Long Ferment

As demonstrated by many industrial bakers, a loaf of sorts can be made in under a couple of hours from start to finish. The thing is, like certain other things in life, does a quick finish necessarily give the most satisfaction?

Even when you’re not using a sourdough starter, lowering the proving temperature and reducing the amount of yeast will mean the dough takes longer to be ready. As with other methods in this book, this extra time allows all sorts of bready alchemy to go on, turning even relatively unremarkable ingredients into what you might agree is a far superior loaf to one that’s been banged out as fast as possible.