When exactly does bulk fermentation begin in Hamelman's Bread?
Dear fellow bakers,
I have been studying the sourdough formulas in Jeffrey Hamelman's book, Bread, 2nd edition. On page 13 he discusses bulk fermentation, he says it begins as soon as the mixing is over. Looking at his formulas, in some of them he includes the levain right at the beginning and puts the dough away for an autolyse of 20-60 minutes, and then finishes the mix by adding the salt and mixing the dough for a few more minutes until desired gluten development is achieved. In these formulas the dough can ferment for as long as 60 minutes during the autolyse before finishing the mix because the levain was added at the beginning. In other formulas, he holds the levain back during the 20-60-minute autolyse, then finishes the mix by adding the levain and the salt. In this case, the fermentation starts exactly when mixing is finished because the levain was added at the end. Yet, all his formulas that don't include commercial yeast call for 2 and a half hours of bulk fermentation, regardless of whether or not the levain was added at the beginning or at the end of the mixing. If bulk fermentation starts when the dough is finished mixing, it means that in the formulas where the levain is added at the beginning the dough can ferment 60 minutes longer than in the other formulas because fermentation is already taking place during the 60-minute autolyse. So, if I observe the two and a half hours of bulk fermentation, starting from the point of finishing the mix, the dough that already had the levain added at the beginning will actually receive 3 and a half hours of bulk fermentation because of the autolyse period prior to mixing, during which the dough is already fermenting.
So, I guess my question is: when exactly does bulk fermentation begin in Mr. Hamelman's formulas? When I add the levain, or when I finish the final mix? This is not entirely clear to me and therefore I am not quite sure when to apply the prescribed folds and when to end the bulk fermentation, if I want to strictly follow the formulas.
Peter