough held back from a previous batch and used to add flavor and leavening to a new dough.

Staight Dough

Also called the direct method, in which dough is made without a sponge or pre-ferment, with all the ingredients added in one mixing cycle.

Punching Down

Also called turning, punching down is a short kneading that deflates that dough so that it can undergo another rising cycle.

Barm

An English term for a sourdough starter, usually made from a base whole-wheat flour.

Biga

An Italian-style pre-ferment usually made with commercial yeast. It is added to dough to improve flavor and leavening.

Baking stone

An insert placed in a home oven that serves as a hearth. Thick pizza stones absorb and radiate heat the best. Unglazed ceramic tiles also work well. An inverted sheet pan will work in a pinch.

Firm Starter

An intermediate piece of sourdough starter, elaborated from a mother starter, used to build flavor and structure in sourdough breads.

Convection Oven

An oven that uses moving air to intensify the heat. It bakes most products much faster than a conventional oven.

Chef

Another name for a wild yeast starter before it is elaborated into an intermediate starter. Also called the mother culture or mother.

Sourdough

Any bread made from wild yeast, but especially those that exhibit complex sour flavors.

Whole Grain

Any grain that is used in whole state, including the bran and germ, regardless of the fineness of the milling.

Pre-ferment

Any pre-dough used as a portion of hte finished dough to initiate fermentation. It contributes leavening and flavor to bread, allowing the dough to endure and extended fermentation, which brings out the most flavor.

Lean dough

Bread dough made with enrichments such as fat and sugar. The most well known is pain ordinaire, or French Bread.

Enriched Dough

Bread dough made with the addition of fat, sugar, eggs, or dairy. Heavily enriched doughs are called rich doughs.

Elaboration

Buidling a starter into an intermediate dough.

Round

Can mean both the process of shaping a dough into a round shape or the finished shape itself.

Cornmeal

Coarse corn flour, somewhere betweeen flour and polenta. Aside from its uses as an ingredient, it also makes a good dusting flour on peels and beneath hearth loaves.

Mixing

Combining the ingredients of a dough by hand or with a mixer or food processor. Mixers with paddle dough hook attachments are most commonly used for this purpose.

Enzymes

Diastase and amylase protein fragments in flour and malted grain that activate in doughs, tigering the breakdown of starches, freeing their sugar molecules. These sugar molecules, in turn, become food for yeast, thus enhancing fermentation.

Rich Dough

Dough that has been enriched with butter, sugar, and/or eggs. Brioche is a classic example.

Levain

Either an intermediate starter or a type of bread, pain au levain, made from the starter.

Refresh

Feeding a starter with flour and water to keep it alive. Refreshement schedules vary according to the needs of the starter and are indicated in their respective formulas.

Semolina

Gritty flour made from hard durum wheat, used both as an ingredient and as a dusting flour on peels.

Bâtard

Literally "bastard" a bâtard is a short, torpedo-shaped loaf that is someone between a baguette and a boule. It can be made from types of dough.

Indirect Method

Making bread dough in stages, usually by making a pre-ferment or sponge and building a dough after it has fermented.

Direct Method

Mixing a dough in one step, without a pre-ferment, adding all ingredients, including the yeast, and mixing till ready.

All-Purpose Flour

Preferably unbleached, it has 9-11% gluten proteins, making it useful for quick breads, pancakes, muffins, and many other baked goods.

Benching

Resting fermentation dough just before shaping so that the gluten relaxes, making it easier to form.

Boule

Round loaves, often raised in round bannetons but sometimes freestanding.

Ears

Scored pieces of crust that separate themselves from the loaf during baking and developp a beautiful, wavy appearance.

Malt

Sprouted grain that has been dried to preserve the natural maltose sugars created during the sprouting process. If the diastase enzymes are still alive (diastatic), malt is good for sourdough starters and breads. If the enzymes have been killed by roasting (non-diastatic), the malt can still be used to add flavor. The most common malt comes from barley, but wheat malt (made from sprouted wheat flour) may be used. Malted barley flour is often added to commercial flours.

Push

The abiity of a dough to continue rising after a number of fermentation cycles. Some doughs, if overfermented or underleavened, run out of push, their yeast exhausted, while properly leavened doughs exhibit strong push all the way through the baking cycle.

Tolerance

The ability of a dough to endure handling variations during the fermentation process. Some doughs exhibit a large margin for temperature and time variations while others are more temperamental.

