Starters for bread. © CooksInfo / 2020
Starters are a more sophisticated form of using yeast.
Water with a small amount of flour and sugar in it is either inoculated with yeast, or allowed to become populated with yeast from the air. The result is a piece of dough called the “starter.” It is often quite pasty and moist.
This starter is used as the basis for bread, in which it becomes the leavener.
Before packaged yeast became commercially available for bakeries and household use, yeast starters were the only way to make raised breads.
Starters for bread. © CooksInfo / 2020
Types of bread starters
Biga
Biga is an Italian leavener mixture made from flour, water and yeast. It is made up each time for a loaf of bread -- it is not meant to be reserved and carried over, as is done for a sourdough starter.
Crème de Levain
Crème de Levain is a commercial, ready to use yeast starter sold in France for "Pain au Levain" (sourdough bread.)
It is a thick, live liquid sold in handy, 220 Imperial gallon-sized tanks (1,000 litres), so don't even think of trying to find it ...
Homemade bread starter
A homemade bread starter is a yeast leavener that you grow yourself for making bread with. You can start your own from yeasts in the air, or, start with a piece of starter someone else has given you.
Poolish
Poolish is a starter leavener. You use all of it in making your bread. This is still considered the method of choice for making French baguettes.
Pre-Ferments
A pre-ferment is a dough that has had a head-start on fermenting before the rest of the ingredients are added. It adds taste and strength to the dough.
Starters (French Bread)
French starters for sourdough bread are not one-stage starters. They are two- or three-stage starters, beginning with a starting leavener dough that they call the "chef."