Wonder Dough… 1 recipe that makes just about everything with only 2 simple changes… 1) water quantity 2) when you stop bulk fermentation. That’s it, nothing else.
It requires a strong starter and it helpful to have a proofer. It has a high yeast population and I keep the fermentation temperature between 78°~82°f
You can make boules, batards, baguettes, same day or overnight in the same batch, pizza dough, high hydration breads, focaccia, ciabatta
FORMULA: 85% bread flour + 15% WW flour + water % + 2% salt + 250g starter at 100% hydration
For beginners I recommend this batch of dough… makes 2 loaves. I recommend the beginner bakes 1 loaf the same day the make the dough and put the other loaf in the refrigerator for an overnight cold proofing, so they can see and taste the difference in how the dough handles and tastes after 12 to 24 hours in the fridge. Recipe: 744g bread flour + 131g WW flour + 555g water + 250g starter @100% hydration + 20g salt. Use warm water to mix it so your dough is 80°f after mixing is complete. Do a few slap & folds at the end of the mixing process and then put your dough in a straight sided fermentation vessel and mark how high it is in the vessel and then mark the spot above that where your dough will be when it has risen 44%. Put it in your proofer that’s set at 80°f and rest it for 20 minutes. Take it out and do a gentle stretch & fold or a coil fold just to align the gluten strands a little. You’re not trying to build strength. Gluten development is complete. Put it in the fermentation vessel and put it in the proofer for the hands free bulk fermentation phase until the dough has risen to that 44% line you marked on the vessel.
Divide your dough into 2 equal portions and preshape them both. Bench rest about 20 minutes and final shape them. Put them in their bannetons and put 1 in the fridge. Final proof the other one at room temperature somewhere between 45 to 75 minutes. Then bake it.
You can easily use this with 70%, 72%, 75%, 80%, 85% or 90% hydration, with absolutely no other changes in the formula/recipe. When you end bulk fermentation is critical because the yeast population is very high and the fermentation temperature is high with the intent to move fermentation along quickly. High hydration dough 80% and above needs to end bulk at a rise of 23~25%. 75% hydration dough needs to end bulk fermentation at a 33~35% rise. 68/70/72% hydration dough needs to end bulk fermentation at 43~45% rise. At these recommended bulk cut offs both the same day dough and the overnight dough will fare well in the different environments. You decide where your dough is going after final shaping.
This Wonder Dough system won’t be for everyone thats heavily entrenched in the traditional autolyse, extended stretch & folds for hours, fermenting everything at room temperature I get that. This system was designed to teach beginners so they are producing their very first loaf of sourdough bread in under 6 hours from the time they started mixing flour and water together. Then after they make the 68% hydration beginner recipe 3 times they can start climbing the hydration latter whenever they are comfortable and/or curious about the higher hydration bread. Then they can experiment with baguettes too. All with the same formula/recipe. 1 recipe with endless possibilities.👨🍳👨🍳👨🍳