Monday Mix 2/13/23

Pre-preferments

Happy Mondays, everyone. I am finally starting to feel like myself again over here, and have been getting back to my many unfinished projects, including those croissants, which are from Lune, one of my favorite new releases. I interviewed its author, Kate Reid, last week, and will be sharing excerpts and some of the contents of the book with you all soon. I’m also considering doing an online workshop next month to walk people through the unusual and (relatively) easy to pull off technique that Kate created for home bakers.

This week I’ll be writing something on preferments—meaning portions of a dough that have been fermented ahead of final mixing—a topic I haven’t really covered here outside of the context of sourdough starters. I have generally shied away from using preferments when it comes to yeasted doughs in favor of long dough fermentations, but I’m starting to realize the two aren’t necessary interchangeable.

If you have any specific questions or thoughts about making or using preferments, particularly yeasted ones (poolish, biga, pâte fermentée, etc.), hit me up in the comments below so I can address them on Wednesday.

See you all in a few days.

—Andrew