Sourdough Baking Glossary: 15 Terms Explained
The words that show up in sourdough baking specs, reviews and how-to guides, explained without jargon.
- Autolyse
- Resting flour and water before adding starter and salt, which helps gluten develop with less kneading.
- Baker's percentage
- Expressing every ingredient as a percentage of total flour weight, which makes recipes easy to scale.
- Related: Best Kitchen Scales For Baking →
- Banneton
- A proofing basket, often rattan, that supports shaped dough during the final rise.
- Related: Best Bannetons →
- Bench scraper
- A flat metal or plastic blade for dividing, lifting and shaping sticky dough.
- Related: Best Bench Scrapers for Bread →
- Bulk fermentation
- The first rise of the whole dough after mixing, when most flavour and strength develop.
- Related: Best Dough Proofing Containers →
- Cold retard
- Proofing shaped dough in the fridge, usually overnight, for more flavour and easier scoring.
- Crumb
- The inside texture of a loaf. An open crumb has large irregular holes, a tight crumb has small even ones.
- Dutch oven baking
- Baking bread in a preheated lidded pot to trap steam for the first part of the bake.
- Related: Best Dutch Ovens for Bread →
- Hydration
- Water weight as a percentage of flour weight. A dough with 750g water to 1000g flour is 75 percent hydration.
- Levain
- A portion of starter built up ahead of mixing, sized for a specific bake.
- Oven spring
- The rapid rise of dough in the first minutes of baking, helped by steam and a hot vessel.
- Poke test
- Pressing a floured finger into proofed dough. A slow partial spring-back usually means it is ready to bake.
- Starter
- A live culture of wild yeast and bacteria kept in flour and water, used to leaven sourdough bread.
- Related: Best Sourdough Starter Jars →
- Stretch and fold
- Lifting and folding the dough over itself during bulk fermentation to build strength without kneading.