- Autolyse
- A rest of flour and water before salt and yeast go in, usually 20 to 60 minutes. It hydrates the flour and starts gluten forming on its own, so the dough needs less mixing.
- Baker's percentage
- A way of quoting a recipe where flour is 100% and every other ingredient is a percent of the flour weight. It makes recipes scale and compare cleanly.
- Biga
- A stiff Italian preferment, often around 50 to 55% hydration, fermented ahead of the main mix for strength and a deep flavour.
- Bulk fermentation
- The first long rise, after mixing and before dividing and shaping. Most of the flavour and structure develops here.
- Cold ferment
- Fermenting dough in the fridge, usually at 3 to 5°C, to slow it down and build flavour over many hours or days.
- Crumb
- The interior structure of a baked bread, from tight and even to open and irregular.
- DDT
- Desired dough temperature. The temperature you aim for the dough to reach right after mixing, which sets the pace of fermentation.
- Hydration
- The weight of water as a percentage of the flour weight. The number that most shapes how a dough handles and bakes.
- Lamination
- Stretching a dough thin and folding it early in bulk, a gentle way to build strength in high-hydration doughs.
- Levain
- A portion of sourdough starter built up specifically for a bake, often at a set ratio and ripeness.
- Oven spring
- The fast final rise a dough takes in the first minutes of baking, before the crust sets.
- Poolish
- A wet preferment, usually 100% hydration, fermented ahead of the mix for extensibility and a mild, sweet flavour.
- Preferment
- A portion of flour and water fermented ahead of the final dough, with a little yeast or starter, then mixed in.
- Proof
- The final rise, after shaping and before baking. Where the loaf takes its last lift.
- Q10
- A rule of thumb that a reaction's rate roughly doubles for every 10°C of warming. For yeast, it links dough temperature to fermentation speed.
- Scoring
- Cutting the surface of a shaped loaf just before baking, to control where it expands during oven spring.
- Starter
- A living culture of flour and water, leavened by wild yeast and bacteria, kept alive and fed over time to raise sourdough.
- Windowpane
- A test for gluten development: stretch a small piece of dough thin enough to see light through it without tearing.