I made a rustic white bread using Nancy Silverton's recipe from her Breads from La Brea Bakery book. This is my first time baking in cold weather and I'm thinking low fermenation temperatures might be the problem, since I've used this formula before with no problems.  I know my starter is healthy and performing well, so I am confident we can remove that from the equation. Here is what happened:

When it was time for the fermentation, the house was between 60F & 65F, and after two hours I could see no change in the dough. I then placed it in a room with a heater that raised the temperature to between 70 and 75.  After a total fermentation period of four hours the dough seemed to have spread out (the container was a bit wider than the dough) but not to have risen much, if at all. When I pressed on it it seemed rather firm, and my finger left an impression that lingered.  I didn't let it ferment further for fear of ruining the dough. I'm now wondering if I should have let it ferment longer.

I then shaped it and let it proof for about an hour as recommended but again, the rise I was supposed to expect was not discernable. Again I dared not let it sit out longer for fear of overproofing.  Should I have let it proof for a longer period at this point?

So next it went into the refrigerator overnight. Today I let it sit out for four hours in the warmed room as Silverton instructs, but the boule did not double in size as she describes (it barely rose at all) and when I pressed on it, the dough did not spring back as she says it should.  

Dreading the outcome, I baked per her instructions.  The result was a nice color and startling oven spring given the size of the dough (I hadn't expected anything at all!) but the crumb was stili denser than I was hoping for. My room mates praised the flavor and density so it wasn't a complete waste of flour, but I am wondering what I can do to make the dough less dense next time. By the way, I made a sourdough batard with this starter a few days earlier and it was also more dense than I prefer.  I would appreciate any suggestions/advice you may have.    Thanks!! Photos of the boule and the crumb are below.

Hi,

 I read about the autloyse method on your site.  Very cool, indeed.  SO, I tried it.  I mixed flour & water together and let it sit for a bit.  The result actually looked like dough I had kneaded.

My question is this.  Since I am using active dry yeast whats the best way to incorporate it?

I used a bit less H2O for the autolyse and dissolved my yeast in the deficit. However, incorporating

liquid into a dough is a challenge to do by hand.  Any suggestions?  In fact, I felt as if I were doing all the kneading I so desperately was trying to avoid by using that  autolyse method.  I did like the result, but my crumb a little too tight.. 

If I were to also use a sponge, I would imagine the technique to incorporating that would be the same. Is this accurate?

Thanks!

I have been trying an autolyse for my bread machine. (I am trying to find an everyday sandwich bread.) I grind my own wheat and for the moment, I still like the convenience of the bread machine because I can't seem to make it well by hand yet.  The texture of the bread seems to be doing better but it still is crumbly when you cut in the middle and falls apart for sandwiches.  I have tried following JMonkey's recipe and procedure for whole wheat sandwich bread and put it in the bread machine for kneading and then baked in oven and also, baked in the bread machine. Is there a way to make it less crumbly?  What ingredient or technique could improve the texture (besides doing it all by hand)? 

Thank you!

Here is my crack at terminology that is commonly used in bread baking. It's a start, with a hope that with some comments these will be corrected and added on to.

Poolish - A French term. Uses commercial yeast. An aged mixture that is made up of equal amounts of water and flour, by weight, and a small (tiny) amount of yeast. (1)

Biga - An Italian term. Uses commercial yeast. An aged mixture that is made up of water and flour, which may but do not have to be of equal amount. A tiny amount of yeast is also added to this mixture.A Poolish is really just a form of Biga. A Sponge is the English term for Biga. (1)

Starter - An English/American term. An aged mixture that is usually maintained in a very small amount, that is used to start or seed a larger mixture that is then called a preferment. A starter made from commercial yeast is called a straight dough starter and a starter made of wild yeast is called a sourdough starter.

Pate Fermente - A French term. A small piece of dough reserved from the previous batch of bread. This is the only preferment that may contain salt in it.

Preferment -  An English/American term. An aged mixture whose primary purpose is to impart a maximum amount of flavor to the resulting bread. This mixture is allowed to fully ferment before (pre-) being added to the final dough mix. Examples are: Sponge, Poolish and Biga.

Autolyse - A French term. A technique where gluten containing flour and water are mixed and aged for a desired amount of time to arrive at desired gluten development level and flavor characteristics. There are no other ingredients present except flour and water. And flour has to contain gluten.

Soaker -  An English/American term. An aged mixture whose primary purpose is to hydrate the dry ingredients that are to be used in the final dough. The dry ingredients are gluten free.

High Extraction Flour - An English/American term. It is a flour that is between White and 100% Whole Wheat. It has a certain percentage of Bran and Germ removed.

Patent Flour - An English/American term. White Flour which was extracted from the central most part of the endosperm. Is considered to have the highest quality of gluten. (1)

Clear Flour -  An English/American term. White Flour which was extracted from the outer parts of the endosperm. Around the part where the Patent Flour was extracted from. (1)

Notes:

Difference between Starter, Sponge, Biga and Poolish. Well Poolish has equal amounts of water and flour. Biga and Sponge are the same to the best of my knowledge. A Starter is more clearly defined in a professional bakery environment where a small amount of left over preferment is reserved to be used in the next preferment. The amount of preferment mixed contains a small excess that is fully fermented. Then the small excess is extracted to be used in the following preferment, and the current preferment is added to the dough for the current batch of bread.

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(1) Source J. Hamelman "Bread"

Edit 09/14/2008

Today I saw a FAQ page so I thought I'd link to it from here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/faqs

Hi guys,

Does autolyse require salt and the leavening agent. Why? 

The site did not mention adding those two but in some books which I read, it was mentioned they should be added. 

ok, so i tried the my daily bread recipe: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/mydailybread.
here's my preferment/poolish. no picture after the 18 hr ferment.

liquidy. bubbly after 18 hours.

hi all,

baker in oakland, calif. 

i recently renewed my interest in baking, but having lost interest in the more expensive form of pie-making, have decided to jump into bread-making.

 here's a picture of my ciabatta, made from this recipe: http://www.recipezaar.com/29100.

Well,

Yesterday I had to make some sandwich loaves.

I have been sticking with Monkeys' biga vs straight Whole-Wheat buttermilk Bread experiment recipe

I love this recipe. Even when you dont make the biga, it is still delicious! I add some rye flour and a tiny amout of white italian flour to give it a bit of extra help in the softness department, but I think now it doesnt really need it.