Just stepped into the beauty of pate fermentee
Greetings
I've just started using pate fermentee/old dough method, and the results are already promising.
Here is what I do: I keep aside 25% of my pizza dough (which was originally made with a sourdough starter), put in the fridge 2 hours after mixing. Next week, I take it out, wait until it peaks then fall (24 hrs) then mix it with the new dough ingredients, then after 2 hours in RT I take back the excess 25% of the new dough and keep in the fridge to be used as a pate fermentee for next week's dough, and so on. No starter, no yeast, nothing. My dough consists of only water (70% hydration), flour, salt (2.5%), and sometimes traditional buttermilk (3.75%) is added (accounted for in total hydration percentage).
The thought that I no longer have to maintain and regularly feed a starter is a plus for lazy guys like myself. I've also read that this method gives uniform consistent results without fluctuations.
But what really I'm excited about is that french bakers say that the more pate fermentee is repeated, bake after bake, the more the taste develops and gets richer. Is that true? I would love to hear from experienced users of old dough method.