Elasticity

The ability of a dough to stretch and be molded into shapes.

Extensibility

The ability of a dough to stretch without tearing or springing back and to expand during fermentation.

Hydration

The absorption of liquid, primarily water, by the other dough ingredients. Flour must be hydrated in order for gluten to bond. Yeast needs to hydrate to initiate fermentation. Starches must also hydrate in order to gelatinize.

Caramelization

The browning caused when sugar reaches 325˚F. It is the main cause, along with the Maillard Reaction, of crust colorization in bread.

Webbing

The cell structure of the crumb, including the hole pattern and gluten skeleton.

Bran

The exterior layer of wheat berry or other grain. Bran is primarily cellulose, good for digestion, and contains enzymes and wild yeast, which make it a good addition to sourdough starters.

Bloom

The external aspect of a loaf; bloom includes crust coloration and flowering at the cut points.

Oven Spring

The final rise a dough makes when put in the oven. As the bread warms, the yeast activity speeds up, boosting the loaf size and creating the blooming effect and ears of a loaf.

Floor Time

The first or primary fermentation, when the dough undergoes its bulk rise.

Crumb

The interior of a loaf, defined by its hole structure (webbing), the gelatinization of the starch and its flavor.

Starch

The main ingredient in bread, derived from the endosperm of wheat or any grain. It is composed of complex carbohydrate molecules that gradually break down during fermentation to release their sugars. Bread is not fully baked until the starch gelatinizes.

Gluten

The major protein aggregate of bread, created by the combination of two proteins, gliadin and glutenin. Gluten gives bread its structure and strength. Wheat is the primary source of gluten and the only grain with enough gluten to make breads with a large, open-holed texture.

Paddle

The oval mixer attachment (not the dough hook) used for mixing batters and slack bread doughs.

Aspect

The overall quality of a loaf, including bloom, crumb (webbing), aroma and flavor.

Fermentation

The process in which yeast digests the sugars in dough, creating alcohol and carbon dioxide as by-products. Fermentation is what causes dough to expand and develop flavor. Also, another type of fermentation occurs in sourdough breads, causes by lactobacillus organisms that flavor the finished loaves by creating lactic and acetic acids.

Build

The process of creating a bread dough, beginning with a starter or pre-ferment, elaborating with intermediate starters, and ending up with the finished dough.

Deck

The shelf of an oven, or another name for a stone or brick shelf oven.

Endosperm

The starchy part of a wheat berry, as distinct from the germ and the bran. It represents about 85% of a wheat berry and is the primary ingredients in flour.

Gelatinization

The thickening and full hydration of bread starches. When the internal temperature of a loaf reaches between 180˚-185˚F the bread is considered gelatinized, though many breads are baked to a higher temperature.

Lactobaccilli

These are the bacteria that give flavor to bread. They live in harmony with yeast ina dough and are cultivated in wild yeast starters such as barm or levain. Some of the bacteria create lactic acid and others create acetic acid, both of which are present in complexity flavored sourdough breads.

Score

To cut, dock, or slash a dough prior to baking in order to give it a special look and to control its expansion during the oven spring.

Dock

To dock bread means to score the top of a loaf before baking. Docking can also refer to poking holes in a pie dough to prevent it from bubbling.

Retard

To slow down the fermentation by cooling the dough, usually in a refrigerator. Yeast goes to sleep at 40˚F, allowing a dough to be kept for up to three days before baking. Commercial bakeries have special retarders with low airflow to prevent the surface of doughs from drying out, making it possible to store them without covers. In a home refrigerator, the dough must be covered.

Bread Flour

Unbleached white flour with a gluten-forming protein content of 11.5 to 13%. It is ideal for health breads and rolls, providing structure yet a degree of tenderness. It si the flour most often recommended for most formulas.

Scaling

Weighing ingredients, and later, pieces of dough to precise sizes.

Proofing

When referring to dough, proofing means the final rise before baking. When referring to yeast, it means hydrating it to wake it up and prove that it is active and alive (the water-yeast mixture will bubble after a few minutes if the yeast is alive).

High-gluten Flour

White flour made from hard spring wheat with at least 13%-14.5% gluten-forming protein. It is best used in conjuntion with other grains and flour to provide more structure.

Kneading

Working a dough by agitating the ingredients with the heels of the hands. The purpose is to disperse the ingredients, initiate fermentation, and hydrate the flour so that the gluten can develop. Kneading can also be done by machine.