March 10, 2018 - 12:32pm
Can I use a small portion of a dough that has gone through bulk fermentation to start another dough?
I started a dough which just finished a 4 hour bulk fermentation (complete with several sets of stretch and fold). I realized that the dough is too big for my Dutch oven, but if I divide it into two smaller (but equally sized) ones would would make the loaves way too small. So I wonder if I can take, say 1/3 of the dough and keep in the fridge and use it next day to start a new dough. If it is possible, is there any guidelines that any of you can tell me or point me to? For example, what should be the ratio of old dough vs. flour+water. The dough has 77% hydration. Thanks!!
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You can also take the extra dough and make some rolls with it. If you want you can certainly shape it into a tight ball and put in a covered container in your refrigerator and bake the next day. The only issue is it could overproof depending on what stage the dough is at now. There are recipes that use old dough to start a new dough which is basically similar to using a levain/starter. You can certainly use the "old dough" and base the rest of your recipe on it if you understand bakers math. I would use 10-25% tops as your "starter"/old dough and go from there.
Thanks! I will try it out and report back!
about the "old dough" recipes. If you put pate fermentee (the French term) into the search field you can see several conversations and recipes about it.
The remarkable thing about old dough (reserved after bulk fermentation) is its longevity. It keeps for many month in the fridge. I make my Rustic Rolls with Old Dough sometimes with dough that has been refrigerated for half a year - or even longer!
Karin