bake - July 2020 - 39

toscano
Courtesy of Gerry Newman

Founder, Albemarle Baking Company, Charlottesville, Va.

prep (ﬁnal dough): 2 hour

bake time: 40-45 minutes

serving size: 16

In the summer of 1993 I was working
as a pastry chef at a hotel in
Charlottesville, Va. During one of
the many efforts to get them to
build the bake shop they said they
would build when they hired me, the
idea was ﬂoated to convince the
board that we could sell wholesale. I
was asked to look into the idea. I
contacted a friend who I baked with
in San Francisco for any input he
would have to put things together
to do this. He told me about this
convention that happened every
three years in Las Vegas that was
coming up in the fall. I contacted
Tom McMahon to find out how
to join the Bread Bakers Guild of
America, talked to my bosses about
sending me to IBIE and the seminar,
and talked to my wife about taking

a week away from our young family.
The sourdough seminar was both
amazing and confusing at the same
time. A high point for me, that I will
never forget, was when Dr. JiirgenM i c h a e l B r i i m m e r, a b a k i n g
researcher from Detmold, Germany,
gave his presentation.  He was
going over process and formulation
based on practices and regulations
in Germany. At one point he gives
the amount of commercial yeast
that is allowed to be in sourdough
products in Germany as a way of
controlling production. Grumbling
starts in the crowd and bakers start
letting him know that not only do
they not want to hear this, but
they would never allow commercial yeast in their bakery out of
concern that it would contaminate

their sourdough culture. He gets
a puzzled  look on his face, and
sits down. I get not agreeing with
someone, but it sure was no way
to treat a guest. Moments later, he
asks to speak again. He walks to the
whiteboard and proceeds to draw
a star shaped chart that shows the
interactions of dough temperature,
water absorption, nutrients, fermentation time, and starter micro-organisim.  He then starts a lecture on
natural fermentation, and everyone,
including his earlier detractors, is
head down writing as fast a s they
can. The chart has a place today
at our mixing table, and is often
referred to as a way to explain why
time/temperature are my constant
reference points to trouble shoot
any issue in our production.

Process

Ingredient Weight
Total dough weight 8.000 kg
Total ﬂour fermented in
 poolish 9.03%
Bread ﬂour 100.00%
Total formula
Total ﬂour 4.689 kilograms
Flour 4.265 kilograms
Bread ﬂour 0.423 kilograms
Water 3.197 kilograms
Salt 0.09 kilograms
Instant yeast 0.024 kilograms
Biga
Totals 8 kilograms

Poolish
Total ﬂour 0.423 kilograms
Bread ﬂour 0.423 kilograms
Water 0.423 kilograms
Instant yeast 0.004 kilograms
Final dough
Total ﬂour 4.265 kilograms
Flour 4.265 kilograms
Water 2.773 kilograms
Salt 0.09 kilograms
Instant yeast 0.02 kilograms
Biga 0.851 kilograms

Bake Magazine Digital Special Report  3 | Volume 1 | bakemag.com

Preferment
Mix 1ޮ૳ speed
Biga by hand Until Incorporated
Ferment Time/temperature
10:00-12:00 hours at 72°F
Final dough
Mix 1st speed 0:04
2nd speed 0:01-0:02
Ferment
1 hour at 72°F
Shape
Divide and shape as desired
Proof 1 hour
Bake at 425 F

39
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bake - July 2020

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