John Myers
Pre-doughs are used to make yeast dough more buoyant. The baked goods rise nicely and also taste better. Find out how a pre-ferment works and how it is also correctly prepared.
Activator for the yeast: pre-dough
Yeast dough and pre-dough often go together, but you can also do without. With simple basic recipes for baking, the work step that comes before the actual dough preparation is dispensable. However, pre-doughs have many advantages that are worth taking advantage of – especially since the effort is limited. All you need is flour, liquid, fresh yeast, and depending on the type of dough, sugar or salt – and time. For a rye sourdough bread, sourdough is used as a leavening agent in the pre-dough instead of yeast, which then also has to rise much longer. In both cases, the microorganisms multiply massively during the resting period and later allow the main dough to rise nicely. In addition, the finished baked goods keep better and even get more flavor.
Making the pre-dough: Here’s how
If you want to start the pre-dough, simply put the flour in a bowl. Then make a well in it, crumble the yeast into the well and add warm water or milk. Then cover the mixture with some flour and put the bowl in a warm place. As soon as the dough bubbles clearly – this can be the case after 15 minutes, but it can also take longer – it can be processed further. Proceed in the same way for a pre-dough with dry yeast. For a pre-dough with sourdough, mix all the ingredients together. Incidentally, how long you should let the pre-dough rise depends not only on the leavening agent, but also on the type of flour. Wholemeal flour takes longer than refined flour. If you make your own pizza dough, the pre-dough only takes about half an hour. If you want to get the maximum taste out of your baked goods, let the yeast pre-dough rise overnight. This is how original French baguettes develop their wonderful taste.
Tips and tricks for a great dough
Your yeast dough didn’t turn out? Then the propellant was perhaps too old. To find out exactly that, a pre-dough is ideal. If nothing happens here, only this stage of the dough is unusable – and not the entire yeast dough. The correct temperature of the liquid is important for yeast activation. Fresh yeast thrives best at 32 degrees, dry yeast on the other hand at a few degrees less. It should never be more than 45 degrees, otherwise, the yeast fungi will die: So be careful with the residual heat in the oven! This is usually very difficult to assess when the stove is switched off – and certainly not to control. As far as the amount of leavening agent for the pre-dough is concerned, the basic rule is that sweet, high-fat dough for cakes and the whole-grain dough is prepared with the full amount of yeast. For light pastries, on the other hand, half the amount of yeast specified in the recipe is sufficient for the pre-dough, the rest goes into the main dough.
