DDT calculation question for Daniel T. DiMuzio
First, welcome to TFL. Your new book on artisan baking [1] looks quite interesting. It's good to see a book about bread that includes a chapter on the history of bread making.
I'm going to take advantage of your nice offer (and your considerable professional experience) to answer questions by asking one: Hamelman's "Bread," the King Arthur Flour website, and The Artisan.net (just to name a few) all discuss the details of calculating desired dough temperature.
However, no one seems to address including the temperature of a soaker. I've not been able to find any reference to it, although some recipes include a soaker which uses a pound of water. I should note that I first sent this question to the King Arthur Flour Baker's Hotline on March 1. Three follow-up emails and nearly two months later, I still haven't gotten any response.
I've played with the numbers by running a comparison using the examples in "Bread." I've found that multiplying the DDT by five (the fifth item being the soaker) and including it in the calculation results in a water temperature that's in the same ballpark as the temp noted in the preferment examples given in the book, so it appears to be a factor that should be considered.
Is there any reason why soakers are not included in the published method of doing the calculation?
Thanks for any light you can shine on my so far unanswered question.