"Mike Romain" wrote in message
g.com...
Dee Randall wrote:
When I make bread or pizza dough, many times I basically throw some dough
together. I calculate as I'm mixing:

1-1/2 teaspoons yeast
1-1/4 cup water
3/4 tsp. salt
flour until it gets where I want it (3-4 cups, depending upon oz.
measurements in cup)


Using the above as an illustration as to my desire to not be beholden to
any
particular recipe, and to logically and reasonably decide: am I using
enough
or too much levain for this recipe,

Is there a standard (or ballpark figure) whereby one can calculate (of
course, not 'exactly') the amount of refreshed levain (either/both
liquid
or stiff) one would/might use for 4 cups of flour with a hydration of 65%
+/-.

Thanks so much.
Dee


I have had good luck a couple different ways.

One is to substitute 2 cups of active foamy starter for each 'dose' of
yeast. A 'dose' of yeast is commonly one packet or 2 1/4 tsp or one
scant tbsp and the dissolving liquid. I got this from the Joy of
Cooking cookbook and it seems to work quite well.

With this method, I get a 'double' in volume in 2.5-4 hours depending on
temperature. I normally use a preheated to 200 oven for my growing.

The second method I got from Dicky.
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/di...ctions_Rev.doc

That is to use only one tsp of starter and let the sucker grow for at
'least' 8 hours. It really does give a 5X volume grow like Dicky claims!

Mike
Some bread photos: http://www.mikeromain.shutterfly.com



Thanks, I really appreciate your reply.
Dee Dee