Sourdough Terminology

There are a LOT of words used in the sourdough community. Understanding what they mean will help greatly with reading recipes and understanding instructions. I have picked the most likely words you will run into and given them a definition in my own words.

Autolyse: This refers to the process of mixing your flour with your water & letting it rest for the flour to absorb the water. There are many opinions on this (when to add starter & salt). I personally mix everything at once for ease & my bread still turns out great.
Banneton: This is a shaping container that many bakers use to second ferment their boule’s or Batard shaped loafs, usually in the fridge to get a longer ferment time.
Batard refers to an oblong sourdough loaf
Bread Crumb: This refers to the “meat” of your bread & how dense your loaf is. An ideal loaf has a nice open crumb & not too dense but without large air pockets.
Boule refers to a round sourdough bread loaf
Bulk Ferment: This is the first round of fermenting your dough before it gets shaped, & it’s where the majority of your fermentation happens. It’s important to have your dough double in size during the bulk ferment stage at room temperature before shaping for your final rise (this can range based on the temperature of your anywhere from 4-8 hours).
Discard: This refers to the the “extra” starter you remove before feeding your starter so your starter doesn’t get too large. Personally, I don’t have any discard because I keep my starter in the fridge which slows fermentation & allows me to use what I need for a recipe & then feed it back to the same level it was at, so I never end up with too much starter.
Dough Strength: In order for your loaf to rise properly and have a good oven spring, your dough needs to have strength to it. This is accomplished through using higher protein flour (like King Arthur) but also through the kneading process. Kneading the dough allows the gluten to develop becoming strong & flexible without ripping easy.
Dutch Oven: Generally Cast Iron, it’s a very popular took for baking your bread & can be used for forms of cooking as well. Using a dutch oven keep the moisture locked in allowing your bread to reach it’s full oven spring before the crust hardens.
Ear: This refers to the flap of crust that lifts up during baking.
Enriched Dough: This refers to recipes where fats & oils have been added to the dough to give a more tender texture. Sugar, Milk, eggs, butter, & olive oil are typically used to enrich doughs such as cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, tender bread loafs.
Expansion Score: When baking a boule or bartard, your dough will need a place to exp& as it grows. To form the desired ear, make a ¼ inch slash at a 45 degree angle across your loaf. This will allow the bread to exp& in that particular spot giving you a beautiful ear.
Hooch: A dark liquid on sourdough starter indicating it's hungry. This can be mixed back in or poured off. It forms as a result of the yeast eating all of it’s food & excreting waste. You’ll often notice an alcohol or nail polish remover like smell.
Hydration: This refers to your ratio of water to flour for your dough. Divide your water in grams by your flour in grams & multiply by 100 to determine your hydration. The lower hydration doughs from 50-50% are often easier to work with. Above 80% is considered high hydration & generally harder to work with due to the dough being more sticky.
Oven Spring: This refers to how much your bread loaf rises in the oven & how the crumb of your loaf looks. The “ideal” oven spring for a boule has the perfect bunny ear where the expansion score rises up & gives the loaf the shape of a bunny ear.
Scoring: This refers to the “slashes” you make with your razor or “lame”. This is how you create designs on your loafs. The deeper the scores, the more that part of the bread will expand. Very small scores turn into beautiful texture on the bread. Get creative!
Starter: This is what makes it all happen! When you mix water & flour, the natural yeast & bacteria found in the air eat the flour & water & create gas (carbon monoxide). This creates bubbles which rise your bread naturally!
Stretch & Fold: This is a way to strengthen your dough in place of traditional kneading. See “How To Guide” to learn more. You can also youtube this for a demo.
Window Pane Test: This test is done when kneading your dough to determine if the gluten network is developed. By taking a thin bit of dough & stretching it until you can see light through it, without it breaking, your know the dough strength is strong. If it tears easily it would not pass the test & would mean more kneading is needed.
Yeast: Much different than commercial yeast, this is the yeast naturally present in the air, the way God made it! This wild yeast is what ferments the flour/water mixture of your starter resulting in a naturally raised bread!

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