I am not an expert on bread baking in the slightest. I have only been doing it for a year, so I am trying to learn as much as I can and try as many recipes as I can. I love cookbooks and bought a bunch of bread baking ones, but I found myself scouring the cookbooks for recipes that do not use a starter. Who has time for a starter? Feeding it and waiting around? Plus, they sound kind of scary – Biga? Poolish? What do those words even mean?
Then this past weekend I decided it was time to get over my fear and make bread with a starter. And boy am I glad I did. It brings the bread to a whole new level. The flavor is more complex and the texture is just perfect. I guess there is a reason that over half the recipes in my cookbooks use a starter.
There are various types of starters, but I used a very basic method from Joanne Chang’s Flour cookbook. The only hard part about using a starter is timing. But on a cold winter weekend, I have nothing but time for baking! …
