Bread With Old Dough
The Bread with Old Dough recipe from Andrew Whitley's inspirational book bread matters The state of modern bread and a definitive guide to baking your own has become our standard home fare. Dorian our geriatric house rabbit, who lives in the cupboard under the stairs, cannot contain himself when the house fills first with the yeasty smell of dough proving and then with the smell of baking bread. He runs distracted circuits around our feet until at last he is presented with a piece of just-cooled crust which he seizes upon and carries off underneath the sofa where he can scoff it, every last crumb, unchallenged.
The process entails you keep a fist sized lump of dough back when making a loaf of wholemeal bread. Pop it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge until you next bake bread. I keep my dough in the door of the fridge so not to freeze the yeast. The longest I've kept the dough is for eight days and I haven't killed anybody yet! Before making a fresh batch of dough remember to take your matured, old dough out of the fridge and allow it to slowly come up to room temperature. Then mix up a fresh batch and knead in the old dough. Before proving, set aside a fist sized lump for the next loaf of bread. For precise, fail-proof instructions refer to Whitley's book.
Why add the old dough? It improves the flavour of the loaf, giving it a slight tang which enlivens the base earthy, nutty flavour of the wholemeal flour. It also improves the crumb, making it less dense.
The perfect slice of wholemeal bread to accompany a soft boiled egg!"Weep"!
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