Dough & Fermentation
Baker’s percentages, fermentation approaches, and preferments — with ranges and explicit assumptions rather than false precision. Flour, room temperature, dough temperature, and yeast activity all shift real outcomes.
Dough calculator
Calculate ingredient weights from baker’s percentages.
Fermentation schedule builder
Work backwards from your bake time to a full step-by-step schedule.
Flour
Flour types, strength, and style compatibility.
Preferments and fermentation methods
Direct dough method
The simplest dough method, mixing everything in one stage without a separate preferment — fast, but with less flavour depth than prefermented approaches.
Poolish
A loose, 100%-hydration overnight preferment that adds mild flavour complexity and extensibility to the final dough.
Biga
A stiff, low-hydration Italian preferment that builds strength and a nutty depth of flavour, common in Roman-style doughs.
Pâte fermentée
A preferment made from held-back, already-salted dough from a previous batch, carrying flavour forward between bakes.
Sponge method
A quick, active preferment stage used mainly to confirm yeast vigour ahead of a same-day bake, rather than for deep flavour development.
Sourdough starter (natural leavening)
A wild-yeast and bacterial culture that replaces commercial yeast entirely, contributing a distinct tang at the cost of predictable timing.