Do not add the amount of water specified in the recipe all at once if you are not accustomed to the flour you are using or if you have not mastered the handling of soft dough. You have to find a happy medium, and as with the flour, you need to gradually experiment to determine the right amount of water, depending on the consistency you will be most comfortable working with. This is especially true if you are trying out a foreign recipe. American flours, in particular, do not have the same qualities or absorption capacities as French flours. It is essential to start by reducing the amount of water from what is given in the recipe and then to add more, progressively, depending on how the dough behaves as you are kneading it. This will help you to avoid ending up with a large, sticky, almost liquid mass that is impossible to shape.
The temperature of the water also affects fermentation. The room temperature during the preparation of the dough, the temperature of the ingredients, and the kneading will all determine the final temperature of the dough. You can also play with the fermentation using the water temperature. In the summer, for instance, it's a good idea to use cooler water, and even to put the flour in the refrigerator, to avoid having the fermentation speeded up too much by the higher room temperature. In the winter, on the other hand, you can use warmer water to compensate for the lower room temperature so that the fermentation will not be slowed down.
The composition of the water also affects fermentation; I use filtered water (for instance, using a Brita filter) to make my bread and maintain my starter; I suggest that you do the same. The water that we normally drink has undergone several different kinds of treatment that could have a negative effect on the dough, especially the chlorine treatment, which leaves chlorine residues in the water that could cause problems because of their disinfectant action. By filtering the water, you can minimize these effects. If you don't have a water filter, you can also simply fill a bottle with tap water and let it stand for a few hours before using it, which will help to lower the amount of chlorine, for instance, in the water.
And finally, the steam that is released during baking allows the bread to develop properly and to produce a lovely, delicate, golden crust!
SALT
While we use salt every day to enhance the taste of what we cook, salt also plays an important role in breadmaking, not just for its ability to bring out flavor but also for its function in the breadmaking process. This is true at every stage of the process, including during the baking itself.
Beginning with the first phase of preparation, the salt comes into contact with the proteins in the flour. This interaction gives stability to the glutinous network, which will later allow for better retention of the fermentation gases, whose speed will be slowed down and regulated by the presence of salt.
In addition, salt has hygroscopic properties, which means that it retains water and humidity. (This is why you are advised never to let baker's yeast come into contact with salt, which would tend to dehydrate it.) But these properties also make the dough easier to work with and make it possible to slow down the drying out of the final product. They also guarantee a lovely, delicate, golden crust during baking.
There are various kinds of salt that are commercially available. I most often use untreated, un-refined sea salt in my bread recipes.
TEMPERATURE
I consider temperature to be an essential parameter for the success of bread made from wild yeast starter; the room temperature and the temperature of the ingredients will greatly influence the process.
Bacteria react differently depending on the heat: a low temperature will favor the development of acetic acidity, whereas a higher temperature will allow for a so-called lactic acidity, which is milder.
A good temperature for the starter is around 81 to 86°F (27 to 30°C). Even though heat increases bacterial activity, excessively high temperatures will compromise the fermentation, just as excessively low temperatures will make the dough taste too acidic.
In addition to its impact on the starter, the temperature affects the fermentation of the bread dough, especially if you look at the temperature of the dough when you have finished kneading. At this stage, the temperature will generally be about 73 to 77°F (23 to 25°C). Some technical publications and professional recipe cards refer to the base temperature. This is calculated using the room temperature and the temperature of the water and of the flour. Even though, as home cooks, we would rarely have that information, it does seem logical to take into account the temperature of the ingredients, especially of the water and the flour. As we saw earlier, it is easy enough to store your flour in a cool place when it is too hot out or to adjust the temperature of the water, both of which are simple things you can do to carry out your fermentation under favorable conditions.
INGREDIENTS AND COLORS
You can incorporate a variety of ingredients into your dough to add color. You can choose spices like turmeric, which will produce a flamboyantly colored bread, or even charcoal powder, which will give you a black bread that won't go unnoticed!
The best thing is to use natural dyes. It would be a shame to go straight for chemical dyes when nature offers us such a vast array of choice! There are powders, purees, liquids, and various tricks for coloring bread dough naturally. At the same time, though, you should beware of certain products that might potentially also add flavor, whereas others are so discreet that you will never notice their taste and only their color will show up!
Here are some examples of coloring agents you can use to get the following colors:
Green: spinach (chlorophyll), matcha tea, spirulina, pistachio paste
Yellow: turmeric, curry
Orange: carrot, pumpkin
Red: paprika, tomato, beet
Purplish pink: red cabbage, red fruits (blueberries), purple carrots, hibiscus
Black: powdered activated carbon, cuttlefish ink
Brown beige: malt, cacao
Blue: petals of blue pea (Clitoria ternatea) to be infused in water
It is fairly simple to incorporate these ingredients into the dough when they are in liquid form, like carrot juice; all you have to do is replace some or all of the liquid in the recipe with the juice. The same is true for purees. For spices and powders, however, you have to just gradually add them until you get the color you want. I usually add between a teaspoon and a tablespoon for 500 grams of flour.
For a very dramatic effect, only color part of the dough: this will allow you to make bread loaves that alternate between colored and neutral zones, which is guaranteed to give you unusual and psychedelic effects.
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UTENSILS
There is no need to go broke buying materials to make good bread from wild yeast. Most of the utensils used in the recipes here are basic ones. Aside from the little bit of equipment you will need for mixing the batter, shaping it, or handling the dough, you will need a few spoons and spatulas, parchment paper, and gloves. In this chapter, you will find a listing of the utensils I use regularly, along with their benefits and a few alternatives.