Your instructions were not terribly well written. When I first read
them, I ignored them because I didn't think it was a sourdough recipe.
More on that in paragraph. The fact that there was only one response to
the formula kinda substantiates by belief.... especially since that
response was, "is this grams or bakers percentage?" No one seems to
have been inspired to try the formula, judging by the lack of "Thanks
for the great recipe" posts.

What can I say, I'm sorry I'm not a book writter. I'm not going around
saying I know how to make the best bread. I just see people talking
about "Poilane" bread so I though some of you guys might be interested
to know how Poilane make their bread. The instructions I gave are not
inspiring because that's the way they make their bread.
I'm sorry to hear nobody's interested in the formula. It's probably
because there's nothing special about this formula. Which brings to
the point of my first post: There's nothing special about Poilane's
bread, expect the wood oven and the name.


I have been a hobbyist baker for over 30 years, and a professional for
over 5. I've never seen the term "old dough" applied to sourdough. Old
dough has always been a yeasted process. And more yeast is added to the
final dough. Which is why I assumed the recipe wasn't sourdough and I
made the changes I did.

Very good for you. I've been a ""professional"" baker for 3 years and
a hobbyist for over 2.
The first time I saw the term "old dough" applied to sourdough is when
I went for a trial to Poilane's bakery.
I don't know who makes the regulations for names of fermented things.
I guess if the old dough you use is sourdough, well you're making
sourdough bread.
I'm not inventing anything, I'm just saying things how they are. If
you take a piece of dough from a previous mix and make a new dough,
well you're making bread. I'm sure that's how bakers have been doing
their bread for ages, and you don't need to add commercial yeast in
any stage. Commercial yeast being a relatively recent invention I
wonder how bakers were using old dough in a yeasted process. Once
again, who makes those rules?


You're right, I didn't accommodate loss in baking, the loaf should have
been larger. Also, the batch of dough should have been even larger to
accommodate saving more dough for the next batch. My bad.


Good point there, I forgot the dough for next batch! My bad as well

Most of the time when people in this newsgroup are making things too
hard for themselves, it is because they are trying to figure out hastily
written instructions.

I'm not good at giving instructions, I must admit. I was just
unpleasantly surprised by the drastic way you rephrased what I said.


I've been in a number of artisan bakeries, and have been trained by some
excellent bakers. In all cases I am familiar with, they weigh ALL
ingredients, liquid and solid. And then they adjust the dough as
needed. Most bakers I know prefer to adjust the water as that doesn't
change the rest of the bakers percentages.


That's true as well. I weigh all the ingredients myself too. I
shouldn't have said "most" bakeries because that's probably not the
case. But I'm sure many do as I've already seen a few. When people
have been making the same bread for years, I guess they're not
bothered any more to waste time weighing stuff, and since flour comes
in weighed bags, it makes it easier to put one bag of flour, a few
jugs of starter and a few handfuls of salt.
Once again I'm just bringing some input about Poilane because
everybody seems so interested.
They only weigh the salt in their bread. then they put how much water
they need using a graduated bucket, and then add flour until the
consistency is right.
I'm not saying that's the best way. I actually don't think it's a good
way.

There again I think anybody really interested in bread making should
learn how to assess the consistency of the bread.
Percentages of water and flour can be really different depending on
many things and don't always mean much. Following a recipe to the
letter doesn't always do good.
I think recipes are good for pastry stuff, cake stuff, and other fancy
thingies. but when making bread, you have to feel the dough and then
see.

It's very rare that I mix one batch of bread and never add water or
flour, there's always a need for adjustment. But there I'm sure you'll
agree.

In the end, there are a lot of ways to make good bread,

That is very true. And I just think people sometimes are trying so
hard to find complicated ways to make their bread, while it can be so
simple. But that's just my feeling



Viince